Unattended Operation

[w2csa]

Hi all,
When doing a timely careve project, say the Trout project 6 hours or so, how do you handle the extended time.
I have my CW in ear shot but can get a lot done during the carve time (And a lot quieter.) if I go to an adjacent room and work on other things.
I check the CW every 15 minutes (Or sooner.)
I never leave the building.
Is this appropriate?
Should I stay in the same room (Garage) during the carve time?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

[Dan-Woodman]

My shop is in the basement and I go upstairs and design other projects or get on the forum and read the very busy posts.
later Daniel

[w2csa]

Thanks Daniel!

[ChrisAlb]

My shop is also in the basement. Since I vacuum mine out every 15 to 20 minutes, it's never really left unattended. Even on my 15 hour carves.

Yep, a lot of up and down the stairs...http://forum.carvewright.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[James RS]

15 hours? wow, in relation to the question posted can the carver be paused and resumed say the next day. Especialy on a long carve like say 15 hours?

[ChrisAlb]

15 hours? wow, in relation to the question posted can the carver be paused and resumed say the next day. Especially on a long carve like say 15 hours?

Sure, as long as you don't turn off the power or have a power failure. That's the beauty of a coordinate based, servo motor system. It always remembers where it is.

I never have for fear of a power failure. we get them often in the woods. Especially in winter under the snow and ice.

[James RS]

Thanks Chris, I wasn't sure if the carver left idle for any period of time would power off.

[Jeff_Birt]

You can set the machine to power itself off after a number of hours (or minutes) of inactivity. You do so through the Option menu. To pause the machine simply press the 'Stop' button once.

[James RS]

You can set the machine to power itself off after a number of hours (or minutes) of inactivity. You do so through the Option menu. To pause the machine simply press the 'Stop' button once.

If I did this would it retain the position it left off at?

Thanks,
Jim

[Jeff_Birt]

Yes, when you press stop the machine will come to a nice controlled stop. When you press start it will pick up right where it left off. Do not shut the machine off or raise the head, etc.

[pkunk]

I live far off the beaten path and power failures are a fact of life. Even a momentary one will cause the CW to have to be reset, resulting in a re-carve. I use a large APC as a backup power management system. It is not large enough to power the CW for more than a few minutes, but gives me time to 'pause' the operation, and will keep the machine powered on until consumer power is reinstated. I frequently have quite long carves and to have to start anew after 10 hours would cost me big time.

[ChrisAlb]

Yea that's my problem too Paul and it sounds like you found an answer. Let me ask you, when you say it won't power it for more than a few minutes, did you mean while actually carving?

If the machine is paused, will it power it longer than a few minutes? Sometimes our power just blinks but more often it can be out for an hour or more.

If the APC could at least keep it powered so it doesn't loose it's carve information, I may have to look into one. Like you said, once into a long carve, it's a killer to have it stop.

[pkunk]

Yea that's my problem too Paul and it sounds like you found an answer. Let me ask you, when you say it won't power it for more than a few minutes, did you mean while actually carving?

If the machine is paused, will it power it longer than a few minutes? Sometimes our power just blinks but more often it can be out for an hour or more.

If the APC could at least keep it powered so it doesn't loose it's carve information, I may have to look into one. Like you said, once into a long carve, it's a killer to have it stop.
It'll power it carving long enough for me to get back and lift the lid. Then it'll keep the computer alive for hours. If it's going to be a long time, I'll crank up the generator for other power anyways.

[Audie]

I live far off the beaten path and power failures are a fact of life. Even a momentary one will cause the CW to have to be reset, resulting in a re-carve. I use a large APC as a backup power management system. It is not large enough to power the CW for more than a few minutes, but gives me time to 'pause' the operation, and will keep the machine powered on until consumer power is reinstated. I frequently have quite long carves and to have to start anew after 10 hours would cost me big time.

pkunk, I live off the beaten path also and experience many power failures and brown outs too. I use a 1000w UPS for my CW and keeps the CW running through the brown outs and outages....I usually hit the stop button for an outage after a couple of minutes to be on the safe side and resume the carvings when power is restored. Now, I'll just be happy to have my CW operating as it has been down since the first week of November...grrrrr-dang-it!
Audie