chunkstyle
05-20-2010, 02:00 PM
Hi all,
It occurred to me today that as I approach getting into adjusting my spindle to get it square to the table (using Gary's generous article on "tuning up the PRS gantry") there is really no built in adjustments in the machine. This seemed lacking as most of my other shop tools have been designed for being able to take out the eventual slop that will develope. As I look at the machine from factory there is NO adjustability to take out the eventual slop in the critical area of the spindle squaring to table. It would seem highly improbable that the machine will hold it's tolerance over time and the cabinet folks that responded to my earlier post titled "gut check" would seem to confirm this. Heck, my spindle isn't even square right out of the box!
Although I'm committed to the task of getting it squared as Gary outlines, would it not make sense for Shopbot to design some way to quickly and reliably set the spindle. I look at my bot and look over at my DeWalt GWI radial arm saw and wish some of it's adjustment features could be found on the bot.
One thought that occurred to me was that the two machines used eccentric bolted bearings. The dewalt has them in the roller head and the Bot has them in the bottom of the Z car.
It occurred to me that the eccentric bolt might be a good idea on the two front bearings of the Y car's end plates. This would allow the adjustment of the beams attitude to the table bed.
The second area would be to use an eccentric V bearings for one of the fixed stud V bearings at the top of the Z car. This, too, would allow the Z car to "pivot" up or down to the sole upper fixed bearing and, thus, change the attitude in the Y direction.
The thought would be that it would allow for quick and easy adjustment of the car to set your spindle square.
The folks at shopbot had concerns tha the x-car would be to heavy and the eccentric bearings would not hold their position over time. Maybe or maybe not. I hope they try it and see. What the heck else do you have to deal with this issue?
The idea of this post is that maybe there are any other ideas that would work similar to what I'm proposing as far as quick and easy routine adjustments that would hold their position adequately. Maybe someone's already tried this on theirs? Just thought that it might be a subject worth brainstorming on.
My two cents.
It occurred to me today that as I approach getting into adjusting my spindle to get it square to the table (using Gary's generous article on "tuning up the PRS gantry") there is really no built in adjustments in the machine. This seemed lacking as most of my other shop tools have been designed for being able to take out the eventual slop that will develope. As I look at the machine from factory there is NO adjustability to take out the eventual slop in the critical area of the spindle squaring to table. It would seem highly improbable that the machine will hold it's tolerance over time and the cabinet folks that responded to my earlier post titled "gut check" would seem to confirm this. Heck, my spindle isn't even square right out of the box!
Although I'm committed to the task of getting it squared as Gary outlines, would it not make sense for Shopbot to design some way to quickly and reliably set the spindle. I look at my bot and look over at my DeWalt GWI radial arm saw and wish some of it's adjustment features could be found on the bot.
One thought that occurred to me was that the two machines used eccentric bolted bearings. The dewalt has them in the roller head and the Bot has them in the bottom of the Z car.
It occurred to me that the eccentric bolt might be a good idea on the two front bearings of the Y car's end plates. This would allow the adjustment of the beams attitude to the table bed.
The second area would be to use an eccentric V bearings for one of the fixed stud V bearings at the top of the Z car. This, too, would allow the Z car to "pivot" up or down to the sole upper fixed bearing and, thus, change the attitude in the Y direction.
The thought would be that it would allow for quick and easy adjustment of the car to set your spindle square.
The folks at shopbot had concerns tha the x-car would be to heavy and the eccentric bearings would not hold their position over time. Maybe or maybe not. I hope they try it and see. What the heck else do you have to deal with this issue?
The idea of this post is that maybe there are any other ideas that would work similar to what I'm proposing as far as quick and easy routine adjustments that would hold their position adequately. Maybe someone's already tried this on theirs? Just thought that it might be a subject worth brainstorming on.
My two cents.