PDA

View Full Version : 2nd Project



parasram
03-04-2007, 12:57 AM
I wanted to produce a plaque for a leaving workmate. I had 2 machines and here are the lessons learnt.

- Keep the machine on firm ground, eg cast cement. I had the machine on a frame with rollers and they amplified the vibrations during operation, resulting in many cables and parts coming free. The cover switch cable came free and I glued (rtv) it back in place. The ribbon cable that goes to the drill head also came free and I glued that as well.

- One machine had a faulty crank that resulted in 200lbs being applied to the sand belts. The belt broke and I realized that the belt is not an easy part to get in Lowes, Home Depot or Sears. I found that once the rollers engaged fully on the boards with no gap, that force was sufficient.

- When using a vacuum, do not go near the drill head. The static will destroy the electronics there. I did that to the homing sensor. While trying to troubleshoot the sensor, I dismounted the head and realized that re-mounting it is not easy. The screws that hold the head are too soft in my opinion. A harder stainless steel should be used for those screws.

- If you have a board sensor that trips on patterns on the wood, shine a flashlight just under the head and it works fine in measuring the board. Putting masking tape as suggested elsewhere is more difficult. This solution became apparent after seeing a troublesome board sensor work nicely on a bright day.

- The text depth and width settings in my mpc are after doing 2 trial runs.

- On pictures, the blur tool is your friend. Jpeg's in particular have some compression artifacts that result in pecks on the carving. Blur them out.

- When routing the sides, stand by with a brush and dust off the board as the ends come out (or vacuum the inside by opening the lid to pause the machine).

Attached are the pictures and mpc.

Kenm810
03-04-2007, 10:18 AM
parasram

Your plaque project is – A ONE

And thanks for sharing your experience with your machines – every little bit is a help to the rest of us.