Not Good. . . .

[Woodman]

While doing an offset calibration I had the bit take off some metal and paint of the top of the clamp between the rollers. . . it gave me a message about clearing the board sensor and trying again. I just put in a new Zmotor and QC this morning and am running 1.130. Will call tech help in a.m. but I just thought I'd see what y'all thought about it. . . . See attatched jpeg. . . thanks! Pete

[Amonaug]

While doing an offset calibration I had the bit take off some metal and paint of the top of the clamp between the rollers. . . it gave me a message about clearing the board sensor and trying again. I just put in a new Zmotor and QC this morning and am running 1.130. Will call tech help in a.m. but I just thought I'd see what y'all thought about it. . . . See attatched jpeg. . . thanks! Pete

Did you give it an accurate measurment of the thickness of the board?

[Woodman]

It was a half inch thick. Nice & even and sharp corners just like the manual says.

[Woodman]

Having done an offset about two months ago, I noticed that this time the bit started much deeper. It was through the wood in three passes. Since it was taking wood off the side of the cut with each pass I figured (wrongly as it turned out!) that V1.130 was different than the last time I did it. When I heard different noises coming out of the machine, I rushed over but it was too late.

[Amonaug]

Yeah that doesn't sound too good and makes me very wary of 1.13. It seems to have SOME nice improvements but some bugs creeped in too.

[Jeff_Birt]

I have done a calibrate offsets in 1.130 with no problems other than my board sensor reading a bit too low (I knew it was low beforehand). I replaced the sensor and all was well.

I would have a tendency to suspect other issues before 1.130. What could have caused teh machine to loose track of its position like this. How is your board sensor working, was the sliding guide plate in the proper place. How about down pressure? Did the 3/8" bit touch down on the bit plate properly? Are you using a CW bit?

[liquidguitars]

I have done a calibrate offsets in 1.130 with no problems on each of my units but I use 3/4 thick boards of melimene and not 1/2..
LG

[fwharris]

I did my calibration after also putting in the Z motor upgrade and 1.130. Used 3/4" board. I did notice that it did do the first cross cut deeper with only 3 passes as Pete stated. Also thought it was doing a wider cut on the passes vs my old calibrations.

I did a comparison to a prior calib. and the new one is wider on the cross cut. Seems to be about 1/2 of the bit width on each side of the first cut.

How did others compare to your prior calibrations?

[Woodman]

a. I checked the downpressure the morning of this incident and it was 92 lbs. b. It was a carvewright bit. I'm thinking a half inch board should have worked but maybe I'll try a 3/4" too. Melamine????? Eh??? I had done a crosscut on that piece of wood right before I did the calibration (wanted nice, sharp, clean corners, right??? *VBG*) c. The guide plate came out like normal and I thought the machine did it's usual thing about touching it twice, etc.. d. I did notice that before it took several passes and gradually increased the depth whereas now it goes thru the board quickly and gradually eats wood off of the side of the cut. THANKS EVERYBODY for your input! Verily, verily The Forum Rocks! :)

[liquidguitars]

Melamine????? Eh???

Used on the west coast for cabinet boxes, a 4x8 sheets of "melamine" has a MDF pine core with melamine top surface..

The same stuff that China put in our pet food last year so you know it's good for you :(


http://img.diytrade.com/cdimg/605173/4302370/0/1189818133/Melamine_Laminated_Particle_Board.jpg

LG

[Woodman]

