Written by Graham

I received this router to review (Thank you SainSmart).

I have seen this advertised as a metal cutting machine, if so it will handle all materials but should also have the extra rigidity required to handle harder materials which place higher stresses and loads on the router.

This has also drifted into a getting started as well as a review, making a spoilboard and getting the correct settings are included.

Let’s find out what it is like. 

What you get

Even before assembly I can see that ALL the axes run on linear rails, not guide rods and are driven with ballscrews, not leadscrews. These are the more rigid and accurate, but also more expensive, options for a CNC router.

It is a fixed gantry router meaning the bed moves underneath the spindle on the Y axis, the spindle motor is fixed in the same Y axis position relative to the frame.

If it were any more pre-assembled then you would just have to take it out of the box. Sainsmart say the assembly time is 10 minutes. That looks doable to me, but when I am writing a review, I take things slowly and often disassemble some parts first to see how they are put together. I would suggest you take your time and double check things rather than trying for 10 minutes.

Assembly

Not a lot to say here, there is little to assemble and what there is is simple, just follow the manual which covers all the steps. You will need a flat workbench space about of 70cm wide and 60cm deep (32 x 24”) to assemble and use it.

As it is largely pre-assembled and pre-wired the pieces just basically need bolting together, then plug in the wiring connectors to create a working router.

I stopped to take photos and to document everything so it took me a while, but normal assembly should not take any more than 30 minutes even if done very carefully. There are only 18 bolts that need inserting and tightening!

I was impressed attaching the Gantry to the base frame, the slots and cutouts on the gantry and base frame aligned the gantry precisely, square and vertical with the bolt holes in the gantry perfectly aligned with the frame holes.

Assembly Hints

• I normally check all the bolts and screws on any pre-assembled parts for tightness and checkeverything is square, things can become loose in shipping! I do suggest that you check any router before you assemble it, screws can be tightened before and during assembly, it’s a lot more difficult to diagnose and fix any problems like this once you start to use it. But I found no problems, in fact all the pre-assembled bolts seem to have been 
• It is also good practice to check all holes for any obstructions such as packing materials or inthe bed clamping holes for any remaining swarf. It is much easier to remove any before 
• Allof the bolts and screws had a spare, so don’t be too worried about having bolts left 
• The two clamping bolts for the 65mm motor mount were fitted into the motor mount, not inthe bits box.
• It is easier to connect the cables to the back of the offline controller before attaching It tothe frame!
• My standard spindle motor was a very tight fit into the motor mount. If this is a problem foryou try slackening the screws holding the mount to the Z frame before inserting the motor

into the mount, this can remove some slight distortion caused on the motor mount, only a slight distortion is necessary to make it difficult to fit. Remember to re-tighten them once the motor is inserted.

Powering on

I already have the USB driver and Gcode senders installed on my PC, if you don’t please see the manual for how to install the USB driver and Gcode Senders.

Plug it in and turn it on, The offline controller will light up but initially I am going to ignore that and connect the USB cable to a computer and Candle (other Gcode senders such as UGS, GSender…. Are also free.) to

perform some initial checks.

NOTE: As with most routers connecting a USB cable will provide enough power to run the control board, in this case also it will run the offline controller, but it will not provide enough power to turn any of the stepper or spindle motors. So if nothing moves check It is connected to the mains and turned on!

There is no easy visible indication that the mains power is on, the on/off switch is illuminated but that is at the back of the power supply. Some LEDs in the control board will light, but that is at the back of the gantry and some will light with just USB power. If the Z-Probe is connected the Blue LED will be on though, this needs mains power to be connected to light.

Setting it up

Cutting area and Maximum travel

I am so used to seeing a router with the usable cutting area not quite living up to it’s size. A lot of routers I have seen have limits placed on the travel by their design, the 3030-PROVer Max has the carriages pretty much at their physical limits of travel, not because an end stop is misplaced or a coupler is too long artificially restricting movement.

To measure the travel home the router then jog along each axis from the home position until the limit switch is triggered, the difference in the machine coordinate gives the maximum travel distance. (after each switch is triggered unlock and reset before jogging on the next axis)

I measured X -312.794, Y -305.974 and Z -78.323 As the advertised cutting area is 300 x 300 x78mm I am very happy.

I have modified my Grbl settings for the maximum travel distances accordingly. Unless I turn on soft limits this will make no difference whatsoever, but I do have multiple routers and I find it convenient to see what the maximum size I can cut is by looking at the settings. To be safe I am rounding down so:

• $130=312
• $131=305
• $132=78

The last consideration is where the centre of the cutting area is. Ideally this will be in the centre of the bed. The only reason for this is that it just seems right, I drew a pencil line across the diagonals of the bed homed the router then used jog controlls to go halfway across the XY axes using half of the measured maximum travel. G91 X-156 Y-152.5

Not good! X looks OK but the Y is out by ~10mm. This means that the bit will only travel between

~10mm in from the back of the bed to sticking out over the front of the bed by ~10mm. This will be worse if a larger motor is fitted.

Can this be adjusted? Not really, as far as I can see the only way would be to drill new mounting holes in the bed where it attaches to the Y carriages, the carriages are very near the limits of their travel.

The advantage of the way the gantry is fitted is that it is simple and very accurately aligned, the disadvantage is that it is not moveable, on a 3018 for example the gantry could be slid back by 5mm to align the centre position if needed. For such small distances I will take the simple and accurate alignment though.

