Random disconnect

[Andrew77 (Andrew R Lange)]

My Shapeoko 4 standard completely stopped in mid cut. Carbide motion asked me to connect to cutter once that happened. Ive also had a huge malfunctioning in a different project. Ive barely have had this machine a year and ive already replaced the router and the z axis plate. I have not been pleased with this mschine. Ive wasted so much stock and $. For the price of these machines we should be getting a local technician to trouble shoot and repair the machine. Ive been on email conversations multiple times with Carbide but there’s been no progress down this rabbit hole. The mschine will work temporary and then an unpredictable miscommunication ends up ruining the product. Need some constructive assistance to the right direction.

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Avoid slotting.

Where possible avoid slotting and add geometry and cut as a pocket

Making vacuum hose adapters

While cutting up vacuum extension wands for this is expedient, it’s a bit problematic given that Shop Vac recently filed for bankruptcy, was bought at the last minute, and production hasn’t caught up. I need a receptacle for the Sweepy 2.0 dust fitting — one option would be to purchase one from Woodcraft, but Carbide 3D sells blocks of HDPE: which looks to be just barely big enough for things to fit. Measuring the hose fitting I get a diameter of ~63.5mm — offsetting that twice we arrive at…

and/or

Adding geometry to cut as a pocket with a finishing pass

One technique which is often suggested to avoid slotting is to add geometry around a part which one wishes to cut out and cut as a pocket down to tab depth — here’s one technique for that. In this case, the project is a bevel gauge which will be cut out of 0.0625" (~1.5mm) thick aluminum: [bevelgauge] Due to the narrowness of the angles, an 0.03125" endmill has to be used, so after importing and scaling the file (we will be cutting out one which is 3") we select the perimeter and offset it tw…

and consider leaving a roughing clearance and taking a finishing pass.

Best Bit for full cut through

One which has a cutting flute length equal to or greater than the thickness of the stock — pretty much any tool should work. Big thing is the toolpaths — if cutting out, rather than just cutting a slot: [image] Offset to the outside by endmill diameter plus 10% or so: [image] [image] [image] Then cut as a pocket: [image] down to tab height or the penultimate pass: [image] then move the contour down to below the pocket and start cutting at the bottom of the pocket: [image] and…

[Chaotica (Joel McKenzie)]

The most likely cause of random disconnects is static - if you’re running dust collection & do not have any grounding of the dust boot/spindle/vac hose. This is especially true with the change of season to winter cold & dry air.

Other possible causes of disconnect are a bad USB cable or end connectors dirty/loose - vibrations during operation could then be affecting the connection. Could also be due to the laptop/computer running Carbide Motion on & it’s hardware/software - though I find this to be least likely.

It’s difficult to provide any specific troubleshooting tips without more details about your setup. I would suggest searching the forum on the topic of ‘disconnects’.

[Andrew77 (Andrew R Lange)]

Thank you for your response. How do i go about grounding my dust boot and shop vac?

[ColdCoffee (Robert)]

Grounding your Shapeoko

Why would you want to ground your Shapeoko? This isn’t something everybody should do, but if you have either of the following issues, you should consider it; Dust & chip accumulation (on rails and V wheels causing movement problems) Random disconnects (when cutting plastics or when extraction is on) There’s nothing ‘wrong’ with the way the Shapeoko is delivered and there’s no safety issue WRT grounding on the machines (if you add a VFD spindle that must be properly grounded but that’s not for…

It’s a difficult topic, but when I asked the question Liam responded and after following his instructions my problems went away. He was helping me with my Shapeoko 3, I thought the Shapeoko 4 had some improvements in this area so you may not have to do everything I did… but know that there is a solution.

I have now run grounding wires from dust collection, x axis, y axis. I used home-depot (cheap) speaker wire which fit within the cable chains. I also added a USB grounding adapter that Carbide 3D sold me.

You can tell if it is or isn’t working if material (wood, plastic, whatever) is still static-clinging to your machine and/or dust collection hoses. Before I added the extra grounding wires I could actually feel the static pop when I touched the dust collection hose.

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Best way to ground the dust boot is to use a conductive/anti-static hose.

Flexaust 2.5" x 10' Flex-Tube Anti-Static Dust Collection Hose - Clear |...

[Chaotica (Joel McKenzie)]

There’s no need to ground the shopvac itself - just the vac hose section closest to the CNC.
On my first dust collection setup, I wrapped some bare copper conductor(speaker wire) around my shopvac hose in the first 12-16" of the dust boot & then grounded that cable.

[Andrew77 (Andrew R Lange)]

I just have a shop vac. Do i need connectors for this to connect at each end?

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Depends on the specific shop vac — the Sweepys all include a 2.5" straight coupler which a 2.5" hose will fit over.

I’ve bought a couple of different angle connectors to make the connection at my cycline — still looking for the perfect fit.