<snip> > You are working with a bigger gantry I assume? > > Yep, I have a 25" X 49" X 4" work envelop. I rarely use more than 3/4" vertical. If I ever waterline mill out some of the terrain models of mines I am involved with the design of, then I will use the full Z and still want more.
> > My biggest problem is with the collet slipping after my first cuts. I > > need to make sure I always snug up the collet after the few minutes of > > starting the router. > > I fight with that on this HF die grinder continuously when its in use. A > .250" by 1.25" long 2 flute upcut spiral, TiN coated mill will walk out of > that collet about 5 thou for every tenon I cut on the end of a poplar > stick. I solved the tenon length problem by parking the head back at > z=0.000, and run the stick up against the end of the bit, with all the > sticks precut to the exact length + 2X tenon length. But I still need to > reset the mill in the collet about every 10 sticks processed, 20 tenons > IOW. That run was for about 48 sticks plus 5 or 6 spares in case I didn't > like where that knot was. :) > > And that is when tightening that collet, with a film of never-sieze on the > collets ramps, with a box end wrench about 9" long, to the proverbial 1/8th > turn from stripped out tight. IMO that collet needs a full redesign to use > sleeves with tapered ends and a cone in the shaft with a matching one on > the nut. As is, the angle of the ramp used to tighten it against the bit > shank is too high. Because the collet is one piece, there is no stuck bit > syndrome because loosening the collet turns it in the ramp & the bit falls > out by the time its loosened 1/8 turn. > How much meat are you cutting off the stick with each pass? I find that if I limit my cut depth to 50% of the endmill diameter, I my collet stays put for several sessions. If I try deeper cuts, it walks out. I recently tweaked my O word file so that I only need to give it the XY path of the part/shape I cut out and my endmill diamter and the subroutine repeats the path at the .5D depth until it reaches the target depth. Make generating my gcode much simpler. > > I've looked at a lot of routers without finding one that had a truly > straight, no runout collet. Hitachi's M12V, way too big for this, has the > best collets ever. > > I have pulled appart the one die grinder I have and replaced the bearings. The spindle is quite simple and could easily be replaced with a more efficient design. Again that requires me to come up to speed on how to use one of the 5 lathes I picked up off craigslist for less than scrap prices. I keep telling myself I WILL learn how to use one of them, looking for a rountuit to spend on that learning cycle. > > I have considered the colt trim router but I love the fact that I do not > > have all that cooling air flushing over the cut surfaces. The PC router > > I originally used threw dust all over my garage to the point I couldn't > > stay in the room. THe die grinder along with a cyclone in line with my > > shop vac has eliminated dust even when cutting MDF. I will still get > > bigger chips on the surface but they are not dust.... > > Yeah, that Oneida 'Dust Deputy' is the slickest thing since bottled beer. > But my shopvac is almost too much flow, heavier stuff tends to just sit > there and spin till the power goes off. I got one about a year ago, > several of those 5 gallon cans of trash has been dumped, I can still see > the bottom of the tub in a 12.5 gallon shopvac, and I only pulled its > filter ($30) once to clean it up when I put the DD on it. Best $80 I ever > spent! Its usually plugged into the back of my table saw, controlled by > one of those gizmos that turns it on & off with the saw. Yep, I got the same one. I considered making one of the cyclones using Bill Pentz calculator, but I just don't have that time right now. The purchase has been worth every penny. Especially when my basement flooded this past fall and I had roughly 1500 gallons to clean up. Using that cyclone, I sucked up over 300 - 5 gallon buckets of water from the basement in less than 3 hours. My wife ran the vac hose, I flip flopped the cyclone between 2 5 gallon buckets and alternately dumped the full bucket into a larger container holding a sump pump. Having a 100 year old house has its challenges. Brian ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