Final Grbl Settings

These are my preferences; I am only listing the parameters I have changed along with the reason why.

Engraving

I like to engrave an alignment grid on my spoilboard, aligned around the centre of the cutting area. This helps me when positioning and aligning stock. The XY lines have been cut by the router and so are exactly aligned along the X and Y axes.

If you would prefer to align the centre of the grid with the centre of the spoilboard, then just set the WCS origin (XY0) to the centre of the spoilboard rather than the centre of the cutting area.

• Align to Spoilboard – draw diagonal lines from the corners of the spoilboard, set XY0 to where they intersect.
• Align to Cutting area – Measure the cutting area, home the router, then jog halfway on the X and Y axes to the centre of the board and set XY0.

The finished product:

The grid is aligned over the cutting area so it is offset from the top of the spoilboard; it is an alignment grid, it does not reach the edges of the cutting area.

I will admit that I have run the same engraving twice, after the first pass using a scraper across the surface to clean off all the stringing, then the second pass to clear out the grooves. What I really need is a downcut V bit to improve the finish; unfortunately, they don’t exist and are not possible to make?

Offline Controller

This is pretty much the same offline controller used on the 4040, but this one has an emergency stop button and the Z-Probe connects to a 2.5mm jack socket on the top.

• The controller has a 43 x 57mm, 70mm diagonal (1.69 x 2.24”, 2.75” diagonal) colour screen.
• Above the screen is the emergency stop button; this is a momentary press button, it does not lock in place.
• At the top of the case is the jack socket for the Z-Probe.
• Below the screen is a single rotary control which includes a push-to-select button. There is an internal buzzer which is used to provide audible cues during operation.
• On the right side of the case is the Micro SD card slot. The Micro SD card provided is 1Gb and is in the SD card slot.

NOTE: The emergency stop button and the Z probe socket are not really part of the offline controller; they share the same mounting case but are connected to the router motherboard, not the offline controller.

USB and Offline Controller Connections

Most other offline controllers use the control board serial port to communicate with the Grbl board. This is the same Serial port that the USB connection uses, so just connecting the offline controller and the USB cable at the same time can cause interference on the serial port, causing errors. Everyone will say do not connect the USB cable and the offline controller at the same time.

This one is different; it communicates with the Grbl board by a bus interface, it does not use the Serial port, so if the USB cable and the offline controller are connected at the same time, it does not matter.

However, using them both at the same time can cause problems. Imagine using the G-code sender to jog left at the same time as using the offline controller to jog right or sending a G-code file from both at the same time!

If connected while the offline controller is used, some G-code senders will mildly object to receiving command responses to commands they did not send.

Accessories

There are a lot available, from lasers, upgraded bed clamps, upgraded spindle motors, dust extraction shoes, bits, etc. These can all be found on the SainSmart website.

I will, however, mention two of them specifically.

Rotary 4^th Axis

Just as the 3 axes are labelled X, Y, and Z, the rotary axis is labelled A when the centre of rotation is aligned along the X axis; this is the only way it can be used.

This is the same rotary axis that the 4040-PRO uses; setting it up and using it is covered in Using the SainSmart 4040 PRO Rotary Axis. This is written for the SainSmart 4040-PRO, not the 3030-PROVer Max, but the principles are the same; just the position of the rotary axis on the bed will be different.

There are two versions available from SainSmart; make sure you have the correct version to be compatible with the 3030-PROVer Max. This is a full 4^th axis; it allows movements on the X, Y, and Z axes as well as rotation around the A axis and connects to the A port on the controller board. The other version looks very similar but is a replacement for the Y axis and replaces the Y axis stepper motor.

This one allows only X, Z, and A movements.

Setting 4 Axis Mode

The Grbl board has two modes, 3 Axis and 4 Axis. The mode can ONLY be changed by the offline controller.

As far as I can see, the mode only affects the reporting of the Grbl board to a G-code sender; most G-code senders only support the XYZ axes and as such expect a position report from the board to only include 3 values. If in 4-axis mode, the board will expand the position report to include 4 values.

Most G-code senders will just ignore the 4^th value if present, though, and even in 3-axis mode, commands to move the A axis are processed regardless of the mode setting.

Mounting

There is only one place that the rotary axis will fit, in the centre of the bed using only 4 clamping bolts. It has to be in the centre of the X axis for it to fit under the gantry, and this is certainly the most rigid place to put it, but I would have preferred the option to mount it at the front (or back) of the bed on the Y axis; this would leave space for conventionally machining small projects. Mounting the rotary axis also means aligning it, which although it’s a simple process, does take a few minutes.

NOTE: It is possible to clamp the rotary axis to the bed using clamps rather than directly bolting it in place, but!

MPG Pendant

This is compatible with the 3030-PROVer Max and the 4040-PRO; it’s a hand wheel jog controller which makes moving all the axes around easy; just select the axis and rotate the wheel to move.

A review of this can be found here.

Just plug it into the control board MPG port. It definitely makes setting up a job a lot easier, especially when using the offline controller.

Specifications

Summary

A very rigid and solid router making use of the more expensive, but better, linear rails and ballscrews It is well designed and engineered for rigidity and easy and accurate assembly. Very capable of cutting soft and some hard materials, I don’t think titanium is on the list! but hardwoods, aluminium, brass, copper are definitely are.