I made 1 successful cut of a pumpkin this weekend. It was the greatest feeling in the world after spending months getting up and going (newbie here). However, I think I got too excited about my first success, because now we have some major issues with the Z.
I tried to cut another piece today and the Z axis plunged completely to the bottom and went all the way through 3 boards, and tried to keep going!
I have a brand spanking new orange tab and spring, so I know this issue is NOT orange related.
I have also attached the bushing AND washer to the worm as previous posts suggested. Also, we don’t have a bungee attached (worked fine without one on last cut) so it can’t be pressure related. What else am I missing here? All screws are tight, and no changes since the last use. The tab traveled from the very top to the very bottom and tried to keep going. How can that be? How can I fix where this doesn’t keep happening? Any help would be greatly appreciated. (Apologies in advance for my never ending novice questions)
Here are some links that might be related. Sounds like the latch that is driven by the orange goody slipped out of the detent in the router body. I think you were lucky to be present and observing when the z-axis slipped.
there is nothing in the machine to detect that it’s hit it’s limit, and the
motor has so much torque that it can easily drive the router past it’s limits
and strip the orange tab
as noted above, if the latch pops out of the notch in the router, it can go
deep, but that typically only happens if you have a bungee on it to force it
down.
when you put the bit in and zeroed the Z, was it near the bottom of it’s travel?
if the g-code gets mixed up and you send it mm distances when it’s in inch mode,
that can cause it to move FAR more than planned.
Were you using an upcut bit? With upcut router bits the bit is always trying to dig into the material so if it can overpower whatever is holding the router body it will go as far as it can, and the R22002 is powerful enough to take some serious bites as I understand. Getting rid of Z axis issues is best done (IMO) by imitating a CNC mill, which is why I always planned on going with the Meticulous Z. I hope I don’t come off as mean, but you do have to remember that you aren’t using the system in the method it was designed. It wasn’t designed to cut with the collar loose on the router body. My suggestion would definitely be to work on building something like the Meticulous Z because that is designed to do what we are doing. I was amazed that the rails and lead screw were only $30 for 200mm of travel. I bought this linear rail and lead screw; this 60T pulley for the servo; this 20T pulley for the lead screw; these GT2 timing belts and then I have hacked my way through putting it all together. That all added up to $54 plus tax and shipping but I’m very confident that I will have consistent Z axis depths when I program my Maslow. I will make sure the STL files are on my thread if you want to try to imitate what I’m building, although I don’t have any router clamps. I’m using a spindle like this that is another $53, but you could just cut spindle clamps for the Ridgid, or 3D print them if you have a 3D printer. I’m sure you will figure out a solid solution and keep making chips!
Thank you so much for the quick replies! Y’all are seriously the best! I’m thinking the inch/mm issue might be one culprit. Going to dig in tomorrow and see if I can pinpoint it. Will report back…
And I am definitely thinking of doing a mod in the near future. It seems the stock Z is always full of surprises
