Z axis stall: E06-0313, board thickness

[hobbycentral]

First I broke a bit after the z slammed into the board while measuring. Cleaned the Z encoder wheel and cleaned and reseated the ribbon cable. Then I got oval drill throughs instead of round holes - cleaned the chuck and used a new 1/8 cutting bit. Now it measures the board and after plunging to the board twice and then twice into the hole on the right of the board it hits the plate and gives a Z stall. I cleaned and lubed the Y and Z rails, tried a different bit, thicker board and no luck. When I increase the board thickness to 1" from just over .56 it measures the board and gives a thickness of 5" vice 1". I haven't tried building up the area where the bit hits on the left of the board (keypad side). Quite honestly I'm fed up with taking this machine apart considering it only has 65hrs on it. I suspect that the Z encode could still be a problem, but before I take her apart again (and possibly throw it in the dumpster) - any ideas?

Thanks
Bill

Bill

[Digitalwoodshop]

IF the bit is stalling when it goes down next to the keypad then the problem could be that a hole has drilled itself into the plastic holder for the brass roller. I had that happen to me for the first time this week. A credit card thick piece of plastic and some double stick tape fixed it.

The bit must hit something solid at the brass roller holder. IF it goes through or into the plastic it will stall.

Remember the machine really does NOT like thin wood like 1/2 inch... IT can cut it, but the wood can also SLIP because it is too thin and give you the Oval Holes... I recommend you invest into some 4 x 8 sheets of Hardboard and double stick tape to add thickness to the project board. OR even something thicker and when the machine asks "Project" or "Board" select "Project" as that is the thickness of the board in Designer... Select "Board" and the machine will want to do a Cut Out in the 1 inch or what ever you pick and it will but through the lower board OR fault out due to thickness...

IF you have Sand Paper Belts you may have a rolled under belt at the brass roller raising the board from the brass roller.

Head Level?

Head Pressure?

How Many Hours? 450 Plus? Have you replaced your Y Gear Box Bearings? Could be a Y problem or by Simply adding Masking Tape to the bottom of the board and the Brass Roller track AND other places on the board could solve your Oval Problem..... It's ALL About the Brass Roller...


Good Luck,


AL

Hope this helps...

[hobbycentral]

Al, it goes down by the keypad/brass roller once or twice and then it hits the board twice, then moves to the other side of the board and plunges twice into the thumb (hole) area of the slider and then moves towards the right a little bit and then hits the metal slider and stalls. I undestand that it doesn't like thin boards and usually I only use the machine to cut balsa which are in sleds. The machine only has 65 hours on it and at least 50 of that is cutting out balsa airplanes from 1/4" and 1/8' balsa. The other 15 hours is routing a few signs and sleds. It sure seems like there is 1.5 hour of maintenance (replacing X gears, checking head pressure, removing/disecting/cleaning board sensor, cleaning and lubricating, playing with chuck) for every hour of cutting time. Slight exaggeration LOL. The oval drilling was caused by the QC Chuck/bit wobbling - I cleaned the chuck and changed to a new bit and there doesn't seem to be any play. Every singe hole drilled was egg shaped and all the lines were straight in both the x and y.

I looked at the plate near the brass roller and it looks like it like honeycomb and where the bit hits it is broken. I will place a piece of card over it and see what happens. I love what the machine is capable of, but it takes a lot of work to make it happen. I put a small piece of plastic there and it measured the board - albeit slightly off I think

Thanks
Bill

[hobbycentral]

The credit card fixed the depth issue. But, I was wrong about the ovals - the bit had no wobble when I started the project, but when it was fininished there were 32 oval drill throughs - 16 3/8" partial drill holes with concentric 1/4" or 3/16" drill throughs for bearing holders. All of the holes are ovals and the bit has about 1/16" of wiggle at the end of the cut. The bit was also difficult to extract - I'm guessing that the chuck may be shot. I will start searching the threads again for the QC problems.

Thanks
Bill
Hobby Central

[fwharris]

Bill,

Sounds like it is time to be looking at the upgrades for the chuck. Your only option right now would be to replace the adapters on the bits as the ones now probably have indents on them from the BB in the QC.

[chief2007]

With the QC, if by chance the bit was not fully seated in the chuck, the bit adapter will damage it.

Upgrade to the carvetight spindle as Floyd said, and I second that, or replace the QC are the only fixes unfortunately.

[hobbycentral]

There are no BB indents in the bit adapters. The bit that I just used was brand new out of the package and it was it's first cut. I examined the adapters and looked at the photos that Al has posted with the indents and I don't seen any marks at all. I'm not sure what is happening. I hate to say it, but all of these latest problems occured after carving some pockets into MDF and I know the dust created from MDF seems way more invasive than regular sawdust. I have a extractor and down draft table, but no add on dust collector. I vacuum the machine after each use and blow it out as needed. I'm hoping that I can get at least a couple of more hours out of the QC - 65 hours doesn't seem like much.

Thanks
Bill

[hobbycentral]

With the QC, if by chance the bit was not fully seated in the chuck, the bit adapter will damage it.

Upgrade to the carvetight spindle as Floyd said, and I second that, or replace the QC are the only fixes unfortunately.

I don't think that happened - but anything is possible at this point. If I have to I wil upgrade to the CT or RC. I will say one thing, this forum is an excellent asset for Carvewright/Compucarve - answers are fast and explictit no matter what time of day LOL.

Thanks
Bill

[Digitalwoodshop]

IF you installed a new bit holder and after one project the new bit holders now Wobble then the real problem is a bad QC and the only true fix is to replace it with a ROCK or a CT. But you CAN replace the QC and ALL the Bit Holders NOW.. If you don't replace the QC and ALL the bit Holders at the same time then the worn bit holders will wobble in the new QC and destroy it..

The Money you spend for the new QC and Bit Holders is money GONE... As you will be doing it AGAIN.... Buy a ROCK and END the QC Money Pit... OR buy a CT...

Good Luck,

AL

[chief2007]

Look at the inside if the QC itself. That is where I found the damage when it happened to me. I then upgrade to the carvetight