Tracking problem....Maybe ??

[Bigtyme]

I reviewed several posts with similar issues, but not sure they are the same. I have 2 "C model" CWs. I just upgraded the older one to add the rubber belts. I used this machine recently to do some rotary projects. It seemed to work just fine. Once done with those I have been using both machines to carve some picture frames for a large order. The older machine has never given me any problems, but when I loaded a project board, it told me it was short and to load a new board. I shut it off, cleaned it once again and re-loaded the board. This time it told me the board was even shorter (by about 0.05" more). I took the board out and loaded it into my newer machine and it set up and carved just fine. I loaded a new board in the older machine and it carved the project just fine. Well today, I loaded a board and it told me again it was short, so I used a different board and it took off fine. I put the original board in the newer machine and it carved just fine. I loaded a new board in the older machine and it took off again. This time though when it did the "cut out" portion of the carve it was off line about 3/16" and of course ruined the project.

Any suggestions on what to check. I looked over the brass roller and it appears to be just fine. The project boards were prepared with the same settings and they all have carved fine in the newer machine. Even though I say newer, it has more hours than the older machine. I just went through maintenance on both machines and have always kept them up. Not sure what to check next. I hope it doesn't have anything to do with the rotary attachment....

Any help would be greatly appreciated....

[lynnfrwd]

Head pressure?

[Bigtyme]

I checked it about 2 weeks ago and it was fine, but I thought I should check again... will do...good suggestion, thank you

[fwharris]

Verify that the brass roller is not in contact with the rubber belts when a board is loaded. If so it will impact the board tracking and give you a measurement error. Also run a calibration check on the old machine.

[Bigtyme]

Thanks, Floyd. Will check out the roller... Is the procedure for calibration in the support section. I did calibrate it for use with the rotary, but suspect this is different...

[fwharris]

Thanks, Floyd. Will check out the roller... Is the procedure for calibration in the support section. I did calibrate it for use with the rotary, but suspect this is different...

This will get you to all of the documents you should need.. http://support.carvewright.com/downloadable-documents/#repair-documents

And yes the X calibration is much different than the rotary calibration..

[SteveNelson46]

Did you use any masking tape on the board along the brass roller edge? If not, give it a try to see if it makes any difference.

[Bigtyme]

This will get you to all of the documents you should need.. http://support.carvewright.com/downloadable-documents/#repair-documents

And yes the X calibration is much different than the rotary calibration..

Thank you, Floyd... Will give a shot tomorrow...


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[Bigtyme]

Did you use any masking tape on the board along the brass roller edge? If not, give it a try to see if it makes any difference.

I do use masking tape, Steve... Have ever since I bought my first machine.



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[Digitalwoodshop]

You may need to remove the Brass Roller and make the holes a little OVAL to position it a little further from the Rubber Belt. With a board compressed, the rubber belt can "Sometimes" act like a Radial Tire and BULGE on the side letting the SEAM of the Rubber Belt touch the Brass Roller....

Just another WAG from your friends at "Matag".... Wild AL Guess...

AL who.

[Bigtyme]

You may need to remove the Brass Roller and make the holes a little OVAL to position it a little further from the Rubber Belt. With a board compressed, the rubber belt can "Sometimes" act like a Radial Tire and BULGE on the side letting the SEAM of the Rubber Belt touch the Brass Roller....

Just another WAG from your friends at "Matag".... Wild AL Guess...

AL who.

Great WAG, Al... Will ck it out


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[Bigtyme]

Well, this has been an interesting morning.... I think I have it fixed, but time will tell. I rechecked the head pressure first. Four times between 80 lbs and 84 lbs, so I guess that was ok. Cut a new board to use for the measurement test. Flat as a pancake, parallel edges and square ends. Good to go, right? Nope!! Ran a copy of the written instructions so they would be handy and followed them to a tee. Placed the board in the CW and ran the "Measure Board" test. The manual measurement was 38.187. The board ran through ok the first time and came up with a CW measurement of 37.83. This was the distance it was off when it cut out in the wrong spot. So I went through the calibration process and said to myself, "let's see if this works". I couldn't get it to run through again without a "tracking error"... I did everything I could from making sure nothing was binding... to air cleaning around the roller (for the 100th time)... to taking the tape off... to putting 2 pieces of tape on... Nothing worked. Finally I remembered reading a post where someone had taken off the rubber gasket on the brass roller. I figured what the heck, couldn't hurt. So i carefully removed the gasket. The board didn't run 3 " before I got the error again. Tried it 3 times and no change. So I put the gasket back on and TA DA, it worked fine. Come on, REALLY. Simply taking the gasket off on putting it back on did the trick. All I can figure was there was something under the gasket that caused the board to rise and cause the error. I ran the test board 3 times and it worked great and the measurement was right on all three times COOL!! I tried one of my project boards and it did give me an error once, but another board worked just fine. I also suspect my installation of the rubber belts wasn't as professional as the good folks from CW, so I may have to be a little careful to make sure the project boards are as flat and square as possible.

Thank you for all the help, everyone. Great to have 2 machines working again. I need them both...orders still coming in....

[bergerud]

Is the rubber damper under the tracking sensor? It makes the brass roller stiff to push down.

[Bigtyme]

Is the rubber damper under the tracking sensor? It makes the brass roller stiff to push down.

I will ck when I get back to the shop... Thx for the suggestion...


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