My endmill dropped, cutting into the wasteboard and rails

CNC Machines Shapeoko
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Was running a job today and walked away only to hear a horrible noise. I had the Amana 46200k cutting into half inch hard maple.

I am not sure if I didn’t tighten the collet enough or if something else is loose. I stopped the job, cleaned everything up, and inspected the router. But I’m little nervous to run it again.

A few weeks ago I saw a post here about a cracked router from tightening against the router with one wrench. I had been doing that all along. But since, I’ve started using two wrenches. Perhaps I’m doing something incorrectly :frowning:

Any insight and suggestions would be appreciated.

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Do you see any signs of damage? My gut tells me that you are probably fine. Turn on the router and see if it is making strange sounds. Jog the machine to see if it is still moving smoothly. If it checks out, trying it again and see how it goes.

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We have a blog post on unexpected plunges:

and usually they are caused by misconfiguration in the software.

Other possibilities are:

  • endmill pulling out of the collet — usually a firm squeeze w/ a pair of good quality wrenches is all that is needed here
  • mechanical issue where something interferes w/ retract and the machine is not as high as it thinks it is
  • the machine getting pulled into a cut due to high tooling engagement — shouldn’t happen w/ a Z-Plus or HDZ
  • a wiring issue — usually this is accompanied by an awful noise, usually lost steps on retract

For the software misconfiguration, it’s usually possible to identify that from the preview in current versions of Carbide Motion.

If you continue to have difficulties, let us know at support@carbide3d.com and we’ll sort it out.

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The only damage was to the wasteboard and the t-track below. It chewed into the t-track and I’m pretty sure chipped the endmill. But, I stopped the job, put another endmill in and started the remainder of the job. It seemed to work fine.

Then, I cleaned up and took the router out to check it. Everything seems fine.

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I appreciate the information. I believe the first bullet point is where it went wrong. When I stopped it, the Amana 46200k was nearly all the way out of the collet.

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Did the bit pull out of the collet? That happened to me within the first couple of weeks I had my S4, damaged a wasteboard and a t-slot. It happened during the first 30 days where Carbide had that warranty even if I screw up so they replaced the pieces. I remember having a very similar conversation with Will a year ago.

If the bit got pulled out from the collet, certainly tightening as Will suggested is a good idea, but looking to ways to reduce the upward stress would also help. Were you using an upcut bit and attempting to contour fairly thick (1/2 inch +) maple stock. Maple is pretty hard.

If that is the case, you might want to try a down cut bit and try pocketing rather than contouring. I’ve noticed I’ve had the most issues with work hold issues when contouring almost never with pocketing.

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Haven’t seen this mentioned yet–this used to drive me crazy. 1/4 inch bits were fine, but 1/8 inch bits with a collet reducer were a crap shoot until I actually (on Will Adams advice, if I recall) purchased a 1/8 inch collet for my DeWalt router. No collet reducers, get an actual 1/8 inch collet.

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Could not agree more and PLEASE clean your spindle tapper and collet during tool changes. This will reduce tool run out and insure proper contact between the spindle tapper, collet and tool shank.

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