'Enter Board thickness' prompt, and maybe 'Fatal Error 2' workaround?

[Jeff_Birt]

I was running a rahter large project yesterday, the board just barely fit in the machine width wise (it was about 14 5/8" wide). It carved just fine but when it came time to do the cut out it went through most of the bit homing/finding routine and then stopped and prompted me for the board thickness: (something like the following)

Enter Borad Thickness
>>0

I tried just removing the carving from the project and doing the cutout only but had the same thing happened. Eventually I got it to take the following key combination " 3 / 4 'ENTER' " and it proceeded to do the cut out.

While typing this I realized that the bit never went over and touched the back guide plate like it normally does, perhaps because the board was so wide it could not get to it. So, the machine measures the top of the board and the top of the guide plate (bottom of board), then calculates board thickness. Makes we wonder if one were to make a sled this the same width, and place thin material on the sled if, the material could be cut out with the 'cut out' tool without getting the 'Fatal Error 2' message (causes when the machine calculates a thickness geater than 1"?).

[rpringle]

Jeff,
You may be on to something.
If a sled was made of 1/4" or less for the bottom.

And we cutout on a board 3/4 or less thick it may work.

I will try this tomorrow.

Russ

[jdrof]

Jeff

Just recieved the "Fatal Error(2)!" message when I was trying to cut out an 11/2" thick board. Is 1" the max it will cut out? Can it be fooled or do I need to get out the scroll saw?

Also, got the card. Works fine.
Thanks,

John

[Jeff_Birt]

Yeah, you cannot us the 'Cut-Out' function if your stock is more than 1" thick (the max Depth of Cut). If you mount thin stock on a sled it measures the combined height of the stock and sled and give the same error.

[liquidguitars]

I have a few 14 5/8 sleds that are working fine but sometimes its seems inportant to input the true thickness of your board or sled in designer. So if you have a .75 thick project in designer and your work is the thickness of 2.50 sometimes it will drop the bit cam "flapper" and get confused.. :o
I never had luck with the cut path option and sleds overall .

LG

[Jeff_Birt]

That the point LG, you can't use 'Cut-Out' when using a sled because the machine measures the board thickness by the diffrence btween the board's top adn the top of the rear guid plate. If your sled is large as I described in the OP then the machine will ask you to input the board thickness as it can't get to the rear guide plate to touch off on it. I plan on trying a cut out on 1/4" stock on a 3/4" sled tomorrow.

[liquidguitars]

Thanks I know that.. :rolleyes:


While typing this I realized that the bit never went over and touched the back guide plate like it normally does

I use 14"+ sleds and it finds the bit cam.

I am saying if you loose your depth on the bit cam "flapper" check your thickness size in designer for carving, sounds strange i know.

Never get to use cut path much as I make my own tabs...

LG

[Jeff_Birt]

No, not the bit plate, that works fine. When you do a cut out the machine finds the top of the board, and then finds the top of the guide plate (the one you slide up behind the board) and the machine calculates the board thickness based on these two readings. If it can't reach the guide plate you have to enter the thickness manually.

[Jeff_Birt]

I did a quick test this morning by making a 22" x 14 5/8" x 3/4" sled out of a piece of plywood I had laying around. I hot glued a piece of 14" x 7" x 3/16" plywood lenght wise to one corner of the sled. I made up a quick project 7" x 14 5/8" with a cut out rectangle 2" x 4". The machine was able to measure the board even though part of it was 3/16" higher but this set up may not be ideal. The machine measures the width and then comes halfway back towrds the keypad to measure the length, so in my case it was right on the line between the sled and the 3/16" plywood so I added a bit of blue painters tape to the end of the board to help it find the edge. Not to mention that the actual measurement might be thrown off a bit with board sensor being a bit higher than the sled. A better approach might be to fill in around the stock you are cutting with stock or the smae height.

Anyhow, it meaures the board, the cut-out bit finds the top of the stock, comes back towards the keypad and prompts you to enter the board thickness. I screwed up and enterd 1/4" instead of 3/16". It still worked, and left tabs but the cut depth was 0.35". I have noticed that it goes a bit deeper than needed when doing cut outs, I guess you could make up for this by adjusting the board thickness that you enter.

So the good news is that if you use a wide sled you can use the cutout function when carving on a sled.

[liquidguitars]

the back guide plate like it normally does

ok I see now, wrong plate... I need to read slower! :eek:

[rpringle]

Jeff,

This helpful, I tried using a .17X 12X10 sled using hard board with a 7X7X.75 board to cut.
On the first try it said it "cannot find the sliding metal plate" it was dropping on the hard board and knew it was not correct.
So I cut the hard board to width of the board to be cut 7" and moved the slider up to the board.
The tip touched the slider then moved out a little and droped into the slot between the sanding belts.
Then it started to cut a simple square.
It did the cut perfectly, cut right through the .75 board and made tabs on the hard board.
I will try your method tomorrow.
It would make me feel much better to not waste 7" of expensive board each time I want to use the cut option.

Russ

[Dave-Carve]

How about if you place board in let machine go through all steps up to "carving Project"
Then Open Cover ,Remove org board ,put in thicker board ,What would machine do ???
Carve at same Bottom Depth or is it smarter than that ????
Ill try to explain just little more (without getting into real detail)
1....... setup board .50 thick 12X12 run up to Carving Patt.

2..... open cover replace setup board with 2.0 thick 12X12 close cover.

has anybody tried this ?? Just Curious as to what happens ???

[BobHill]

Dave,

The machine IS smart enough to know that difference. But this is where you should make a sled (no sides) with the end pieces on each end of your work board being the required 3.5" tacked onto a "carrier" board at least the width of the working board. The working board being in the middle between these end pieces will then be able to be carved as you design it, without have any waste due to the end requirements to stay under the rollers. If you don't do that, the board won't stay under the rollers and that can be just one of the problems, as your design vs the "new" board won't meet prior length requirements if you do it the way you wrote.

Bob Hill
Tampa Florida