michael_schwartz
02-06-2012, 01:17 PM
After 2 years I have been taking some time to tune up my PRS Standard 48X96 and revisit my original setup and installation now that I have a much better understanding of what is going on. I have been working on this now over the past couple of days will probably keep going at it for several more. i would like to share the issues, I have encountered so far and the solutions.
The first, and most important thing I did was to replace my control PC. That solved a number of issues.
After that I spent a couple of hours cleaning all the old dirty grease out of the racks, and pinion gears with a small brush. I also cleaned the v-bearings and, hardened rails. Then I re lubricated everything. I suspect debris in the pinion gears, and or racks may have been preventing the gears on my X axis from fully meshing. I had noticed a bit of excess slop which seems to have disappeared.
The next major thing I addressed was something I missed when I assembled the table. I had only lightly tightened the bolts for the feet. I got out a wrench, got down on the floor, and cranked them down as tight as I could. This reduced the table vibrations substantially. One of these days I will go through and drop the legs as low to the floor as possible, and re-level the table.
I have also spent a bit of time cleaning up the wiring, and re-adressing how the cables are hung. If the cables can possibly catch on anything, they will, and the motors have more than enough force to rip them apart. MY Z-Zero/probe cable suffered this fate about a year ago. That is all I will say about that, and thankfully it wasn't a cable for one of the motors.
I also found that some of the hex bolts for the rails were loose. I re-tightened them but I am going to be going through them again today or tomorrow to re-check for straightness.
I have my gantry setup reasonably square with the end stops. The bolts on the gussets were way too tight to loosen with a hex wrench so I will have to address that later.
I also went through and re-did all the grounding for my dust hose. I still need to re do this in more professional manor, but for the time being it works.
The next project is to cut parts for my vacuum hold down setup, and then rebuild my spoil board. When I setup my original spoil board, I never glued the sheets of MDF together. Eventually this becomes evident, and the top sheet will start to lift/curl up between the screws. When I setup the bot for the first time I was in a hurry to see if it would actually work so I rushed through the process of building my spoil board. I am sure I will find a few things to improve.
Throughout this whole process each thing I have done has resulted in tangible improvements, that can be seen, heard, and felt.
I have over 30 sheets of plywood sitting in my rack for a couple of projects and that is a big motivating factor to improve everything I can, before I start cutting.
I should get around to setting up my vacuums motors soon, however the Trupan for my bleeder board is on back order so I am waiting for that.
One of the next things I plan to experiment with is fine tuning feed speeds to motor resonance, and then I am going to play with my ramp settings. I have found quite a bit of helpful information in this regard by searching the forum.
The first, and most important thing I did was to replace my control PC. That solved a number of issues.
After that I spent a couple of hours cleaning all the old dirty grease out of the racks, and pinion gears with a small brush. I also cleaned the v-bearings and, hardened rails. Then I re lubricated everything. I suspect debris in the pinion gears, and or racks may have been preventing the gears on my X axis from fully meshing. I had noticed a bit of excess slop which seems to have disappeared.
The next major thing I addressed was something I missed when I assembled the table. I had only lightly tightened the bolts for the feet. I got out a wrench, got down on the floor, and cranked them down as tight as I could. This reduced the table vibrations substantially. One of these days I will go through and drop the legs as low to the floor as possible, and re-level the table.
I have also spent a bit of time cleaning up the wiring, and re-adressing how the cables are hung. If the cables can possibly catch on anything, they will, and the motors have more than enough force to rip them apart. MY Z-Zero/probe cable suffered this fate about a year ago. That is all I will say about that, and thankfully it wasn't a cable for one of the motors.
I also found that some of the hex bolts for the rails were loose. I re-tightened them but I am going to be going through them again today or tomorrow to re-check for straightness.
I have my gantry setup reasonably square with the end stops. The bolts on the gussets were way too tight to loosen with a hex wrench so I will have to address that later.
I also went through and re-did all the grounding for my dust hose. I still need to re do this in more professional manor, but for the time being it works.
The next project is to cut parts for my vacuum hold down setup, and then rebuild my spoil board. When I setup my original spoil board, I never glued the sheets of MDF together. Eventually this becomes evident, and the top sheet will start to lift/curl up between the screws. When I setup the bot for the first time I was in a hurry to see if it would actually work so I rushed through the process of building my spoil board. I am sure I will find a few things to improve.
Throughout this whole process each thing I have done has resulted in tangible improvements, that can be seen, heard, and felt.
I have over 30 sheets of plywood sitting in my rack for a couple of projects and that is a big motivating factor to improve everything I can, before I start cutting.
I should get around to setting up my vacuums motors soon, however the Trupan for my bleeder board is on back order so I am waiting for that.
One of the next things I plan to experiment with is fine tuning feed speeds to motor resonance, and then I am going to play with my ramp settings. I have found quite a bit of helpful information in this regard by searching the forum.