Good Morning! So I’m a little over a month into my XXL unit, and the other day I began to hear a “sparking” sound from within the Carbide Compact Router that came with the machine. The next day I didn’t see or hear anything and the machine functioned fine. Now this morning, after running a small 8 minute job, the router ran fine. When I started it for a second job a few mintues ago, I could visibly see sparks within the unit, and hear them as well as the router ran. I immediately turned off the router and am looking for any feedback/solutions that I can get on this matter. Thanks in advance!
Check your brushes. The unit should have come with an extra set. One month is a little early for them to fail, but typically when you see sparks, it’s between the brushes and the armature.
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Thank you! I believe I found them in the plastic router bag with the instruction manual. I will look into swapping them out to see if that fixes the issue. Thanks again!
Also check your feeds and speeds.
The router speed setting should match the feeds and speeds for your selection of endmill and material. Please see:
(there’s a row matching dial settings to RPMs at the bottom)
There’s an interactive version at: https://public.tableau.com/profile/willadams#!/vizhome/Carbide3DCNCFeedsandSpeeds/Sheet1?publish=yes
Note that the feeds and speeds calculations in Carbide Create are updated for trim routers in 433: https://carbide3d.com/carbidecreate/unstable/ and 440 and later have curated feeds and speeds tables.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9bceJxpqG0 for concepts on this and see the series #MaterialMonday: #MaterialMonday on YouTube for specifics.
You should test feeds and speeds in a piece of scrap using the technique at: https://precisebits.com/tutorials/calibrating_feeds_n_speeds.htm
Another consideration is Climb vs. Conventional Milling and tooling engagement — where possible avoid slotting and add geometry and cut as a pocket (Adding geometry to cut as a pocket with a finishing pass ).
Extensive discussion at: Origin/consistency of chipload recommendations and https://shapeokoenthusiasts.gitbook.io/shapeoko-cnc-a-to-z/feeds-and-speeds-basics with a spreadsheet for this at: Speeds, Feeds, Power, and Force (SFPF) Calculator
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UPDATE: Thanks again for the suggestion on the brush replacement. One of the brushes was visibly damaged. Once I swapped them out, and turned the machine back on, everything seemed to be running smoothly for the time being. Thanks again for your timely help!
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might recommend contacting support @ support@carbide3d.com being your machine only a month old. They might send you new brushes, to replace your backup.
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Thanks Dan! I reached out to them simultaneously when I posted the original thread lol. I hope they are able to send me a new set or two to get me started. I’m hoping the set I just installed will last a little longer than a month now! Thanks again!
It depends on the severity. Brushes will always have some sparking. You have a spinning rotor and the brushes are pushed against the rotor by springs. So occasional sparks are to be expected. However if you are seeing a light show you could have a cracked brush.
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Hi, In the row at the bottom I see only DeWalt and Makita listed. Can you tell me where to find the settings to RPM for the Carbide3d router?
Here:
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Mine sparked a bit, but it also did this:
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