karossii
07-14-2014, 02:35 AM
Hi Guys!
It has been a loooooong time since I came on these forums. So much has happened with CW in the interim, I feel like I have no clue what's going on anymore (when did we get version 2, much less 3, of the designer? lol!)
So, a very few of you might remember me. I bought my "B" carvewright right before I moved into a house too small to use it (surprise move, not intended), and it ended up sitting in the box for 2 years. I finally moved again into a place where I could set it up, and got it running. I carved a few projects, had a lot of fun with the designer, and made a few bucks. Then I moved again, a year later, and it went back into storage. It then took another year before I pulled it out again. So out of the first 4 years I owned it, it was set up for slightly under one year, and actively used about half that time.
Then I sent it in for the upgrade to a carvetight, rubber belts, etc. That was at the end of 2012. It took longer to get back to me than I expected, and got to my house a few days before a major road trip I was taking, on the circuit for the Woodworking Shows for a couple months. I thought it might come in handy, so put it in the back of the van, still in the box from CW, and took off. I never even opened the box until the last show I was at - CW had a booth next to me and needed a bit and the allen wrench for the chuck. So I opened it up, grabbed it for him, and that was that. Another week of traveling and I got home, and pulled out my machine eager to get some carving done.
I carved one project - a simple sled for some 1/4" corian plates I had, I was going to do some lithos. It carved fine, but I had mismeasured my corian, and the sled's hole was slightly too small. So I made a new sled in designer, threw in the same piece of wood, and was going to just have it carve an extra 1/8" of width and 1/4" of length. But as I went to lower the head, it got halfway down and started ratcheting, like it was on the board. If I turned it very slowly, it would move a bit before ratcheting again. It moved up easily, but didn't want to go down. It was pretty cold in my garage, so I thought that might be the problem. I pulled the board and bit out, left for the day, and the next day started up a heater a few hours before I went in to have another go. Same thing.
So I turned to a friend who knows CWs in and out. He helped me with some troubleshooting - removed a shim from the crank handle, which made it worse, put it back and loosened the bolts on the guide rails, basic troubleshooting I was not aware of. Sure enough, it seemed to work. I was able to crank the head all the way down. It wasn't perfect, it would still stop and ratchet once and a while, but it was going up and down, and seemed to get adequate pressure on the board. So I cleaned it up, and came back the next day, again heating the garage up to 70 first.
I started the carve again, but as soon as I tried to run it, I got clear roller and board sensor errors, e49-0320, tracking roller error. I again turned to my friend for help, and he advised hitting the tracking rollers with the palm of my hand. I did that, gently then slightly harder - never very hard. And I still got those errors, as well as an edge detection failure once.
So I tried calling CW - but for some reason I can't remember (this was 15 months ago, so what I haven't got written down is pretty fuzzy!), I didn't get through and was going to call back later. And later went from days to weeks to months. So a week or two ago I decided I was going to stop putting it off. I contacted CW and told them what the situation was. And I was assured it was almost certainly an easy fix, that by traveling all over the country with it in a box was likely the culprit. And it probably was, to be honest, I had assumed that was at least part of the problem from the first. So I was sent a few pdfs on how to check and adjust head pressure and level the head.
I followed them precisely. One thing I noted which really concerned me, when I got the bottom plate off, the tie rod going across the bottom of the machine, had a screw with a washer which should have been holding it tight against the leadscrew on the right side of the machine (away from the keypad). That screw was not in its hole at all, but had minimal pressure halfway keeping the gears connected; it had been screwed between its hole and the plastic support next to it. There was a bundle of wires in a large heatshrink casing on top of that, and between the minimal pressure of the screw and washer not in its hole, and the wires, it had been holding the tie rod mostly in place. But I am pretty sure that was part of the issue. I cleaned that all up and put the screw in the hole, and tightened it down hand tight.
Aside from that, it did seem the level from left to right had been off slightly - I didn't measure it or anything, but it wasn't even 1/8" if that. But I got that balanced, wiped down and lubricated both lead screws and all four guide posts, plus all of the involved gears, with a white lithium grease spray I got. I went to double check the alignment before putting the sides back on, and noticed something - the back of the machine (with the exhaust port) is lower than the front. Left to right it is as perfectly level as I can get it, seems visually dead on. But when the head is cranked so both front posts are perfectly aligned with the flat notch at the top of the guide posts, then both rear posts are slightly below it. Maybe 1/32" or so, about the thickness of one of the spacer shims/washers that were on the top of the guide posts. I have no idea if I should be concerned with this or not. I know this is a precision machine, but I can't imagine that would be a major issue.
I still haven't booted it up, so I have no idea if I will still get any of those errors again. But I know I did correct a small misalignment (left to right). And I cleaned out a ton of greasy sawdust, from the leadscrews and the guide posts. So for my first time opening up the machine and tearing it apart, I'm happy so far. BUT - since I have the machine torn apart right now, I figured it would be best to pause, come here and ask. Before I put it back together. Is the front to back alignment an issue? Is it maybe something to do with the threads of the leadscrews, and it is supposed to be like that?
