SIGH!!! Don't buy this machine....

[DumbDawg]

Man... More troubles... With the money you pay for this piece of equipment, and they are charging a premium price, the problems it has is mounting...

I've been reading here to see if I can't solve the problem, yet again... to no avail....

Now I'm getting a 'Clear Board Sensor' message... AGAIN... I've gone thru this beast and cleaned it spotless... wiped the sensor with a lens cloth so as to not scratch it, blew out the machine of all sawdust and I get the error message... Checked head pressure and its about 80lbs... pushed on all wires and ribbon cables to make sure they were tight and not loose... still get the 'clear sensor' message....

If I could get my money back it would be going back in a heartbeat.... The software is seriously lacking, the memory card is oldschool technology and this piece of crap machine is really PO'n me off... I'm seeing very poor design thru the whole thing... Its a complete sawdust trap, electronics which are more sensitive to heat and dust are exposed etc etc....

Yah I'm not happy with it.... Its overly sensitive to dust which if you are working with wood you are going to get... no??? so I would have thought a little more thought would have gone into the design of the machine... apparently not so much...

Any suggestions on how to fix this stupid machine??? I'd appreciate any help...

Thx

[chebytrk]

Paint it Yellow, call it a dog and shoot it! : )

[dbfletcher]

ok. You didnt mention what you reading where when you did the white paper test. I'll post a link to the intructions for that in a minute.. I have to search the forum myself to find the right post. Anyways, I'm betting that either one or both of your leds have broke or have failed. The white paper test reading will definately get up pointed in the right directions.

check this post out... if you still have questions, let us know.

http://forum.carvewright.com/showthr...+paper+reading

Basically you are just putting a sheet of white paper on top of a board, under neither the board sensor. Crank the head down and go to user options, sensor check. Report back what your reading are.

[Digitalwoodshop]

Before you bad mouth the machine you need to do a little homework and check out Tips and Tricks that has tons of good stuff for a new user. Every single user of this machine including me had to get past the learning curve of the machine. And many that started to bad mouth the machine out of frustration have grown to LOVE the machine and what it CAN DO..... I know it is frustrating.... WE have all been there..... It could be as simple as you are using dark wood.... It's reflective light and a dark board will not be seen sometimes...

First things first.... We need to know the health of your board sensor.... To do that.... I came up with the White Copy Paper Test... Since everyone has different color boards...... The White paper is a "Standard" so my readings will match your readings..... With a sheet of white copy paper on the board and head cranked down.... Use Options, and Sensor Data on the keypad, and Board Detector..... You should get between 140 and 159 with white paper.... 80 and you have a dirty sensor of broken LED's There are 2 LED's and one receiver.

Sometimes all the blowing around and the dust gets inside the lens.... to clean, I like to slice down the back and remove the lens that way. If a LED falls out... Well it was bad.... The new sensors have glue holding the board to the plastic and have better dust control....

Let us know what the readings are...

If you ever remove the board sensor it is possible to pull the wires too hard and cause them to slide down the side of the plastic guide on the Y head. Over time the vibration and the sharp edge of the metal cuts into the wires. On my machine it caused a zero board sensor reading AND the Z DATA would stay 0000, AND I got a OPEN COVER when it was closed..... It shorted the data buss....

So that is the worst possible case..... So I clean the Board Sensor and seal it back up with 3M masking tape because I have Stock in Masking Tape and recommend it be used for everything from keeping the core of the Flex Shaft from falling out when you do maintenance and to assist the Brass Roller Tracking Sensor.... Grip the board.

WELCOME !!!! Lets get this machine carving.... I just took a Wood Sign out of the machine.... A Sign for a Real Estate Agent to give as a house warming gift... Was up until 3 AM painting 2 others for a quick turn around... So making Money with the machine makes it all worth wile...

AL who....


AL

[robbrigg2]

I went through this once, just like this and was fuming.. then I changed my board just for grins and giggles and it turned out that the board was warped just enough to cause the error... might want to give it a try...

[forqnc]

@ Al, I admire your patience with repetitive negative post about the machine.

@ Dumbdawg, like others have said, we have all felt your frustration, mine was a lack of patience. I just wanted to go out and carve a board and move on to other things and it never worked like that. Then I took the attitude of "OK, I will give up the whole day to do a one hour carve" Once I started to learn about the machine things just clicked and the rewards where worth it. Good Luck and I hope you can get your problem fixed and get back to carving.

[CarverJerry]

DumbDawg, maybe what you need is just to walk away from your machine for a while, calm down, get your poop in a group. Getting mad only makes things worst. There are many different things that can go wrong and when your pissed off you can overlook the easy and simple things, here on the forum are a lot of guys who have been there and done that and had the exact same problems. I'm sure they will be of great help as I've had to rely on them myself. Thanks guys. I hope you can solve your problems and get back to carving, besides don't let this hobby give you a heart attack, enjoy it, relax and get back to making saw dust.

CJ

[spalted]

Dumbdawg,

I think we can a relate to what your saying, most if not all of us have been there.

This machine is not like running a table saw, it's not bullet proof, fool proof or low maintenance, and it never will be. Thats just the nature of having electronics in a woodshop environment.

It does take a certain amount of determination and shear bullheadedness to own and operate one.

Remember, there is a fantastic group of knowledgeable and very helpful people here, they can get you through all the problems. Without all these guys I would have thrown in the towel in the beginning. Also LHR tech has been very good to me as well.


Hang in there, it gets better over time.

[DumbDawg]

I appreciate the comments and replies...

New day new beginning... what chokes me about this machine is its being so completely finicky and its a brand new machine with VERY low hours of carving anything on it... Yesterday it was a piece of pine... one carve and I have to tear it down, clean it, wipes its arse and 'hope' it will work for another job... I had RC helicopters that were easier to operate and maintain than this machine and considerably cheaper too...

Any rate... I am going to give it the white paper test after I've had my caffeine and go from there... I fully understand there being a learning curve but there are some things that I'm no stranger to either... But I maintain that I shouldn't have to tear it down, or shouldn't experience these failures out of the gate like this... You pay a premium price for these things and I'm saying the quality should be there... If I buy a thickness planer I don't have to tear it down after the first board run... The only tear down on my table saw is in replacing blades, my routers... never tore them down yet...

I will also endeavor to chill out and do the oooooohhhmmmmm.... thing... or uuummm!! whichever works better...

cheers

[WRW]

Hi DumbDawg
Welcome to what I believe is one of the best forums I have had the pleasure to be part of, as you have already seen the support for community here is great. This @#$@%%^ Wonderful Machine will attempt to teach you patience, and the rest, the guys and gals here are willing to help with.

I think spalted's little phrase at the bottom of his posts sums the machine up quite well. "My Carvewright is just like my dog.........I know damn well it hears me, but it still doesn't always do what I want it to!"

For me changing to the Rock Chuck and installing a good dust pickup inside the carver seemed to bring an end to a lot of little issues that are caused by vibration and dust.
Hope to see you hang in and enjoy.
Have a great day!