Video of an Unattended CNC Router

[Ronald Blue]

The reason you shouldn't leave your CNC running without you there. This popped up on a FB group and I see Gary Campbell commented.

CNC Fire Video - YouTube

[Bruce King]

Especially if you have it setup to rout too deep and don’t secure the workpiece.

[Wes Grass]

One of ours (old job) went up. I don't remember what got it going in the first place, but the dust collection hose burned a fair distance, fanned by the dust collector of course. Nothing but coiled wire for a few feet. We had to repaint the walls and replace several ceiling tiles. That was after we managed to get the stink out of the building.

The Firemen looked at the tiles and said if it had gotten through there we would have been completely screwed, that there was no way we could have contained it. "If you have anything burning, call us. That's what we're for".

My old office mate was the operator at the time. I later saw a fire truck heading right by the building one morning as I was going in. Took the opportunity to rib him about it. He was a good sport though. Good thing, as he was 6-4 and 220 lbs ;-)

[Jim Becker]

Especially if you have it setup to rout too deep and don’t secure the workpiece.

I've had things come loose despite checking that they were "cranked down" more than once before cutting..."stuff happens". And that's why it's rare I ever step out of my shop when my machine is cutting. If I do need to bail for awhile, I've learned how to stop the cut and resume it a few dozen lines of code before where I stopped it. I try to plan other work to do on other tools during cutting time, but sometimes it's forum hopping or shopping.

[Keith Westfall]

Why would you just have a video cam set up to record the cut? Especially from such a poor angle. If it's supposed to be a video monitor, you would think that someone would have been watching it ... Could have lost a lot of stuff.

[Keith Outten]

There is another video that shows a fire that started by a shop vac that was being used with a CNC Router. The shop vac was under the table so the fire spread to the spoil board and the router was severely damaged. Worst of all the router was in an attached garage so the house was at risk. I can't remember if it was someone here or elsewhere.

[Jim Becker]

Why would you just have a video cam set up to record the cut? Especially from such a poor angle. If it's supposed to be a video monitor, you would think that someone would have been watching it ... Could have lost a lot of stuff.

Because....people are easily distracted or ambivalent... "It will never happen to me"...

[Ed Mitchell]

Why would you just have a video cam set up to record the cut?

My question is in the same vein as Alex's thought above: If you're going to leave the CNC unattended, why wouldn't you have a FLIR monitor controlling the power?

[Jim Becker]

My question is in the same vein as Alex's thought above: If you're going to leave the CNC unattended, why wouldn't you have a FLIR monitor controlling the power?

These types of fires start pretty quickly so killing power wouldn't necessarily save the situation because there would already be smoldering/flames.

[Ronald Blue]

I've had things come loose despite checking that they were "cranked down" more than once before cutting..."stuff happens". And that's why it's rare I ever step out of my shop when my machine is cutting. If I do need to bail for awhile, I've learned how to stop the cut and resume it a few dozen lines of code before where I stopped it. I try to plan other work to do on other tools during cutting time, but sometimes it's forum hopping or shopping.

Exactly Jim. In my limited experience to date I've saw a cut that was a deeper 3D cut release stresses in the wood. It was tight on the table and now it's not. I can see easily how something could shift after you been routing on it for a while. I was under the impression the camera was set up to monitor the machine remotely. Much like a baby monitor.

[eugene thomas]

part if new owner trainibg should be cnc and fire danger. I use to leave cnc unattended in hours long 3d cuts but after seeing few cnc and fire videos. not anymore.

[Jim Becker]

part if new owner trainibg should be cnc and fire danger. I use to leave cnc unattended in hours long 3d cuts but after seeing few cnc and fire videos. not anymore.

It was included in the training I took...both the formal "classroom" event as well as the more informal orientation training done remotely by the technician. The former was actually taught by Gary at the time so it shouldn't be surprising that it was in the curriculum.

[eugene thomas]

in garys class he told use insurance compsnys hate to pay when operator was not around cnc when fire started.

[Jim Becker]

Insurance companies are always going to ascertain if negligence is involved..."it's what they do". . The individual on Camheads who recently lost a big machine to a fire started during unsupervised cutting didn't have insurance which hurt even more!

[Mark Hennebury]

A company that i worked for turned the router on just before we left work, and it would still be running in the morning when we came in.