Are there any other things I should look at/do before putting it all back together?
It has been a loooooong time since I came on these forums. So much has happened with CW in the interim, I feel like I have no clue what's going on anymore (when did we get version 2, much less 3, of the designer? lol!)
So, a very few of you might remember me. I bought my "B" carvewright right before I moved into a house too small to use it (surprise move, not intended), and it ended up sitting in the box for 2 years. I finally moved again into a place where I could set it up, and got it running. I carved a few projects, had a lot of fun with the designer, and made a few bucks. Then I moved again, a year later, and it went back into storage. It then took another year before I pulled it out again. So out of the first 4 years I owned it, it was set up for slightly under one year, and actively used about half that time.
Then I sent it in for the upgrade to a carvetight, rubber belts, etc. That was at the end of 2012. It took longer to get back to me than I expected, and got to my house a few days before a major road trip I was taking, on the circuit for the Woodworking Shows for a couple months. I thought it might come in handy, so put it in the back of the van, still in the box from CW, and took off. I never even opened the box until the last show I was at - CW had a booth next to me and needed a bit and the allen wrench for the chuck. So I opened it up, grabbed it for him, and that was that. Another week of traveling and I got home, and pulled out my machine eager to get some carving done.
I carved one project - a simple sled for some 1/4" corian plates I had, I was going to do some lithos. It carved fine, but I had mismeasured my corian, and the sled's hole was slightly too small. So I made a new sled in designer, threw in the same piece of wood, and was going to just have it carve an extra 1/8" of width and 1/4" of length. But as I went to lower the head, it got halfway down and started ratcheting, like it was on the board. If I turned it very slowly, it would move a bit before ratcheting again. It moved up easily, but didn't want to go down. It was pretty cold in my garage, so I thought that might be the problem. I pulled the board and bit out, left for the day, and the next day started up a heater a few hours before I went in to have another go. Same thing.
So I turned to a friend who knows CWs in and out. He helped me with some troubleshooting - removed a shim from the crank handle, which made it worse, put it back and loosened the bolts on the guide rails, basic troubleshooting I was not aware of. Sure enough, it seemed to work. I was able to crank the head all the way down. It wasn't perfect, it would still stop and ratchet once and a while, but it was going up and down, and seemed to get adequate pressure on the board. So I cleaned it up, and came back the next day, again heating the garage up to 70 first.
I started the carve again, but as soon as I tried to run it, I got clear roller and board sensor errors, e49-0320, tracking roller error. I again turned to my friend for help, and he advised hitting the tracking rollers with the palm of my hand. I did that, gently then slightly harder - never very hard. And I still got those errors, as well as an edge detection failure once.
So I tried calling CW - but for some reason I can't remember (this was 15 months ago, so what I haven't got written down is pretty fuzzy!), I didn't get through and was going to call back later. And later went from days to weeks to months. So a week or two ago I decided I was going to stop putting it off. I contacted CW and told them what the situation was. And I was assured it was almost certainly an easy fix, that by traveling all over the country with it in a box was likely the culprit. And it probably was, to be honest, I had assumed that was at least part of the problem from the first. So I was sent a few pdfs on how to check and adjust head pressure and level the head.
I followed them precisely. One thing I noted which really concerned me, when I got the bottom plate off, the tie rod going across the bottom of the machine, had a screw with a washer which should have been holding it tight against the leadscrew on the right side of the machine (away from the keypad). That screw was not in its hole at all, but had minimal pressure halfway keeping the gears connected; it had been screwed between its hole and the plastic support next to it. There was a bundle of wires in a large heatshrink casing on top of that, and between the minimal pressure of the screw and washer not in its hole, and the wires, it had been holding the tie rod mostly in place. But I am pretty sure that was part of the issue. I cleaned that all up and put the screw in the hole, and tightened it down hand tight.
Aside from that, it did seem the level from left to right had been off slightly - I didn't measure it or anything, but it wasn't even 1/8" if that. But I got that balanced, wiped down and lubricated both lead screws and all four guide posts, plus all of the involved gears, with a white lithium grease spray I got. I went to double check the alignment before putting the sides back on, and noticed something - the back of the machine (with the exhaust port) is lower than the front. Left to right it is as perfectly level as I can get it, seems visually dead on. But when the head is cranked so both front posts are perfectly aligned with the flat notch at the top of the guide posts, then both rear posts are slightly below it. Maybe 1/32" or so, about the thickness of one of the spacer shims/washers that were on the top of the guide posts. I have no idea if I should be concerned with this or not. I know this is a precision machine, but I can't imagine that would be a major issue.
I still haven't booted it up, so I have no idea if I will still get any of those errors again. But I know I did correct a small misalignment (left to right). And I cleaned out a ton of greasy sawdust, from the leadscrews and the guide posts. So for my first time opening up the machine and tearing it apart, I'm happy so far. BUT - since I have the machine torn apart right now, I figured it would be best to pause, come here and ask. Before I put it back together. Is the front to back alignment an issue? Is it maybe something to do with the threads of the leadscrews, and it is supposed to be like that?
Are there any other things I should look at/do before putting it all back together?