My OneFinity has Landed

[John TenEyck]

Glad to see you're up and running George.

So, has anyone else seen a problem with holes not drilling all the way through the workpiece? I've had this happen once on my friend's Axiom and both times on my 1F. I specify the depth equal to the thickness of the workpiece, or even another 0.005", the GCode looks fine, but the bit doesn't actually drill all the way through. I had an spiral upcut on my friend's machine, and a combo up/down cut bit on mine.

Another problem I just encountered when cutting out some clamps today in solid stock, 0.63" poplar. I set the depth of cut equal to the stock thickness, zeroed the Z-axis on the front, left corner, and ran the program. After the program finished and I removed the parts. The spoilboard was just scratched at the front, left corner, but about 2/3's of the way toward the right end the bit had cut 0.050" into the spoilboard. I checked the zero and it was perfect, and it also read within a couple of thousandths at all locations on the spoilboard, so the bit didn't slip in the router nor was the spoilboard humped up. It's as if the X-axis was deflecting downward where it cut too deeply. I checked the GCode and found the max. depth of cut to be 0.63" everywhere. Any insights?

Thanks,

John

[Jim Becker]

John, did you tram your spindle/router?

[ChrisA Edwards]

Sounds like there's a bit of flex, either in the spoilboard or the gantry, that a few thousandths of extra depth cut is not quite overcoming.

It's also possible that your router bit is being pushed up slightly in the collet.

So far all my through cuts have penetrated beyond my workpiece. I'm putting a layer of 1/4" MDF between my workpiece and my QCW spoilboard, and so cutting into the 1/4" MDF. I'm going about 0.5mm beyond my workpiece depth.

I'm using a Jenny 1/4" End Mill, and I abused this puppy by running several cuts with the spindle turning backwards before I realized what was wrong. I had to swap two of the three wires, for the spindle power, in the VFD.

Cadence Mfg, who sells the Jenny bit, diagnosed my spindle issue and insisted on sending me a replacement bit, free of charge.

I ended up buying 3 other bits from Cadence Mfg and he threw that replacement bit in as well.

[Kevin Jenness]

Glad to see you're up and running George. <br>
<br>
So, has anyone else seen a problem with holes not drilling all the way through the workpiece? I've had this happen once on my friend's Axiom and both times on my 1F. I specify the depth equal to the thickness of the workpiece, or even another 0.005", the GCode looks fine, but the bit doesn't actually drill all the way through. I had an spiral upcut on my friend's machine, and a combo up/down cut bit on mine. <br>
<br>
Another problem I just encountered when cutting out some clamps today in solid stock, 0.63" poplar. I set the depth of cut equal to the stock thickness, zeroed the Z-axis on the front, left corner, and ran the program. After the program finished and I removed the parts. The spoilboard was just scratched at the front, left corner, but about 2/3's of the way toward the right end the bit had cut 0.050" into the spoilboard. I checked the zero and it was perfect, and it also read within a couple of thousandths at all locations on the spoilboard, so the bit didn't slip in the router nor was the spoilboard humped up. It's as if the X-axis was deflecting downward where it cut too deeply. I checked the GCode and found the max. depth of cut to be 0.63" everywhere. Any insights? <br>
<br>
Thanks,<br>
<br>
John

<br>
<br>
I typically set the depth of cut .010" below the workpiece unless I have just surfaced the spoilboard, to ensure cutting through everywhere.<br>
<br>
On the second issue, are you saying that when you moved the non-rotating bit to various positions along the toolpath at z=0 it was within a few thousandths of touching the spoilboard, but when making the actual cut it was cutting into the spoilboard by almost 1/16" at various spots? Is it possible that the gantry rail is deflecting due to the cutting forces? How large and what type of bit, what rpms and feed rate, and are you making the cut in a single pass? If a single pass, you might try multiple passes to see if that makes a difference.

[Kevin Jenness]

I abused this puppy by running several cuts with the spindle turning backwards

That's one advantage of using a router instead of a spindle. I think I have made about every mistake except that one.

[John TenEyck]

<br>
<br>
I typically set the depth of cut .010" below the workpiece unless I have just surfaced the spoilboard, to ensure cutting through everywhere.<br>
<br>
On the second issue, are you saying that when you moved the non-rotating bit to various positions along the toolpath at z=0 it was within a few thousandths of touching the spoilboard, but when making the actual cut it was cutting into the spoilboard by almost 1/16" at various spots? Is it possible that the gantry rail is deflecting due to the cutting forces? How large and what type of bit, what rpms and feed rate, and are you making the cut in a single pass? If a single pass, you might try multiple passes to see if that makes a difference.

The holes not being drilled through was on me. Another look at that toolpath shows I had the depth of cut set at 0.50". No clue why, but it was my fault.

