Hey all,
So I have an MPCNC that I am enjoying especially when I set it up with the CYD Pendant, that has made it 100% more enjoyable to use (Minus some crashes).
That said my build has a slight angle to the bit and even after tightening a few times the chasis core is a bit loose and gives me some inconsistencies in prints I want to iron out. So I am considering fixing what I have and maybe rebuilding it as is or rebuilding it into an LR4. I sense from the forum that people appear to prefer the LR4 universally but perhaps one drawback is the Z height?
So any advise out there on fixing what I have or going with the LR4? While I see some have upgraded what they have, may be easier to just buy the kit from Ryan and put the old one to pasture and maybe use for some other project?
Would love to hear some advise and even better any experience others may have had in the same situation.
We could probably help you with the mechanical issue of your MPCNC. Unless there is a cracked part. Then you’d need to reprint it.
The LR4 is generally liked. It does a great job. It is strongest at the bottom of Z (when it is close to the bottom). It also has a limited Z. But that isn’t an issue for any sheet work or reasonable wood stock. It needs some creative solutions if you want to carve 7" surfboard blanks.
Either way, you should go for it. Either post a bunch of pictures and details and we can help you debug that MPCNC. Or go for the upgrade and post pics of your table and build and projects when you get it going.
Yeah this group is amazing. I remember one time at band camp, oh wait! I remember one time telling about a problem i had and someone out nowhere told me to look at a part it may be cracked. Bingo it was cracked. And i would never had found it. Definitely spell out what you are having troubles with.
Thank you for the support. I think potentially I have a couple of issues that I need to debug and haven’t been able to figure out. For background I have an MPCNC with the Jackpot, FluidNC and CYD Pendant. I’ve had a few issues with the machine and I’ve seen complaints about some of the same from others, which is why the question came up. I also have the DeWalt router.
Some of the issues I’m having:
I think the machine when it cuts circles for example is cutting them more as an oval in some cases. My plan here is to do some drawings on paper and then measure the circle from different perspectives and see what it does. This may also be due to the fact that it has a slight angle to the bit.
The bit in the chassis is slightly angled or appears to be angled from what I can tell. I have messed around with adjusting the bolts around the core and have not been able to get this normalized. I’ll get some pictures and maybe a video next.
The core itself has a fair bit of movement in it, not a lot, but enough than it seems is ideal. I’m not sure how tight this is supposed to be but definitely some play is possible.
I think this is a firmware issue, but I do run the fluidNC software with Ryan’s configuration settings. I’m not 100% sure it’s all the time, but when I do probe test under some conditions, sometimes it decides to go the other direction and run until it hits the top of the Z height. This is a weird one, I think I need to do some test to see when this happens.
I’ve also recently invested in the vCarve software, it seems pretty nice, there’s a lot of functionality that isn’t built into ESTLCAM. That program is great, but with some of the problems I was having I was thinking different software might be an improvement in some areas.
What version of FluidNC do you have? You can see it in one of the first lines when running $SS in the terminal. There was a period of bad firmware, primarily 3.8 versions, that had a number of odd issues like this.
Check to see what your Z axis homing cycle is set to. It should be 0. I had this happen when I first got my jackpot. When I pressed Home All, after X and Y homed Z ran up until the lead screw was out of the lead screw nut.
A couple of months ago I noticed my core had some movement in it. I fiddled with adjusting all the screws and nothing really worked. It wasn’t until I broke down and took the core all apart I found that there were cracks in the core and some of the core clamps. I reprinted them and now I don’t have any play in the core.
Post some pictures of the core and the machine. That will help. Insoect the core to look for cracks.
If the bit isn’t perpendicular to the work surface, you will need to shim the router. There is a tramming guage you can use to measure the tram to the work surface. That isn’t worth bothering with untik you have the bearings staying on the rails. If they click, you gotta fix that first.
W.r.t. the pen. I highly recommend the pen mount Ryan designed. It can be easy to think the machine is wrong when the pen is just wobbling too much in XY. Secure your paper well too. Jamie made a nice test pattern generator that can work well with a pen:
I did update recently, I can try again but I think I am up to date. To your point have upgraded a few times due to inexplicable issues:
[VER:3.9 FluidNC v3.9.7:]
** Some other issues with the Pendant, love it but even my last run with newest versions caused a few crashes during the run. At least the pendant recovered and FluidNC continued.