Love and Hate!!! 2 week of struggle :)

[hyghroller73]

Where do I start???

So far I have to say I am absolutely in love with what my new CarveWRIGHT has accomplished and I can see so many things in the future I hope to do/make... Below are some pictures of the projects I have ran so far. I have about 32 hours on the cut motor at this point. It is a very handy tool for any shop with so much flexibility - how can everyone not have one??? This is my "Love" side for the machine. Now the "Hate". I only have 32 hours of carving in and have had the machine apart 6 times - phone support 2 times - and about 41 hours of troubleshooting, cleaning, fixing, bypassing and cussing at the machine. I so want to get on my next project but I dread going down to find out what problem the machine is going to experience next... So far I have dealt with: Close Lid Errors, Rear Roller Issues, X and Y axis Errors, Bit not being detected, board dimensions not registering, and more i can't even think of at the moment. I am not sure how anyone is supposed to use this machine on a regular basis if it entails more time troubleshooting and fixing than actual cutting? I know everyone is thinking - "its a cleaning issue". I have gone through a 20-30 minute deep clean after every cut piece I have done. Vacuumed and blew out machine (no more than about 50psi) to the point it looked cleaner than when I removed it from its original packaging. I have taken the lid off and cleaned around all the wires, tracks and circuit boards till there was not even a spec of dust visible. My close lid turned out to be a faulty switch (which support was very friendly and is sending out another). My Bit read issues was it not hitting the flapper due to it not moving over far enough cause wires for lid kept getting way of head and then another time was lube on spring for flapper. I have not found my issue yet with rear roller reading as compressed. I have cleaned completely and it freely moves up and down the 1/4" or so. I have also cleaned the o-ring / rubber on the computer side to make sure no build up and it is good. (tonights project - was too frustrated last night to continue). I have completely lubed the side poles and cranks at 25 hours as was suggested by someone here. As I said I don't understand how a ten day old machine with less than 33 hours total can need such involved maintenance - I have never seen anything like this?? On the positive side with every time I tear it apart, I am learning and getting better at guessing what the problem might be. Hopefully as time goes on the maintenance will seem less as I will be faster and it will stabilize... For those of you who have had your machine for years and or carved 100's of hours or use yours on daily basis - does it get better with time? Or is this simply an expensive paper weight that will be a full time job just to maintain/complete an occasional project? No business can spend more time getting a machine to work than the amount of time it actually remains working... Any thoughts would be appreciated as right now I just want to pack it up and sell it all off on ebay - but I love the projects it managed to finish and I really can not take the huge loss as I have sunk over 3000 at this point in this machine (software add-ons, bits, sled, pattern etc.)

Ok I guess it says I do not have permission to upload pics...

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[oscarl48]

Welcome and great start and good looking projects!

If you don't have an HVAC system that is the number 1 accessory. I had issues with my machine in the beginning. Once my main minor issue was resolved the HVAC took care of 90% of all the other issues.

[hyghroller73]

Thanks oscarl! I bought the machine direct and the dust hood that was included in the package is back ordered -- I was just researching other options or a faster way to get one :) I do hope / think that this will reduce a ton of my issues as well -- I ran the eagle box carve which was 11 hours str8 with no dust collection and it was a mess -- then when I did the light saber hilt out of MDF I realized what a mess mdf is to the machine. So I think I am taking a few days off carving until I can accomodate for dust collection during the carve!!

[Dale]

Don't get discouraged, there are enough experts here that can help you with just about any problem you have. I agree with Oscar once you get a dust collector hooked up a lot of your problems will go away. Great projects, good luck.

[normrichards]

Looks like you have had a crash course in all my problems in the first year but you had them in the first month. I get so frustrated with back order issues from LHR. There is a pattern on the forum to make your own dust collector but if you have one coming it does not make sense to make it because you have to cut a large hole in the cover to use it and it will not coincide with the dust collector you have on back order. Once you get yours it makes a huge difference. My first year tried my patience but after that things seemed to go smoothly and I could figure things out on the fly and have carvings working. Your month was my year so you are ahead of the curve. Your first projects are awesome, way better than mine. Congrats, I say hang in there it gets better.

[Digitalwoodshop]

As far as your roller problem... In the uncompressed position it rests on a plate held by 2 screws. When carving the rollers are compressed leaving the resting plate exposed to when you blow dust around and the dust blown by the bit. It builds up in this layers like filo dough and eventually gets thick enough for the roller to rest on the layer in the uncompressed position NOT letting the micro switch NOT fall into it's uncompressed slot.

I took my keyboard side off and took the switch out to look at it. Blew the dust out. If you remove the keyboard side be very careful of the keyboard wires as they RIP very easily.

And whenever you remove the top black cover always support the clear cover as it RESTS on the switches and can damage them.

We have all had to learn to push the cut motor wires into the back corner after removing the cover. As you found, it prevents the Y from reaching the bit plate.

Remember that you are sucking dust into the cut motor now that you don't have a dust collector installed yet.

Plan for your 250 cut hour maintenance. Replace the 2 685ZZ Bearings in the Y Gearbox as they get the most wear. Failure to do this will result in the thinning of the shaft due to a frozen bearing and failure of the Y. Also plan to replace the cut motor brushes at 250 too. Failure could result in a broken bit when the motor stalls.

One last thing... As the dust goes through your vacuum hose it creates static electricity that can KILL your machine.... Many early posts in 2008.... "I stopped in the middle of a carve to vacuum my machine and it is now brain DEAD...." I made one of the very first dust collectors in 2007.

Welcome and good luck.

AL

http://www.avidrc.com/product/1/bearings/170/5x11x5-Metal-685ZZ-bearings.html

[fwharris]

Your happy 32 hours of carving and finishing looks great! Job well done.

There are other options for dust collection ;) and most issues can be related to dust getting into areas it should not be in. Not to mention those 20-30 cleaning times between each carve. I highly recommend not carving with out one.

[Digitalwoodshop]

I had a CW Computer Failure that I believe was related to the sawdust that got blown into the CW computer before I bought it used... Eventually while doing a huge project the CW computer overheated and self destructed. Lucky I had a extra CW computer.

So the Dust Damage you do today may not show up until August..

I switched to the RingNeckBlues collector as it was MORE Efficient than my 2007 version.

Post your Location when you get a chance.

AL

[hyghroller73]

Update.

Ok the final results are in... I spent the weekend building this setup for my machine and it looks great. I did 13 hours of carving on Monday and Tuesday and had very minimal dust - I would say the new hood managed to get about 90% of the dust during the carves. I did a 20 minute clean after the 13 hours and it is working smooth! Very Happy now lets hope it keeps up :)





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[fwharris]

Update.

Ok the final results are in... I spent the weekend building this setup for my machine and it looks great. I did 13 hours of carving on Monday and Tuesday and had very minimal dust - I would say the new hood managed to get about 90% of the dust during the carves. I did a 20 minute clean after the 13 hours and it is working smooth! Very Happy now lets hope it keeps up :)





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Great job on the dust collection hood. I would suggest you add a static ground wire to prevent a static discharge that could kill the computer. Other than that have some happy dustless carving! :)