g’day from oz
recently completed my full sheet build, and have run into a problem while trying to cut the strut plates
I’m using a makita trim router, wondering if the power cord for the router could be interfering with the x stepper motor signal wires?
Possible, but I’d expect a loose connection somewhere in the motor cabling before chasing interference.
It could also be mechanical - if your grub screws aren’t tight, the pully could be slipping on the shaft.
What is the issue you are seeing?
thanks, i’ll check all of them.
the reason i’m thinking it’s interference is because it only seems to happen with the router running.
in the attached photo, the middle cut path should have actually been where the right hand cut path is
What are your CAM settings and what speed are you running the Makita router at?
12mm/s feed, 3mm/s plunge, 3mm doc, 30000rpm spindle speed
That high of spindle speed at that feed rate my money is on that bit is smoked and that’s why your skipping steps. You need to slow that spindle WAY down. 12k is more than enough going that slow. Your bits will last a lot longer.
Thanks for the advice!
I’ve had a bit more of a play. Everything homes fine, however if I jog Y+ then it moves the correct amount in Y, but then randomly takes off across X
Check your connection at the extension cable. Make sure you have it bent in a S and taped like Ryan shows in the Docs.
thanks a lot for your help!
the connection between the motor and jackpot was temperamental
and it does look like I’ve cooked the cutter, when I try jog on the x axes while cutting it never quite reaches the distance I have asked I to travel
Make sure your core isn’t tensioned too tight. This can cause problems for sure.
just thought I’d report back incase anyone else is having similar problems in the future.
my x axis was still skipping steps so I pulled the core off. turns out the belt was crossing back over itself in between the stepper motor and pulleys!
Did you happen to take a picture? I’m having trouble visualizing what that looked like…
This was the best I could get. I also had to reverse the x stepper wiring to get it moving in the correct direction because I effectively reversed the belt when I rectified it.
In plan view, think of the belt going up and over a hill. Mine was doing a loop de loop.
Should be smooth idlers on the Core, and, belt should be flipped other way around so stepper teethed pulley gear engages the belt.
Pic below is from LR4 assembly doc section https://docs.v1e.com/lowrider/#core-assembly, specifically this pic https://docs.v1e.com/img/lr4/cv.jpg …
The new kits have toothed idlers, no smooth ones. But the smooth side of the belt should be riding against the teeth on the idler
, how come (better performance and/or less unique part count)?
I believe vendor mistake that was too late too correct for the current batch, but I could be completely wrong. That’s a @vicious1 question.
Pictures are worth a thousand words.
Thank you.
As the others have said, the idler- whether smooth or toothed- make contact with the smooth side of the GT2 belts.
I think it’s as described- the supplier made a bunch of kits that way.
There’s no significant performance penalty for using toothed pulleys as idlers in this application. Probably a small bit of additional wearing of the belt and maybe a tiny fraction of a mm or motion jitter.
maybe a little bit of belt squeak too? but happy to report that it travelling beautifully now.
