It isn’t unusual for one side to drop, but if one side isn’t ever dropping you might want to double check that side has free motion in Z.
Without power applied to hold the stepper motors stationary (and with the pitch of the stock lead screws,) it is expected that when power is removed the machine will drop down.
Many folks make stop blocks to put under the X axis gantry before powering down, but this isn’t necessary. The upside is you don’t have to worry about the router settling down on an endmill and then forget.
I’ve cut first strut yesterday and it went fine, but sloooooow… (600mm/min)
So today, after reading here DOC discussions I went with 1000mm/min with 3.5mm DOC and it failed… I mean I have usable(ish) strut, but machine was all wobblying/dancing right and left (X axis). Maybe router was set to too slow speed? It was 3 on the makita.
Maybe bit was already dull from making this black hole from post above? It was just 2 or 3 seconds though. No experience in making black holes.
Bit is 6mm with 4mm cutting part - DOC of half of bit should be calculated from width of cutting part or router part?
Hi, when I am calculating my Feeds and speeds I use an app for that. I am from Germany and there is a company called Sorotec which sells quality cnc stuff including bits. I use their app (on iOS Sorotec App im App Store)
For a single flute 4 mm bit (cutting diameter) in MDF (particle board?) the app calculates a maximum of 3900 mm/min at 30000 rpm. More reasonably for the lowrider and what I would run, is 2000 mm/min at 16000 rpm.
Soft wood would be around 1600 mm/min at 26000 rpm.
@Sonmer thanks for this! I have installed the app on my phone and I’m sure it will come handy very soon. For now I have to try speeds in very low threshold as my lowrider is still in progress: with no struts, and only few braces.
But I failed twice trying to cut second strut and I think I have a culprit. I had to dismantle the core and I found few things:
one of the tool holders snapped (too tight, my fault)
lower core wheels holders nearly lost nuts - I used glue on all, but those for some reason. They now have glue as well…
X stepper lost it’s (also unglued) screws which hold pulley in place. How it was moving at all? I have no idea. Unfortunately one of those little screws vanished and I do not have replacement yet another pause for delivery…
But I’m very happy about the first strut - it looked really good (photo few posts above).
Do I have to put SD card into the screen while it’s turned off? It usually freezes completely when I slide card in. I have to power cycle to recover from this. Is this normal?
I used to put my sd card in the board directly instead of the screen. I think that is also the recommended way to do it. I had no issues swapping sd cards with the machine turned on.
However first one few days ago, then I had some problems - disassembled and reassembled machine and then successfully cut last two. And they differ in length for some reason! Like 5mm on 1400mm length. Can I use them or should I cut again?
One more question: I have this ridiculously huge bit for planing (like 40 or 50mm) - are there any catches I need to know about before I will try to flatten my spoil board?
Uhhhh, I would use something smaller. It’s going to be difficult to get good results with that. I have a 1/2" (~12mm) dovetail bit for this purpose. The largest I’ve seen people use 1" (25mm).
yet another pause for delivery…