Yes, Kevin, when I moved the non-rotating bit to different locations along the toolpath Z was within a couple of thousandths of touching the spoilboard, yet it cut into the spoilboard over 0.050" deep in some places. I was running a 1/4" diameter up/down cut bit at the default settings of 120 inch/min cutting speed and 10000 rpm (though probably more like 15000 rpm on the Makita router). I was taking 3 climb cut passes at 0.21 inch/pass, again the default setting. The router is brand new with maybe 10 running hours on it. I can't feel any vertical play in the collet and the router is firmly mounted in its mount. Still a mystery to me.

John

[John TenEyck]

John, did you tram your spindle/router?

No, but I just surfaced the spoilboard a couple of days ago and it came out dead flat with no ridges so I figured it was good enough. Was that a mistake?

John

[Kevin Jenness]

The holes not being drilled through was on me. Another look at that toolpath shows I had the depth of cut set at 0.50". No clue why, but it was my fault.

Yes, Kevin, when I moved the non-rotating bit to different locations along the toolpath Z was within a couple of thousandths of touching the spoilboard, yet it cut into the spoilboard over 0.050" deep in some places. I was running a 1/4" diameter up/down cut bit at the default settings of 120 inch/min cutting speed and 10000 rpm (though probably more like 15000 rpm on the Makita router). I was taking 3 climb cut passes at 0.21 inch/pass, again the default setting. The router is brand new with maybe 10 running hours on it. I can't feel any vertical play in the collet and the router is firmly mounted in its mount. Still a mystery to me.

John

That is not an aggressive cut. I'm not sure what to think. Either the controller is not sending the bit where it is supposed to (very unlikely) or there is mechanical flex in the system. I would suggest running the toolpath with a .62" depth of cut and no material in place to see what the system does without a load. Can you put a dial indicator on the x rail and load it to detect any deflection?

[John TenEyck]

That is not an aggressive cut. I'm not sure what to think. Either the controller is not sending the bit where it is supposed to (very unlikely) or there is mechanical flex in the system. I would suggest running the toolpath with a .62" depth of cut and no material in place to see what the system does without a load. Can you put a dial indicator on the x rail and load it to detect any deflection?

Thanks very much for your continued help, Kevin. I reran the toolpath with no material and the bit skimmed the spoilboard everywhere. I measured a difference of no more than 0.003" anywhere. Then I set up a dial gage under the midspan of the X rails. With an estimated load of 30 to 40 lbs I measured a deflection of no more than 0.008", nowhere near the 0.050" trenches that happened when I cut the workpiece.

I ran some other projects today w/o issue.

I'm at a loss. Any additional ideas?

John

[Kevin Jenness]

Sorry, I got nothing. Try posting in the Vectric forum. Although it doesn't seem to be a software issue, there's a large enough group of users with various machines that someone may have had a similar problem.

[George Yetka]

Sounds like there's a bit of flex, either in the spoilboard or the gantry, that a few thousandths of extra depth cut is not quite overcoming.

It's also possible that your router bit is being pushed up slightly in the collet.

So far all my through cuts have penetrated beyond my workpiece. I'm putting a layer of 1/4" MDF between my workpiece and my QCW spoilboard, and so cutting into the 1/4" MDF. I'm going about 0.5mm beyond my workpiece depth.

I'm using a Jenny 1/4" End Mill, and I abused this puppy by running several cuts with the spindle turning backwards before I realized what was wrong. I had to swap two of the three wires, for the spindle power, in the VFD.

Cadence Mfg, who sells the Jenny bit, diagnosed my spindle issue and insisted on sending me a replacement bit, free of charge.

I ended up buying 3 other bits from Cadence Mfg and he threw that replacement bit in as well.

Is your spindle wired to the 1F? you can flip this in the settings instead of rewiring.

[ChrisA Edwards]

My Controller is connected to the VFD via two (communication) wires from the breakout box on the rear of my Controller.

1F does have a software checkbox, under the Tools menu (I think), that allows you to reverse the signal, which reverses the motor.

I used this checkbox, and it worked, although my VFD then indicated it was running in reverse, which it actually wasn't.

On suggestions on the 1F FB page, I actually flipped two of the three wires, that power the spindle, yo get the spindle to turn in the correct direction, I also clicked off the software checkbox.

The suggestion was that, if there was a new software update, that checkbox may get reset and you'd be back to messing up a project before you realized what was going on.

[George Yetka]

That makes sense

[John TenEyck]

I mentioned wanting to use the CNC to carve Maloof style rocking chair seats. Here's my first attempt.



It's not perfect, beyond the boo boo in the middle, but I know now that I can create at least a crude 3D model in SketchUp, pull it into V-Carve Pro, and create a viable toolpath. This thing is great. And I'm really impressed with how well purple foam carves.

John

[Jim Becker]

That's a great first effort and an excellent example of how a CNC can be a valuable tool to deal with some "drudgery" tasks like the rough carving of chair seats. It can get rid of the material that's not part of the project, leaving you more time to do the finesse work that make for a beautiful chair.