Clean Y rails

[bil381]

My carvewright gets almost done with a carving and then it just tries carving a line through the board that is not part of the carving. It stops and then tells me to clean the Y rail after my carving is ruined. I have called customer support and they had me replace the Y motor but that did nothing. I am about ready to choke my carvewright out. Has anybody ran into this problem and know how to fix it?

[bergerud]

You need to post the mpc. There are many reasons for such behavior. If a new y motor did not fix it, it could still be anything from bad mpc to a dull bit to a loose y belt to ??

[Digitalwoodshop]

The line through the carving is key here... That tells me that the Z head did not RAISE.... And the Result Y Error was because the machine felt the resistance to movement in the Y as the Z head was down cutting when it should NOT have... So we are to look at the Z...

A Bad FSC Cable can cause this as in the big flat cable that gives power to the Z and return signals from the encoder.

Is this a model "A", "B", or "C"? The early "A" 2007 machines if you have a USED machine did this when the old 18 pin FSC Cable went bad..

The Newer 14 pin FSC Cable is a Consumable in my opinion... It can only flex so many times... So having a replacement on hand is good.

IF you did not have the Line carved because the Z did not lift, I would say Y Motor or Gearbox... But the KEY here is paying attention to the small details... The Z did not go UP....

SO more things that can cause the Z to NOT go up or Get LOST and loose Home on the way down is a DIRTY Encoder Disk in the Z Motor. OR even a bad Z Encoder.... Broken Solder Joint was common years ago... And a Clear Encoder Disk SLIPPING on the Z Shaft.... A drop of glue fixes that common failure.

Now there is the Mechanical of the Z... The Roller Rail Bearings... Usually the lower LEFT bearing catches dust that gets inside the bearing and causes it to freeze up and this can Hinder the Lifting of the head.... Sometimes the Computer does not catch that the head did not retract properly and the next down will be too deep and the return too shallow... Leaving the head too low and then be DRAGGED thought the wood... Like you Said...

A Dirty Z Belt can cause this.... And Lastly.... The 2 Screws holding the Z BELT to the back of the Z TRUCK have been known to be LOOSE on a repair part from LHR, hence the Truck slips on the Belt.

Let us know....

AL

[bil381]

Here is a photo. I didn't relized it had done it the first time so I cleaned the y rails and told it to continue so it did it twice.

[bil381]

I have a C series. I have had it for a year now. It has worked great until January. I replaced the Y motor and I had not used it since yesterday when I made the carving and it no workie.

[Digitalwoodshop]

OK... This was a TRICK QUESTION.... IGNORE my previous post... I was following the wrong info...

What "Really" happened is the board lost contact with the BRASS ROLLER and TOOK OFF in the X Direction while the Z was down in a PROPER Position but the X Direction move ERRATIC searching for the proper BRASS ROLLER or X Position.... The machine saw a resistance in the Y motion due to the board moving in the X while cutting funny lines.... Hence the clean the Y Rails error.... "in error" The Clean the Rails was the Symptom not the real error... This picture is worth a 1000 words... as to what really happened..

Most likely the board lifted while only under 1 roller.....

The Brass Roller tracks the board position and when the board looses contact the servo motor moves the board...

OR a Warped Board

OR a bad spot on the bottom board edge where the brass roller rides....

OK..... Off to Tips and Tricks to read about the 7 inch rule of wood, Using Sleds, Carrier Boards, and things that make the X go nuts like it did....

Your machine is FINE... It was likely Pilot error... Keeping the board under 2 rollers flat to the table...

So likely NO Problem with the machine.... Pilot error... The Airplane Crashed... The Masking Tape on the bottom of the board trick might have helped at the brass roller....

What was the ACTUAL board length you used? Didn't look at the mpc. Did the board come out from the roller?

AL

[bil381]

It was 22 inches long. Hickory. Thanks for the help. Is it seven inches on both sides or total?

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[bergerud]

I would like to understand what is happening here. It maybe that lostparts has the same problem. In my experiments, the machine, while carving, will not move the x belts without the bit up. The bit always goes up before tracking to agree with the brass roller. It looks to me like the board slid on the belts as it was being driven by the wandering bit.

bil381: If you stay under the rollers as Al suggests, I doubt it would happen. I would check the head pressure. The board should not slip so easily even under only one roller.

[chief2007]

It was 22 inches long. Hickory. Thanks for the help. Is it seven inches on both sides or total?

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3.5 inches on each end, Total of 7 extra inches. So if your project calls for a 24 inch board. Keep the project 24 inches and use a 31 inch board to stay under the rollers.

[CarverJerry]

As Al said, using a sled, it also saves you costly material as the sled will have the built in 7", I make mine 4" on each end just to be on the safe side. There are many threads here on how to make a sled or jig (same thing).