Afraid of flex cable heat

[Don Aughenbaugh]

I am on my third machine since my wife bought me one for Christmas. The first two failed early on. One with bad board sensor and the second with failed flex cable housing (melted at about the center of its length). Both were returned to Sears and new ones received in about nine days. I have been reading and trying to determine what warm means. The words are that the flex cable housing should be running uniformly warm throughout its length. This new machine has a housing that runs uniformly hot after about 30 minutes. I have shut it down during two projects fearing another failure. After letting it cool down it has completed the projects without failure. The cable housing feels hot to my touch, not what I would call warm. I lubricated it per the CarveWright instructions with the lubricant specified and no difference is noted. Any other suggestions will be appreciated.

[gmalanoski]

Don,

My 1st machine was returned with less than 15 hours on it due to other issues. However, it too ran hot and at times was uncomfortable if I held it for more than a few seconds. After getting my 2nd machine, it was pretty much the same for about the 1st hour. Ever since that time (I'm assuming the lube worked it's way in and the whole cable got coated) it has just been luke warm.

It may do you some good to pull it off and check the lubrication if it's too hot. There are several posts here which give more information about that process.

HTH,

[Dave Boland]

i keep a small fan on my flex shaft and this seems to help. My machine runs hot in 1st 5 minutes and always has. I shut it down, let it cool for 5, then start again. no problems after that. Seems like shaft lubricant needs to warm up in order to penetrate.

[deemon328]

This is for peace of mind so that you will know what warm and hot means for the flexshaft. You can buy a laser thermometer at Harbor Freight for $30.

These are my personal recommendations, and do not reflect official LHR support.

Warm, no concern: 72-110
Warmer, keep an eye on it: 111-125
Hot, prepare to pause carve: 126-135
Very Hot, begin cool down procedures : 135+

[bizbiki]

Don

I too had some issues regarding the flex shaft getting too hot. Here is what I did and it seemed to work ; when I lubricated the flex shaft I also removed the spring that it was attached to inside the rubber housing and lubed that as well, I placed them both side by side on a piece of hardboard and completly saturated them with the chain lube (plus moly) I let everything sit for about one hour then rotated the spring and the shaft 90 degrees and then compltely sprayed them once again. Then I let the whole thing sit out on the board over night. The next day I inserted them in the machine (spring first then shaft) and have not had an issue since.

good luck

Louie

[twinpeaksenterprises, LLC]

I had a similar problem when i first tried my new machine. It was running hot so i checked it with a radio shack infared thermometer. It was reading 230-245 degrees i knew something wasnt right about that. So up checking the flexshaft i noticed it had came with little or no lube. I soaked the flex shaft cable down with liquid wrench with moly. On the next carve, the flex shaft only got up to 90 to 95 degrees an hour into the project. Another solution is that LHR reccomends making sure your support wire is not slipping out of place. Also as another gentleman said before me yes a small fan on the cable also works. Another check in my opinion is this might happen if there was a problem with the RPM sensor which is noticed by differentiations in motor speed throughout the carving.

[fwharris]

I also had the melt down on my flex cable. I had done about 3 or 4 30 min. carves and had not noticed any problems. It did seem a little warm at the center but real hot.
My first long carve was about 1 1/2 total time and about 45 min into it I noticed the outer cover of the flex shaft was starting to smoke. I shut it down ASAP and called the Sears 800 repair number that was in the owners manual and that was a big joke. They new nothing about the machine at all. I then called LHR and their first response was to tell me about the post in the forum about the new lube procedure. They sent me a new flex shaft at their cost. It took about 3 days to get to me.

In the mean time I went to the local ACE store and got the molly lube.
I followed the lube procedure as stated and ran the maching with my exsiting flex shaft and it did run cooler, but was still warmer than what I thought it should be. When the one came it I used a plastic Folger coffee can to lube the shaft. I coiled the shaft into it and sprayed it with the molly lube ( enought that the shaft was totaly covered) and let it sit over night. the next day I took it out and layed it out on some news paper for about 3 hours, rotating it every so often to get the excess to drain and dry. Wiped it down good with a lint free rag. Since then there has not been any problems. The folgers can also cut down on the mess vs. laying it out on a plastic and the exess molly is still in the can ready for the next time..


I was amazed at some of the posts about this and how some of the shafts had actually melted down completly.

[Gunner]

I use the tube method for lubing the flexshaft.
Get a 4' piece of 1/4" or 3/8" fuel line.
Plug one end.
Insert flexshaft.
Fill with moly lube.
Twist and rotate to help penetrate cable with lube.
Hang overnight.
Remove and wipe dry .

Gunner

[Don Aughenbaugh]

Thanks Greg. I am still uncomfortable with the heat after 2 1/2 hours but am continuing on the premise that it will be all right. I'm tired of going to Sears to return what I think is a great machine. I have been thinking of contacting CarveWright to see if they would send me parts under warranty and letting me install them here instead of returning the machine. I read several threads where folks have gotten new parts from them, but never heard how many hours their machines had worked. Know anything about that?

Don

[Don Aughenbaugh]

Thanks to all you guys for your flex cable advice. I have just finished a 1hr. 30 min carve and the cable ran hot throughout but it didn't melt!!! I'm not happy with the carve as it was a picture and I haven't learned how to best prepare pictures for patterns. I have read and looked at lots of your works and I am amazed. Many pictures are beautifully done whereas I just get a jumble of rough carvings. Mostly flat faces that look like mummy skulls. I have Adobe Photo shop (just new) and would certainly like any advice I can get for working my pictures over so that faces are rounded and eyes, nose, lips, chins, and all other features are recognizable. Please, Please, Please, Please!!!!!