Bits and Machine Usage

[Termite]

www.precisebits.com/newstuff.htm
Under tips and tricks read the second and third articles down on the right.
I think this will explain why some of us are breaking bits and others are not having a problem.
My thoughts - 1.13 is asking to much from my spindle, collet and bits with over two hundred hours on them. I will stay with 1.126 for cut outs seeing as I can't control the feed rate and depth of each pass.
Dan

[ChrisAlb]

This begs the question "what should folks do that have machines that go TURBO?"

Well Ken, going turbo certainly isn't proper operation so in short, you need to find out why it is. Now mine may have been an RPM sensor or the motor itself. Since Al happened to have a new motor to lend me for this test and to keep our carvings going, I can't be sure which it was for me. But I intend to gut mine in the morning and inspect things. Just getting a lot of dust in them or getting hot can cause a surge that will make them run fast.

[TerryT]

While I feel more tests are called for, This leads me to conclude so far that the turbo mode of my other motor was indeed a large part, if not THE cause, of "my" issues with burning. The jury is still out with me as I'll test further but it seems I may have to humbly work on pulling my foot out of my mouth and apologize to all (Listening LG??...Michael T??...LHR???), for "assuming" the new firmware was solely at fault. As Jeff suspected, it seems the new firmware just exaggerated an already existing problem (Turbo speed) with the machine.

Chris, it's a start, however, you didn't say what the size the project is (or I missed it). I cut 6 small 6x6 projects for about 144 inches with one brand new bit before it broke, the first one to break cut about 18 inches of a 12x6 project. The second broke almost instantly. All were blackened as in the photo I posted in another thread. The result... $120 in bits for a hand full of small projects.

Can you redo this project a few more times to see what the result is? Assuming your right about your hypothosis, we still need a fix that will work for old and new machines with new and worn chucks, flexshafts and cut motors. Or, someone needs to develop $1.50 cutting bit.

[ChrisAlb]

Terry,

You missed it. 18 x 7 (specs on picture 1) cutting 3 more in the morning.

[Digitalwoodshop]

Interesting Turbo Troubleshooting would be to put the old Cut Motor Sensor Board on the New Motor and see what happens. It would half split the troubleshooting for LHR Engineering. Sensor or Motor.....

My Theory is that there will be NO Change with the old sensor on the new Motor but that is still to be seen.

So back to my Theory on the Cut Motor. I notice I do from time to time get Turbo Mode and find my Sock muffler has a bunch of fine dust in the sock. I clean it out and blow it out and don't pay it much more attention.

I believe as the motor gets hot the copper windings are less efficient and the lower speed is detected by the computer and it kicks in more power. Still don't know the real workings of the Pulse Width Modulator if there really IS one to control the Motor Speed. I was FOOLED into thinking the Q1 Transistor on the X Termination board was for the X Motor and in the end found out it was to control the Cut Motor.... So much for my Wire tracing.... I really would love to have a set of Schematics. I have yet to open a Computer Module, that will be fun for me.

I am doing 6.5 hour carves in yellow pine cutting 3 plaques per board. I had a bit and QC Failure in the middle of the carve today. Weeks ago I replaced the QC and all my Bit holders. I had BB marks in the Carving bit so I swapped it with another carving bit with the same length by chance, finished fine. Then did the Cut path and by the time it finished it toasted the bit holder with BB Marks and I was done but down....

I still have not replaced the Square Bit holders for the QC and had good luck doing an Emergency Tracheotomy on a removed Spindle the other day. So with a few new QC's and no tool to remove the QC I decided to to a Emergency Trake on my 800 hour machine... Well the patient survived but I Screwed it UP.... Drilling it in a drill press is one thing, with a Cordless Drill.... Well my hole was off center slightly and the resulting hole into the spindle shaft was off set.... Used the drill rod they give us in the replacement sand paper belts. It worked but it's UGLY.....

Here are pictures of doing it Right the first time....

On a side note when I replace the Spindle the other day the new spindle center drilled bearing did not have a slot in it to tighten it..... Checked the back and it was on correct, just a defective bearing.... I Lock tight-ed it and hope it holds.

So in the morning I will call LHR and order some Spindles and bit holders.

I am NOT recommending that anyone DRILL a locking hole in there spindle but tuff times require some unorthodox fixes.... A MacGyver....

I have done a bunch of hours of carving on the old QC but I am thinking it failed sooner than I would have liked.

I just checked and the carvings are smooth and it sounds quieter. This set of 2 is due to finish at 1 AM....

This will give me time to rework all the Oak artwork with max Draft for the other machine in the morning.

I ran a bunch of Oak Stock through the Thickness sander with 60 Grit to clean them up and I have one thing to say about a thickness Sander...."I LIKE IT"..... Won't have Tracking and Cupping problems with that stock.

The Participation Plaques will be Pine but the Trophy's will be OAK..... Either they will LOVE it or hate it.... Time will tell....

Back to Work....

I ordered a Spindle the other day but they put it the Computer as a Cut Motor so that is why I had it for Chris.

AL

[Digitalwoodshop]

Terry,

You missed it. 18 x 7 (specs on picture 1) cutting 3 more in the morning.

Yes.... Tell the nice man why you are cutting them in the morning.... ......

AL

[liquidguitars]

Al,

Drilling your truck just to get the QC off seems a little hardcore. Why not just use the flat wrench?



and this under 20 bucks at ACE..

regarding the dents on the bit adapter LHR likes the QC to be very tightly screwed on the spindel with a drop of lock tight.

I guess any slipage on the QC when carving can be very bad. " i sure you know"

Have you replaced your flex shafts at all yet? I replaced mine last month, as the flex shaft core gets worn it will twist more than normal reducing cutting power and adding more chatter.

LG

[ChrisAlb]

So with a few new QC's and no tool to remove the QC I decided to to a Emergency Trake on my 800 hour machine... Well the patient survived but I Screwed it UP.... Drilling it in a drill press is one thing, with a Cordless Drill.... Well my hole was off center slightly and the resulting hole into the spindle shaft was off set.... Used the drill rod they give us in the replacement sand paper belts. It worked but it's UGLY....AL

Whoops.........sorry buddy. I should have mentioned when I told you how I did this that I made sure the spindle was locked in place before taking my trusty cordless to it. I did it right on the machine and used 2 pairs of vice grips (with a light bite of course) and locked them to the chuck with the handles against the Y rail to keep the spindle from spinning.

Hope I didn't "help" in the botched operation....

[ChrisAlb]

Yes.... Tell the nice man why you are cutting them in the morning.... ......

AL

Hey, how were we to know that the designs done on my system, had fonts you didn't have on yours...lol Neither one of us caught that or even thought of it. Yep, not enough sleep for either of us.

SO FOLKS, let our little mishap be a lesson for you all. If one person does the designing, and then sends the files to another to do the cutting, MAKE SURE YOU BOTH HAVE THE SAME FONTS!!

Designer has a habit of defaulting to whatever font it likes if it doesn't have the one in the design.

Can everybody say...Imbedded fonts??...Evidently, Designer doesn't...lol

Another addition to the Designer wish list...EMBEDDED FONTS PLEASE!!

[ChrisAlb]

Carving 3 plaques this morning like the test plaque. After the test yesterday, I'm expecting good results.........will let you all know.