I am on my 3rd CC router (Batch #FFR 1203). The first 2 (all same batch number) stopped working (guessing bearing issues) after a few hours of use and have been replaced but it takes a bit to get the replacement routers, so I purchased a spare just in case another one went out. Well, I have maybe 3 - 4 hours of use on the spare router I purchased (still waiting for the replacement one to arrive) and it already sounds horrible when it is spinning and it is getting very difficult to rotate the spindle by hand, so it seems to be in its death throes.
I am using the default speeds and feeds and and only working in softwoods and hardwoods.
This is really getting to be an issue as my production is falling off a cliff.
I have read other posts and this obviously seems to be an issue. Does C3D have any plans to hopefully correct this?
We’ve never been able to get to the root of why some people get back to back failures and most people never have a problem, but we think we have a lead on the problem now.
We think the back-to-back failures are due to excessive clamping pressure on the spindle mount, causing the router to distort and fail relatively quickly. We’ve been running tests for the past week and we can make a router degrade pretty quickly in static testing, and we expect that degradation to be more rapid when cutting, although we haven’t gotten to that yet.
Our initial testing shows that something around 7N-m is the correct torque, but that could change with more testing. In the mean time, only clamp the router with enough force to hold it in place and you should be good.
OK, that makes sense. By “hold in place” should the router be able to turn in the clamp? I have loosened a bit and I cannot lift the router out but can turn by hand.
There is a groove on the front of the router, how come there is not a notch in the clamp that the groove can align to prevent rotation?
Well I have tightened the clamp just to the point that the router will not turn, will see how it goes.
If this has just become an issue with the FFR 1203 batch, could it be that the router casings for this batch were made thinner or with an inferior grade metal?
Relieved to hear that it wasn’t me that was doing something incorrect causing the problem but rather an equipment / manufacturing issue.
I assume once you get this figured out there will be some kind of resolution? In the mean time, I guess it will be replacing routers on an ongoing basis?
I don’t necessarily think it’s a manufacturing problem. Some people crank down the routers a lot, and they fail quickly and some people don’t. It took us a long time to figure out that the clamping pressure might be a problem so now we’re trying to characterize it and confirm that it is a real problem.
Assuming it does end up being the root problem, the fix might include additional documentation, torque specs, etc. On a longer timeline, we might change the spindle mount to make it more difficult to over tighten. It’s not likely to involve changing a mold for a die cast part.
My router started failing after a couple hours of use and I did contact support so a new one is on the way. Tech support mentioned over tightening but I feel like your real issue may be the clearance between the router body and the spindle mount. I measured this last night and I found the router body measurement of 2.550 and the Spindle bore at 2.565. Unless there is a huge tolerance on the routers I think that clearance should be half of that . I applied some HVAC aluminum tape to the spindle bore to close the gap and it took much less effort to get the router tight. I was more concerned about warping the back plate due to closing the gap to get the router tight.
My recommendation is to supply a filler gauge to put into mount to when you tighten the screws till the filler gauge can be pulled out with a light tug might help with the torque specs without spending money on a torque wrench . Just a thought