This one cost me dearly

Software Carbide Create
1

I had been running projects all night. Had a design I was having problems with it cutting nicely, so I ran it several times using different bits. Scrap wood, love it.

Put in a bit that I have had good luck with in the past. Job started running and all looked well. Then it happened, yes it. Z plunged. By the time I got to the pause button It had cut into the channel breaking the bit. @#$% Dang it all. Powered down, unplugging the Brick from the controller. This has worked for other issues. Rebooted, loaded the program changed the bit, and proceeded. Using the same piece of wood, it began at the start, as soon as it got to uncut wood the bit plunged striking the channel again. Of course, breaking the bit.

Went through all my “grounds” making sure they were still good. All checked perfectly. Made another small spoil board, put my workpiece on, disconnected the power from the controller waiting 5 min. Ran the job again with another bit, got to uncut wood, plunged, bound the bit, and broke that one also.

“Edit” Yes I did turn off my dust collector after the first bit.

Searched the Forum seeing a suggestion to unplug the Brick from the wall, power on the machine, and wait till all power is gone. It worked!!!

WHY???

Why did it happen? Why did powering down the Brick and powering on the machine clear the issue? Why did I have to break 3 bits?

So now that I have that out of my system, I still love my machine

2

I have not experienced the unexpected Z axis plunge, but on many occasions I have experienced an upcut bit slipping in the collet which has the same results you are describing. With an upcut bit there is a lot of force pulling the bit down, and if it isn’t tight in the collet it slips under this force.

And when I say “it isn’t tight”, there is probably a more common reason this happens and that is that your collet gets packed with dust. If you look there hole above the collet, and a small amount of dust will nearly always end up in the collet above your bit. When you remove the bit it falls down into the collet, so the next time you insert a bit there is dust in the collet and its really hard for your collet to get a good tight grip when dust is in there.

2 Likes
3

That is one of the steps I take every time I install a bit. Clean the collet out. This happened with a down cut, compression, and up cut.

Today is my day to maintain my machine so I will check everything out. Really think it was the controller this time.

Thanks for the reply

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