What have you been cutting?

[Rcnewcomb]

Nothing Vectric related here, just pre-coffee musings.

I noticed how the dust collector bag shows the history of what was cut.
The top thickest strata is a mix of redwood and poplar
Under that was a period of exclusive work in redwood
Below that was work in poplar
The base layer was plywood for jigs and clamps

[scottp55]

Funny...just emptied steel Dust Deputy canister about a week ago, and rather than disconnect everything and try to get it out to the woods in my wheelchair, I cut the bottom of a Clorox bottle out and scooped it out by hand...and went down through layers from pre-Christmas:)

Very bottom was a lot of White Oak/Maple burl bark and wood, then Christmas exotics in a thin layer, then a bunch of Paper Birch bark and wet wood, and today may have thunderstorms, so decided to face at least one side of a few Black Walnut branches where each toolpath is about 3 minutes.

Almost as much bark as wood recently
More bark today...and if Anchorseal II test on Paper Birch today doesn't stain....then I can get into the 2 12-16" White Oak burls I need to cut with Japanese Log Saw, and I can get into those:)

This should be interesting Randall
scott

[martin54]

HaHa I can often tell if I have been running the CNC or the thicknesser by the differnt layers I get n the collection drum

[jfederer]

For the past 4 days I've been making drawer parts with Tailmaker's Fingermaker software. So far I've produced finger joints for 7 drawers, with 2 to go. I have to redo 4 sides, but that's another story. I just checked the bin on my Oneida V-System and it shows a thin layer of very fine maple and walnut, almost sawdust. An hour of running my Hammer 410mm jointer-planer will fill up the bin with much coarser shavings! So I think maybe my dust system is over-sized for the fine CNC work I'm doing.

The other story: the reason I have to redo 4 sides is that I've had the Z axis drift downward by a couple of mm several times now. I've pretty much eliminated all factors but one, and that is that the Z axis stepper is losing steps when it gets over a certain temperature. I've not had a problem when the shop is 25c or lower, 26c ambient seems to be the critical temperature, combined with long running times (several hours). Anyone else have this problem? My machine is a https://www.cancam.ca/product/d-23-mini ... nc-router/ with a Yako YKC2405MS Z axis driver running a NEMA 34 motor.

[Rcnewcomb]

and that is that the Z axis stepper is losing steps when it gets over a certain temperature. I've not had a problem when the shop is 25c or lower, 26c ambient seems to be the critical temperature, combined with long running times (several hours).

Long ago I was debugging an issue with motors overheating. It happened faster if the shop was hot. I mounted digital thermometers on all motors and the spindle. First it was the Z motor overheating. Then the Y motors were faulting due to temperature. Changing motors did not eliminate the problem. The ultimate root cause was a bad spindle that was throwing enough RF to cause the two Y motors to get out of synch and start fighting each other which caused them to overheat and fault. Changing out the spindle cured the problem, but it took a long time to diagnose. Figured it out because air-cutting the same file would work if the spindle was off, but fail if the spindle was on.

[jarm2]

I have been attempting to carve an 8 inch US Army symbol in english walnut and the z axis kept rising as it cut out from the center. I tried everything I could think of and finally checked the encoder on my z axis servo. The encoder disk had slid on the shaft until it was dragging on the sensor. I loosened (it was tight) the set screw and recentered the disk. Now everything works as it is supposed to. The simulation in Aspire looked good, but the carve just kept forming a bowl until the bit was cutting air. I don't know how many of you have servo machines, but it would be worth your while to check the encoder on your motors if you have issues.

[jfederer]

jarm2, mine is an open-loop machine. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Randall, thanks for the input. I haven't even had the motor housing open yet. This machine has a single motor on each axis, but the Z motor is enclosed with a pancake fan moving a small amount of air. I'll open it up tomorrow and maybe try to run it in open air to see what happens. In the interim, I spoiled another lovely walnut-edged maple board and sent the manufacturer a detailed note.

Since I hijacked this thread, I'll continue the story separately once I have some more information. Back on topic, I'll be filling the dust bin tomorrow planing a replacement board!

[Xxray]

I think it might be time to consider emptying that bad boy !

I use a separator so not much dust makes it to my clear bag to check ... I think about the most obnoxious wood dust I have encountered is padauk.

[DLWOODWORKS]

Plywood cabinet parts. LOTS AND LOTS of them. I get not only chips but also small chunks of plywood and slivers of plywood. I haven't been able to do much "playing" with the CNC as work keeps getting the way and 10 hours a day of cutting plywood makes you want to just get out of the shop at the end of the day. Once I retire (maybe next year), I'll get to play more and do creative stuff like many of you get to do. I'm looking forward to doing some two sided machining and maybe hooking a laser up to my machine. We'll see.