Thread: Greetings from Japan

I'm slowly but surely getting this thing online, I'm getting a lot more of a handle on the software, but still, a lot of reading to plow through. I'm actually quite pleased with myself, I too often just try to "figure it out", which leads me to become frustrated (my excuse for still sucking at SketchUp). I printed out the manual that comes on the CD with the software, only 360 pages (I printed it one both side of the page, so 180 pages) I then dropped down to Kinkos and had it bound, a ring binding, so it will lay flat, not bad, cost me about $4 :thumb:

here is some in progress pics of my latest attempt at an "Engraving".........

Attachment 91531 Attachment 91532 Attachment 91533 Attachment 91534
Yep, it is carving away! :thumb:

Attachment 91535
This is just when it finished carving, as you can see, I've got no DC hooked up at the moment.

Attachment 91536
The finished product, not bad, I think, need more work on the software yet.

Cheers!

Looks like you are getting there

I got some more done...........


I attached a piece of 5mm thick plywood to a much thicker MDF base, I used about 6 drops of CA glue to do this. It works, but the problem is on the last cut of each piece, the piece can go flying I used a pencil with an eraser on it to hold each piece on it's final cut, which is not very efficient, but it worked.


I then marked the center of the piece, to line up cutter.


I tried some larger stars, and the first few cut well, then the machine did a and things go weird I think the cuts were too heavy.


Yep, something went wrong, the cutter went way off the top of the work piece, so I'm sure that the cuts were too heavy, and the stepper motors lost a few steps, totally operator error


I marked out a new workspace, and redid the cut file, the stars a a bit smaller to save time rendering and cutting, as I'm still working on how this thing works


Yep, there they are, I see stars!


I put a piece of sandpaper on a board, and sanded the faces of the stars, that took most all of the little fuzzies off the stars.

I can sure see a lot of possibilities for this machine

Hi Stu
Good to see you using the machine. Yes it does look like missed steps and the cure for this is shallow cut and fast cutting to compensate.
The usual method of holding the cut piece in place is to put tabs on it but it will depend on your software if you can do this. An alternative is to onion skin it by leaving the cut just a fraction short of going through. You can use a stanley knife to separate the pieces.
See my examples below.
Keep the photos coming.

Well, I had a really interesting afternoon today with the iCarver

I had a couple of missed runs recently, and I thought I was making cuts that were too deep, and causing the system to loose a step or two, as it turns out, that was not the case.

When I got the iCarver, and I got it running, I would hear this really bad sound every now and then, a kind of growling sound

As I just recently got the machine, and I'd only heard it run once, at the trade show, where the background noise was enough to make me think the iCarver was quiet, I did not have a benchmark for sounds made while in use.

Today, when I was setting up for another run, I was positioning the cutter over the workpiece, and I noticed that when moved in the Y-axis, the carriage would pause for a moment, then move on......

OK, something was not hooking up somehow....

I turned the machine around, and then flipped it up, so I could get at the Y-axis stepping motor, this is what I found......

Attachment 91929
There is one bolt missing, on the right, and the one on the left is very loose. The two at the back were also only hand tight.

Laying under the machine, there is no 4th bolt, so I figure it must have fallen out at some point before I got the machine down into the Dungeon.

Attachment 91930]
This is the stepper motor shaft, thankfully it is not damaged

Attachment 91928
This is the inside of the worm screw shaft, it is also not damaged

I put a 4th bolt in place to replace the missing one, and tightened everything up, and I tightened the set screw up on the worm screw, everything nice and snug.

The machine is SO much smoother now, and a lot quieter.

I then went over the whole machine and tightened up anything that was loose, I found a few. I want to make sure that everyone understands that this is a test mule, or a prototype, it is a one off hand built to test their ideas etc. It is NOT a production machine, and I knew from the get go, that there would be parts that would need to be replaced, and some upgrades etc.

Yes, a happy ending

Hi Stu,

Well I don't think its uncommon for things to loosen up after time and I haven't checked mine for a while maybe a little locktite and some lock washers, something for them to have a think about putting in the manual I guess in the pre-startup check.

As with nature anything can loosen up after hours and hours of use and vibration

When I think about it I haven't purchased a piece of machinery from china that I didn't have to tighten up before its first run.

Its all fun even better when it an easy fix.

Hi Stu,

Gee mate you are prepared to take on anthing. Right place, right time, and right language as it happens. 'Review this machine for us please, it is all yours' - dream job.

Good pickup with the bolts. The casting on the motor housing looks a bit rough or is it just the camera?

Well, you now have some material for the review write up.

Cheers
Pops

Originally Posted by Pops

Hi Stu,

Gee mate you are prepared to take on anthing. Right place, right time, and right language as it happens. 'Review this machine for us please, it is all yours' - dream job.

Good pickup with the bolts. The casting on the motor housing looks a bit rough or is it just the camera?

Well, you now have some material for the review write up.

Cheers
Pops

Just the camera, the motors are very nice.

The casting for the table top is a bit rough, smooth where it has to be, but otherwise a bit rough, it is a one off, and a prototype, so that is to be expected.

Cheers!

Yesterday, after I fixed the iCarver, I did get a run of stars out of it, for the Christmas tree.

I started out with some larger stars, I just wanted to make sure everything was working OK.

I also put a 6mm end mill in the machine, it worked OK, but I'm not so sure how sharp the end mill was, or that it was for wood or not

The results were not the greatest..........

Attachment 91970
a bit "fuzzy"

Attachment 91971
This time around, I did not cut all the way through, instead, I left some of the wood there, and I then sliced the stars out on the bandsaw, this worked well

Attachment 91972 Attachment 91973
After some sanding, they look OK.


Next up, a batch of 10 smaller stars, this time I set the cutter to cut 18mm deep........

Attachment 91974
In progress, you can certainly see the need for a DC of some sort.

Attachment 91975
Took 32 minutes, mainly because I was concerned using the larger 6mm end mill (I have some smaller ones on order) so I made 12 cuts to go down 18mm, so it took a while.

Attachment 91976
The fuzzies left were not very impressive.....

Attachment 91977
The set up of the machine is not exactly 100% accurate yet, I set it for a 0mm over the work piece, and then let the cutter actually touch the work piece, but it still only cut to 17mm, just, not the full 18mm I punched in

Something to work with Geetech on I guess.

Attachment 91978
The final results.

The girls will paint these and put them on the tree.

Nice to know the machine is working, now I have to figure out how to drive the software a bit more.

Cheers!

I had the problem of fuzzy wood (MDF) also I just used a different bit

http://www.woodpeck.com/media/main_straightbits.jpg

They look like that, not completely sure what you call them.

Straight two Flute router bit ?

Sure look like router bits.

I'm using an end mill, the iCarver is designed for a 6mm shank, the router bits I have are mostly from the US, they are all 1/4" or 6.35mm just too large to use I can get 6mm shanked router bits here, I'll have to look into that.

Cheers!

Hi Stu,

The stars are looking good.

Cheers
Pops

Heres the pics of the end mill vs straight flute on MDF.


As you can see all that ???? on the top of the first pic thanks to the End Mill and then a nice clean cut from the straight flute.

If you are cutting wood then use a router bit. An upcut router bit is probably the best way to go but you will get lifting at the surface and more so on softer timber and composites but this is easily cleaned up. A straight two flute cutter does work but it leaves the sawdust in the cut and on subsequent passes you risk burning unless you vacuum or blow out as you go.
A mill bit has the wrong helix angle for softwood but I have had good results in hardwood.
If you are limited to 6mm cutters then run your spindle at the highest speed to avoid tear out. What is the maximum speed of your spindle?