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cougarspirit
02-01-2008, 07:26 PM
OK I think this is the first time I have posted. Have been reading and learning from all of you hopefully one day I can give something of importance to the group. OK now I went to use my machine last week...cut for 30 minutes and died. Have read on the post before about the circuit board having a broken part on it. I decided to take a look and sure enough it was a broken solder joint. On the board under the small alum. box is a copper coil that is nearer to the edge...it broke off one of its legs right at the solder joint. Don't do what i did I fixed it and put it back on to try....the other leg broke then right at the solder joint. If this happens remove the coil and re solder both legs. I had to add a piece of copper wire to mine because the legs were to short to be usable. Then add some hot glue or something for support and it helps with the vibration.
Got all of this done and 30 minutes into the run I got the Z axis stall. Guess what the solder joint on the terminals from the Z motor broke off(again at the solder joint). Simple fix but you have to add a piece of wire to jump up to the solder area on the circuit board. On my machine (I have called CarveWright to tell them about this but they have yet to call me and I was explaining what I was finding) the Z axis heat shield was just glued on with hot glue and the encoder is open to the environment no type of cover to protect it. So can anyone tell me how their Z motor is fixed on their machine.
During all of this the Y axis motor was found to be loose...one of the two screws that hold the motor on was stripped out and laying under the gears. Lucky it did not get mixed up with the gears and tear them all to pieces. So I fixed that also.
Today I finished all of the soldering and cut my project and it ran great. One of the errors I (when all of these problems was happening) got was "clean the Z rails"....that was from the solder joint being able to vibrate and loose the electricity for a split second. I got all of these things fixed and wanted to let everyone know what "could be" wrong with your machine. I believe the problem is the process that they use to solder the board in production the heat or frequency could be to high and harming the metal properties of the copper connections.

DocWheeler
02-01-2008, 08:43 PM
cougarspirit,

Welcome, I'm impressed with your resolve to take action rather than complain, good job. That is a lot more than I was willing to do with my machine when it failed for me the first time.

I am sure that you are going to enjoy the CC/CW.

andes
02-01-2008, 09:14 PM
I too am new and have been reading and learning. I have my machine but it's been to cold here. It's brand new and when it warms up I hope to get to carving ;-) But I have to admit, I'am almost afraid to start it up after all that I've read, and now reading the issues you've had. We will see.

Ande

deemon328
02-02-2008, 07:04 AM
Don't let that deter you from being creative with the CW. When you jump in with both feet and commit to using the machine, it revolutionizes your work! Learning about the current problems that you may have will only make you more able to deal with them in the future when you're out of warranty.

Digitalwoodshop
02-02-2008, 09:27 AM
I believe the soldering is done with wave soldering where a conveyor moves the board through a tank of molten solder and a pump makes a wave that rises above the level of the solder in the tank instantly soldering the connection. I do not believe any of the joints are RF Induction Soldered. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_soldering

The Coil failed due to the weight and the vibration. A properly glued coil will not move. A poorly glued coil will vibrate due to cutting and eventually copper fatigue will cause the wire to break. Your fix was the right thing to do, Good Job! I had a L2 coil break too.

As for the Z Encoder, I posted pictures and an explanation the other day. The transition from the solder pad to the Trace is where your fracture took place. It is the weakest point and most likely to fail. The Z Encoder is held in place by the solder tabs bringing the power to the Z Motor from the Encoder.

Good Job and Welcome.

AL