I have been having some issues with my z axis while cutting out some letter stencils for a local school. I have a Shapeoko 5 xxl with the carbide spindle.
Most of the letters have been fine but in the last couple of sheets the z slowly starts to cut deeper and deeper. I had to stop the machine due to it starting to cut the aluminum rails.
I checked for updates, check the Z depth, tighten screws on the spindle, check the depth of the file and tighten any screw in the area of the Z. It has done it twice now and sadly it is so subtle that it cut my aluminum again.
Has anyone had this issue?
I recently started to zero my Z at the bottom of the material. It worked great for other jobs and saves time. I will try to zero my Z at the top of the material like I had before I had this issue and let everyone know if that fixed the issue.
I agree with @jtclose clean and check your collet. If using an upcut bit the bit will pull itself deeper and deeper if the bit is loose.
I clean my with brake cleaner. Then I use a qtip with brake cleaner sprayed on it to clean up inside the spindle shaft. Any gunk can make the bit come loose.
When you get the collet, nut and spindle shaft clean do not put any lube in it. The collet nut, collet and spindle shaft should be dry.
To make sure if this the bit slipping after inserting and tightening put a black magic marker on the top of the bit where it meets the collet. Then if the pockets are deeper than designed check the bit and see if the bit mark has come down. If it has and you have cleaned the collet then replace it.
I threw a collet in the trash yesterday. I keep a couple new ones at the ready. If you think your Z is changing, measure the stick out after you tighten the collet. Pause your job and measure again to see if it’s creeping out during the job. Depending on the material,speed,feed, our router spindles together with the collets and bits heat up. All those individual components are expanding differently.
Does anyone know a source for beefier and more ergonomic wrenches for the Makita’s?
I put them in a bin of similar scrap metal “just in case” — when a bin gets full it goes to the recycler.
That said, not a big deal to trash a piece of steel (or to a lesser extent other metals) — most trash services use magnets to remove what can be recycled.
Check the Z-zero-switch. I had it more than once, I think three times now, that the z-switch had a red LED with having metal near it, but the controller board did not show the LED there, and corresponding the software also did not show the Z-zero-switch reacting. I do not know whether that is due to the switch or the controller board. It is worth a test anyway IMO.
Hi, sorry, somewhat lengthy. Only read if in the mood.
So I had exactly the same I think yesterday. I am making some slats from boards for chess boards, to be glued together and cut crosswise then.
Now I make the ones from maple. Since I male slats anyway, glue them and plane them then it does not matter whether the boards are warped. BUT! It matters when we cut them. I use a 1/4 inch up-down-bit, to get a nice sharp edge for gluing later. And I designed the cut as contour. So far so good. Now I z-zeroed the machine on the side, but the warp in the middle of this particular board was 4mm higher. The bit cut the side slat nicely, I went to the bathroom, returned, and the bit went to the next slat much more in the middle of the board. Now the cutter pulled up the chips of a big load of 4.5 mm instead of 0.5mm, and could not throw it out because of the up-down-bit, so after half a round the bit on the lower, cutting end was drawn deeper and deeper, out of the collet, what made the whole thing worse on that round, eventually the bit got stuck, the spindle stopped with Err10 and became rather hot. That all within less than one minute.
Now IMO that was not about tightening the bit in the collet. It was about the design of the cut. William always tries to tell us that straight cuts in thick material should be done as pockets. I just recently understood -he was answering even late at night on a Sunday!- that the pocket for a straight cut is to go down to the level of the tabs, where a contour cutting “layer” takes over to provide the tabs. But the slats were defined before I learned the trick with the pocket cuts completely.
So I will be more cautious with the choice of the bit: up-down-bits need more care to get rid of the chips, down cut ones probably the same. At least for those the pocket trick is necessary IMO for thicker stock. up-down-bits give a beautiful edge on both sides. But are they really necessary? For my project not really, since I glue the slats together anyway and plane them later.
I also will think twice defining the proper z-zero.