Board sensor issues!!

[fwharris]

I appreciate the the help but this is far too many issues for a brand new machine. At this point I already put it back in the box and sealed it up. Back to LHR on Monday

I would almost bet my left *** that the majority of your problems are do to the miss handling during shipping. If it got bounced around hard enough to break the clear cover it probably has the machine out of alignment and who know what else is wrong. This combined with new operator issues does not blend well for having a good start up carving experience and is not the norm for a new machine.

I just spent 3 hours with a new carver to get then set up with their new machine. other than me not trimming the clear cover enough for my DC-INSERT dust collection attachment to make the cut motor switch the machine fired right up and they should just about be done with their 5 1/2 hour first carve.

[trainerjay]

Ok I'm back! It appears the majority of the issues my machine was having stems from the cracked clear cover and low head pressure. Chris from tech support at LHR has been extremely helpful in getting things up and running. I've done a few test cuts this week and for the most part things worked flawlessly. They are sending me out a few washers to increase the head pressure and a new clear cover arrived Wednesday.

One of the first tasks I'm trying to accomplish is doing a full cut-through on a .25" board. I know a jig is required to do this. If anyone has experience with this please feel free to offer any advice.

[DianMayfield]

Jay,

I am reorganizing my shop, so it was hard to get good pictures. I have one of these sleds made for 3 different thicknesses of cutouts- .12, .18 and .25. I use 1/2 mdf, the 3/4 can be heavy in this size. At one end, the matching material is glued down, at the other it is taped so it can be movable. The tape you see is the remnants of the tape I wrap around the material to be cut -2nd picture.

MDF is straight and true, and the edge is clean, but a bit slick. Always run tape along the underside where it meets the roller, I do both edges so I don't need to worry about which edge is loaded to the keyboard.

The machine will not completely cut out the top 1/2 inch of the designed board (the keyboard side in the machine) to protect the brass roller. You can solve this by 1) running a 1/4x1/2 in side rail along the roller edge - too hard for me to get a 5' 1/2 piece cut nicely or, 2) use Jog to position and start the cut a little further in on the board or 3) design your project in the software where the top 1/2" is clear of objects to cut out-probably the easiest.

I cut out a lot of 11"x5' 1/4 inch material, so those are the dimensions I made the sled. Think of what your heaviest use will be. As you can see from the 1st picture, I had a one-off need for a 5'x6"x3/4". I taped a 3/4 in piece at the end, screwed down a stop and ran with it. When I am cutting the 11" stuff, I just use wrapped tape where it meets the end stops.

Generally I set the tabs at 1/16 in this thickness, but you can lose small pieces that will jam the machine. If you are cutting out anything less than 2 inches, I would go with 1/8 tabs. No less than 3 tabs per piece. You can mix and match tab heights in Designer. Many people also use double sided tape to hold them down.

[fwharris]

That is good news and glad to hear you are working with CW to get your issues resolved.

[trainerjay]

New issue... LHR sent me washers to put on the crank handle between the handle and spring to increase the head pressure. When I removed the crank handle the entire assembly was attached to the handle. After 2 hours fussing with it I could not get the head to crank down, only up. LHR said there is a brass O-ring/washer that most likely snapped off. Their suggested fix is to loctite the threaded screw on the assembly (see attached pic). This screw is shown in the picture attached highlighted by the red arrow. I'm not really a fan of doing this since my machine is brand new. I will try this once only because LHR is recommending this which means they will still honor the warranty if anything else goes wrong.

Has anyone else had this issue with the crank handle??

[SteveNelson46]

Disassemble the crank mechanism and check the crank torque plate. Part number 147 (http://www.carvewright.com/assets/se...ist_manual.pdf) page 9. They seem to be easy to break and I have replaced several.

[fwharris]

If that is the instructions they gave you then that is what you should try. Did they say what strength of Loctite to use?

Have you ever aligned the 4 corner posts and checked the head for leveling?

[trainerjay]

This is a brand new machine. It did not come from the factory with loctite and I'm not comfortable putting loctite on it. That's not the proper fix. I've turned more wrenches on this thing in the 3 weeks I've had it then should be turned in 1 year. I'm finished working on a brand new machine. LHR can fix it or offer a refund.

[trainerjay]

Another bit snapped because the head motor decided not to start! This is the 2nd time. I go in to menu options and test it and all test fine. Next thing I know I go to cut and the head presses down on the bit and snapped it!! This machine is a total piece of junk and I've spent more hours of free labor on it then I should. Total waste of time and money.

[fwharris]

Did you hear if the cut motor spun up during the bit check step? If it does not spin up during the bit check there is a strong possibility that it will no start up for the carving. I learned that after a couple of no starts and broken bits. Just a heads up! .

If are using a dust collection attachment. Make sure that the clear cover is cut high enough to prevent it from resting on it and holding the cover up enough to prevent the cover switch being made. Also check to see if the clear cover might be miss aligned in the top cover.

Since you had to replace it these would be my first areas to look at.