Looking at the “Updated the machine operating checklist” post and checking out the checklist has induced me to note one more dumb thing I did on my Shapeoko… and one the linked checklist doesn’t cover:
The speed you set on your router/spindle only applies if you have turned it on, and in most cases, end mills work best when rotating.
(Nothing injured, nothing broken, but I was happy to have installed my e-stop button. I chided myself on working fatigued and called it a night, but I’ll probably add “turn on router” to my checklist.
Browse for the NC file which you have already simulated and send it to the machine, following all prompts for tool changes and starting the spindle as required and setting it to the correct speed.
My biggest screwup was setting up a job to plunge a dozen 1/4" holes, 1" deep in a bamboo butcher block with a 1/4" endmill. I knew it wasn’t going well when smoke was coming out of the second hole. By that point I assumed the endmill was toast and just let it finish. I don’t know if it actually was at hole two but it definitely was toast by the end of that job. Fortunately the holes were on the underside of that project because they were pretty charred. The(fairly new) endmill was ded ded ded.
Lesson learned, endmills suck at drilling holes.
Aside from that, I’ve nipped the ends off a few of my clamps (fortunately without issue) and screwed up the retract distance and had the endmill score lines where I didn’t want lines scored. Oh, and I had a 1/4" endmill come loose and start sliding its way out of the collet mid job. Fortunately I was paying attention, and the noise of an endmill going from a 1/8" cut to a 1/2" cut is pretty noticeable and I was able to hit the off switch before anything broke.
I’ve been looking for a place to post this… not a horror story, but a bit embarrassing and hopefully this will helps someone.
I was getting unpredictable results on facing operations, pockets, etc. on my Shapeoko XXL There were random irregularities in depth of cut up to a millimeter or more. I was baffled… tramming? calibration? something loose?
Turns out, when I was inspecting the carving, I would lean in with my elbows on the spoil board and a good portion of my body weight, causing the spoil board to flex. DOH!
Last night I spent 5 hours milling some small aluminium brackets. It should have been a 20min job. However each time I ran the job it seemed like it was cutting too deep. I checked the motors, steppers, grbl settings, got the callipers out The works.
Turns out I changed the thickness of the design over time and forgot. Thus every time I ‘recut’ the parts with different settings it was the same…
Don’t leave a bit in the spindle when you close shop.
I got distracted, left the Shapeoko for the day with a finger tight end mill in the router. I get back to it few days later, not checking the end mill and trusting it was tight. Tool stalls in work and drops, thankfully nothing came flying out (I had the enclosure open).
Ran a small project… the whole time without the router switched on!!! I’m serious. It was a 1mm end mill which snapped right off but because I had the dust shoe on, didn’t realize it until the job ‘finished’
I can relate. I was testing out an external switch to my router. I had the sense to remove the bit, but I didn’t tighten up or just remove the collet nut entirely. When flipped it on, the nut basically “sucked up” on to the shaft. Very weird thing to see.
Doh! Brand new sea of holes… Had the max depth set wrong when generating gcode, and the “stop” button stops at the end of the current command, doesn’t interrupt. Figures it would be helix.
