error storm

[gman]

My machine has sat idle for 3-4 months in a 50 degree shop. Now I again have time to use it. Attempting to carve a piece 3" wide by 34" long by 3/4 " thick. During the 12 minute carve I received a seemingly disconnected series of error messages. First being a failure to confirm loading the piece. I cleaned and lubed the 4 vertical shafts 4 times before it would allow progress, (only to have this crop up again shortly). Then, "edge not detected", then "clear the eye", then "possible board removal" and 2 or 3 more. I over-rode these and finally it carved ok. I can't find a common thread here. It had worked well when I shut it down last fall.

[Capt Bruce]

Was the shop and CW warmed up to a more normal temperature by the time you started working? Several threads speak to errors brought on by temperature effects on the body of the CW. Like me it's cranky and somewhat stiff when woken up and cold.

[rjustice]

Capt Bruce is right on in my opinion... This sounds a lot like the problems i had when i first purchased my machine. Once i warmed the shop up to about 60-65 it went away. Keep in mind that it will take the machine a little time to soak in that temp for it to get up to temperature. Some have used a light bulb, or a heating pad kept inside the machine to keep it warm. I'm sure others will likely chime in with their trick for keeping it warm...

Hope this helps...

Ron

[buffybuttons]

in addition to the good temperature and lubing up the posts advice, check the head for proper pressure (75 to 85 pounds) when clamped down on a bathroom scale. If it is too low the board may loose contact with the roller switch causing a board removal error .

if the board is red or too dark width detection will fail causing the edge not detected error.

The possible board removal error can also occur when removing the board during a carve and not rebooting the machine. It also happens when head pressure on the roller switches is too low causing the machine to think the board is not there. The carve can be resumed in the same spot if the board is carefully removed straight upward without disturbing the brass x roller and reinserted in the exact same place and hitting enter.

good luck, and let us know what happens.
dave

[gman]

Thanks much for the suggestions. I'll hopefully have time this weekend to give it a try. Left the heat on for overnight tonight.

[rjustice]

Before you do anything... if you have a bathroom scales, put it under the rollers, and crank the head down till the clutch ratchets out, and read the pressure... as stated above 75-85 is considered good... Based on your symptoms, i think this is the best place to start. If it is low after leaving your heat on overnight, then i would check the head level for binding next.. once you have it out of a bind test the pressure again...

Hope you get it up and running today!

Best of luck

Ron

[gman]

Yup, in my case it was temperature for sure. I warmed it up over night...runs like a top. Thank you all, as I was stumped. Hopefully someday I'll get good enough to help somebody else.

[rjustice]

gman,
Glad to hear you are up and running!... Let the chips fly...

Happy Carving,

Ron