Deep and Abiding Frustration

[Geophyrd]

So, I still have yet to get a finished piece from the Carvewright. I just can't seem to get it right. The idea with taping under the wood where the brass nut will roll seems to have helped, but the rest came out wierd.

I'm attaching the MPC, photos of the project from designer and the finished piece and where it all went wrong.

Suggestions? After 2 hours of design and 10 hours or so of cutting, I'm very frustrated.

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[Geophyrd]

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[fwharris]

It looks to me like you answered the prompt during set up "cut board to size". If so it is best to do this outside (table saw or hand saw) of the machine. I am guessing that when it did that one end of your board came out from under the compression roller and lost contact with the brass roller.

[Old Salt]

Looks like you have feed problems .
Hole on edge of board maybe catching rollers on top and stoping board or check for warp in board just a small warp will throw things off.
I don't cut off ends with C/W just as eazy to cut after .
Ck pressure with scales board is sliping.
Pattern is great .

[chief2007]

I agree with what the others said.

I also looked at your MPC. One thing you must make sure is that you board is the proper dimensions. Conforming vectors with not allow for scaling - that is both length and width. You see this prompt when you upload the project.

Also Your board should be at least 7 inches more the size. I would recommend trying a 28" long board if you are not using a sled, 7 inch rule would say 26 inches with you project being 19 inches, but a couple extra inches won't hurt.
Make sure your board is at least 14.25 wide or a little bigger.

If you have your board 28 by 14.25 you should be good, When you are prompt to stay under rollers - just say no (you will stay under the rollers anyway). When asked to Center in the board press yes. When asked to cut board to size - say NO. Cut that on your own with a tablesaw or circular saw

You can run the project under best and same some time, but you will have more cleaning and sanding to do. Good luck and I hope this helps

[lawrence]

one more thing to add-- your board must be FLAT to run through the machine. I rarely find pine (or any other) wide boards that can run through my machine without jointing and planing. My carvewright is actually the root cause for my love for hand planes as I did not want to buy a large enough jointer to face joint boards so that they could be run through the planer... my hand tool friends love that fact...

Lawrence

[katec911]

I had several problems like that until I found the use of sleds! they work great!

[cestout]

I have never used "Cut Board to Size" and I don't understand why it is the default. If it is to be desplyed, it should be "2". Any board, especially pine, I rip intro strips and glue them back together flipping every other one. The curved growth rings want to flatten out over time. If you alternate the rings you can mitigate cupping. Norm taught me that. Also if you board is bowed, run it concave side up. An ez sled is two 1" wide strips of 1/4"MDF longer that your board, taped to the bottom edges of your board. This will get you by a slight bow or hot glued on ends the don't exactly line up. They can be longer because the little eye looks at the length down the middle of the board so won't see the "sled" strips. The chip out I would guess was a combination of the way the grain was running and a not sharp bit. Was that a vector or raster cut around the inside of the edge?
Clint

[Geophyrd]

First of all, I installed the Ringneck blues dust collector. Just got my Rikon dust extractor this week and the bin is already half full with dust. The carve is 25% done.

I had some luck this week and got ahold of some 2.5" thick oak. It was cupped, so I milled the stock and glued it up into an 11.25" wide board after planing and jointing. I only have a 6" jointer so I used a hand plane to square the joined boards.

Its running, but something wierd. Usually, whenever I lift the cover (or did in the past), the ztruck stopped moving and rose and quieted. Now, the bit stops spinning but the z truck continues running. I can hit STOP and it waits for me to hit enter to resume but wierd little effect. I hope I didn't mess my machine up somehow.

I'm hoping all your advice will come in handy...I'm excited to see the results and will post back probably on Monday with the finished product.This is what the new MPC looks like:

52004

[bergerud]

That could be because the cover switch on the keypad side did not open. Check the cover switch. Do you get the close cover message? (You should not use the open cover to stop the machine. Voltage spikes from the switches can damage electronics and the switches. I always use the stop button.)

[chief2007]

I have had the same problem. The micro switch can go bad or get dust in it and prevent it from working properly. I had to replace one already. Switches are one of the things I keep in my spares kit.

You should use the stop button to pause your project. In some cases, just opening the cover to stop the project will kill the switch over time.

You can still use the machine, just use the stop button to pause the project, but I would recommend replacing the switch as some point.