While I am thoroughly enjoying my Shapeoko 4xxl, some lessons are just not covered. But here is an experience I had recently that might help others. I did a trial run in 3/4" plywood and all came out well, so I set up for the real thing and started my project in a nice piece of purpleheart, I’ve found that giving the router a rest about once an hours is a good idea, but would recommend when at rest you recheck clamps and check to make sure the bit is secure. I was about 3 hours into a run and had the bit fall out and ruin close to 100 dollars of purpleheart. Sometimes the best lessons are learned the hard way.
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Don’t know what bit you were using or how it was set up but here are a few tips.
Bits can get lose for several reasons. If it is a long bit and you set it deep into the router and is bottoms out inside the hollow shaft it will expand with the heat created from cutting and get lose. This can be true if you don’t set the bit in the collet with some of the bit sticking out. the buildup of heat transfers to the collet which can expand differently and push the bit out.
Another thing is if you did your test cut and removed the bit you could have had a buildup of dust in the slots of the collet. this will not allow the collet to tighten properly and the bit will do funny things.
And being that you are new to theS4 maybe you didnt tighten the collet good enough and used the factory included wrench and need to get you a set of cone wrenches like this
you will need a 13mm and a 22mm if you have the CC router
Anthony
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