Cheap and works.. Dust Collector, Flex Shaft Lube

[Wood Butcher]

Don’t laugh, it works.
A shop vac attachment with the ridges belt sanded down and a few cell cast slats attached with 5200 and blind rivets. I do have a 2” X 1 ½ reducing bushing with a street ell that fits into the collector and transitions to the side to be out of the way. You will need to turn down the 2” side of the RB to fit the shop vac hose and attachment. Clean up after is minimal.
WARNING:::
Plug in the shop vac on a separate circuit. Start the vac after the homing routine and the carving starts.

Flex shaft lube.
Gunk, Liquid Wrench High Performance Dry Lubricant. Brownish yellow can at home depot. 15 minutes or 2 hours the flex shaft never gets too hot to hold. Thermal stability after about 10 to 12 minutes. That’s as warm as its going to get. READ THE CAN. Spray the shaft and the spring. Let dry before reinstalling. Redo every 5-7 hours.

[RC Woodworks]

Cool ideal, I am trying to figure out how far away the attachment is from the sand paper belt. I take it the clips are hold it? Are you saying to plug the vac in a different circuit to avoid kicking a breaker?

Then starting the vac after the CC starts to carve is that for static electricty? Do you have it grounded? Did you find out the hard way by starting the vac before the CC?

Interesting on the dry lubricant. Does the lubricant that CW reccomends need to be reapplied 5-7 hrs? I have not had any of the 4 machines long enough to find out. 3 returned and the 4th with DHL in route to me. I did get 24 hrs out of the 4th, but never had a flex cable over heat. Now it was cold in my shop so that may have help the temp.

I plan on using the CC quite a bit this summer so it is good to know what will keep the flex from over heating. Bummer it has to be resprayed every 5-7 hours. Thanks wood for the info.

Rick

[Digitalwoodshop]

I Like it !!!!

AL

[rjustice]

I used the Gunk Liquid Wrench industrial Chain Lube w/ Moly as recommended in another post from CW... I put my own twist to it though. I put the cable inside a plastic bag drenched with the spray and vacume sealed it which sucked the lube into the cable. I did this when the machine was new, and after 47 hours my cable barely gets warm... never has got hot, and i havent re-lubed it yet.... I think this is definately good stuff... perhaps the vacume sealer pulled it deeper into the cable than normal and that is making all the difference, but I am very pleased none the less...


Ron

[Greybeard]

Ron, that is nothing short of genius. I've stored that idea away for future use in many other contexts.
John

[RC Woodworks]

I used the Gunk Liquid Wrench industrial Chain Lube w/ Moly as recommended in another post from CW... I put my own twist to it though. I put the cable inside a plastic bag drenched with the spray and vacume sealed it which sucked the lube into the cable. I did this when the machine was new, and after 47 hours my cable barely gets warm... never has got hot, and i havent re-lubed it yet.... I think this is definately good stuff... perhaps the vacume sealer pulled it deeper into the cable than normal and that is making all the difference, but I am very pleased none the less...


Ron

Ron, that is great to hear! When I am at the fairs I hope I am too busy to lube the flex shaft! When you say you put the cable in the bag, you are talking about the brass flex shaft only? Or did you put the housing in a bag too?

Rick

[Sarge]

Pretty slick!!! One thing I can't determine from the picture. How much did you have to cut, or how did you attain clearance from the hose to clear cover???

OK my error!!!

[rjustice]

Rick, Cable only not the housing... just coil it up and put it in the bag lubed generously... then when you pull the vacume on the sealer, it acts like marinading a chicken breast... pulls the lube deep inside.

Sarge, the vacume attachment on the machine is not mine, it was in "woodbutchers" post... I was just commenting on a way to keep from having to lube the cable so often...

Ron

[Wood Butcher]

The relube cycle was based on PREVENTIVE measures. I like to solve a problem before it is a problem.
The vacuum bag is a good idea but I didn’t want a fluid lubricant that could drip onto the workpiece.

The dust sucker was a cut to fit, quickie project. Cleaning out the mess got real old. The slats were measured with a piece of wood in place.
The bottom slat is even with the AL frame, the top slat, measured along the plane of the attachment clears the workpiece by a bit over 2 inches. Plenty of room to draw lots of air.
Don’t make the mistake that closer is better. Too close and you restrict the flow of air. More air moving will take out more chips and dust.
I will post a better picture later. All of the parts, less the attachments were shop drops. I now have the vacuum line plumbed in with 1 ½ PVC. The only thing left is redo the wood shim under the connection. Once I attach the support for the PVC pipe there is no need for it.

Overloading is one reason to use a different circuit. I prefer to use a circuit on a different phase also. Any motor with brushes will generate weird harmonics. The more brushed motors on the same phase will increase the opportunity for odd harmonics to sync. The resultant voltage spike will burn something up. The harmonics can reach frequency’s high enough to induce corona in the windings. Higher frequency’s travel trough the surface of the wire rather than the middle. Look up Skin Effect.
As touchy as the electronics in this thing are, I want it to have the best chance of survival.

[rjustice]

After letting the lube soak in you dry the cable off, and i havent had any drips at all. Cable temps are running very uniform at 85 deg. using an infrared thermometer... inside a 65 deg. shop. I just finished a 4.5 hour carving last night and that was during and at completion. It is running 10 deg. cooler now than when i first put it back together after changing the lube.

Just contributing my experimenting, and findings to the forum to give back a small portion of what i have received from reading most of the posts in here. Didnt mean to offend anyone.

Ron