LiquidGuitars: Ha! I thought I'd heard of that stuff somewhere before. . . since our machines are being made in China then it's OK to use the stuff, right???!!?? Anyway got with Phillip in tech support this a.m. and we checked some stuff out and tried it again whereupon it ate more of the brace holder mechanism. We did some more inspections but didn't really find much and tried another offset cal and it worked out. Didn't hit anything but wood this time, which I took to be a good thing. Anyway, I think I'm up & running again but it's gonna have to wait till tuesday cause I'm working the next three days. That's also OK because it's given me some time to make a couple of new projects. We'll see I reckon. . . we'll see what happens. I made an adjustment to the downdraft system I've got. The machine sits on four vibration pads on a wooden platform on a sears worktable (see attachment). This makes it sit up about an inch higher off of the wood, so I lined the outside edge with blue styrofoam and duck taped the bottom of the machine to the wood so all the air's being sucked thru the machine. The 2hp central machine dust sucker has two inlets, one going to the bottom of a large slot cut in the wooden table (this one sucks thru the machine) and the other to the exhaust port of the carvewright. So far I think it works quite well for southern engineering but you don't want to drop anything metal thru the rollers when you're working on it! Between blowing it out with my shopvac set on "blow" and the dust catching system it keeps things pretty dang clean. I figure that's an important thing for keeping the system going and so far, I don't think my problems have been related to dust buildup. Bad parts maybe. . . bad operator maybe but not dust. . . *G* . . . Cleanup after a carve is a cinch. By the way, I've been using Empire's Dri-Tool Lubricant on the QC and so far I'm very impressed. I gave it a good bath in the stuff three times before I put it on the machine and as far as I can tell sawdust doesn't like the stuff one bit. Bought a 12 inch mirror at Hobby Lobby to see what was going on (and catch stuff before it goes down between the rollers) and it's all black inside that QC. Oh well, enough of your time. Thanks for the input! You seem to be very knowledgeable about the CW and I'll probably need your help again soon! If I can be of any service to you, please let me know. . . . Pete

[Dan-Woodman]

Pete
You might want to check the form for problems on sealing the bottom of the machine.
Theres a computer in the bottom that needs fresh air. Most cw owners only seal the middle center of the bottom where the slot is.
later Daniel

[bjbethke]

The way you have your bottom taped up in your image, you will over heat the power supply, controller and the cut motor. they all draw air from the bottom.

[Digitalwoodshop]

I agree, the tape lets the dust collector suck air down thought the unit into the computer, power supply and X Termination board area. Any dust accumulating in the hot areas of the power supply could cause a fire. Plus the Card Slot is now a Suction area.

What I did was place 1/2 inch foam seal around the bottom of the machine around the vacuum slot.

If you don't have the new Z Bundle then ask for it....

Good Luck,

AL

[snood56]

The only time my bit ever touched metal was when my bit creeped down due to the QC adapter loosening.

[Woodman]

OK! Got the message! I was figuring that I was pulling fresh air down through the machine, down through the vents on the bottom. You're saying that air's got to come UP through those vents? If so, I'll change the way I've got it set up to make sure that's happening. Pete

[audiomath]

No, sorry.
I'd normally lurk and let one of the elders here comment, but this is important...

You should only gasket and draw air down through the 17 1/2" x 2 1/4" slot. The louvered vents should be elevated above the downdraft table by the height of the Little Rubber Feet. (as if you placed it on a "normal" table) and clear of any obstructions.

The reason for gasketing just the center slot with foam tape is specifically so that the downdraft pulls air and dust *only* from that slot.

Going back to 'lurk mode' ,

--jim

[Digitalwoodshop]

Don't you just love the Cloking device....

AL

[audiomath]

My associates swear I'm an alien anyway... The cloaking device makes a certain amount of sense. ;)

The only thing better would be a CW with revamped dust paths so that you could run 10 or 20 hours cutting MDF between manual cleanings. (assuming a decent collector lashup, of course)

--jim

[Digitalwoodshop]

My upper suction and lower suction and a 2 HP Dust Collector really create a wind storm in there.... Recently I swapped my Canister Filter because it had sprung a leak from me tapping on the side.... Use LP Air.... The new filter had zero resistance and WOW what a difference, you could hear it.... Try one....

AL

[audiomath]

A lot of thought and work went into that!

I love the foil dryer hose. Move your dust and your electrical charge for the same low price. :D

How much modification to the CW did it take to get to the upper collector, and is anyone making them?

I have a 1-micron Jet filter-bag collector, but I'm not sure of the CFM. I'm not that familiar with LP collectors, but those shown on the Scientific site are probably on the large side for my prototyping shop. I'll poke around on the web a bit and update what I know about 'em.

Thanks,
--jim

[Digitalwoodshop]

I had to cut 1 inch from the cover and without the collector in place it is still safe. The machine went to LHR under warranty and they called wanting to replace the cover... I said no.

The foil hose is not very efficient but it works... I have ground clips and wires on all the hoses.

No one is making them. I made this one from copper circuit board material. I have a 3 foot stack..... Electronic Pack Rats..... And I have made.... How many circuit boards in 40 years...... A Dozen....

Good luck....

AL