MaxFrenzy
05-19-2015, 12:03 AM
Hi guys,
I have a benchtop PRT as some of you know and have run into a couple issues the past few days.
1st: My zero plate stopped working. I'm not exactly sure what happened as I didn't change anything and had zeroed a bit previously. I wanted to surface some MDF and input 1 wouldn't light up. The way I have it wired is the setup for using a shopbot 3d probe and z plate on input 1. So on the controller side, I have a red wire going into the 5v input, a black wire into input 1 and a white wire going into ground. That leads to a wago clip where I have connected the 3 wires and then also connected in my zero plate and ground wire into the wago clip, doubling up on the black and white cables. From there, the black wire leads to my zero plate and the white wire leads to an alligator clip for grounding. The only thing I can tell you is that when I touch my white grounded cable to the zero plate, input 1 lights up. Some how that is completing the circuit? I will admit that my setup is rather ghetto. My zero plate is this paper thin piece of copper that I glued to a piece of a acrylic (I didn't want something that conducts electricity in case I use the probe). Any ideas?
2nd: The dust shoe that I bought from shopbot sucks...but not in the good way. I'm not sure what other machines have to use this shoe, maybe the buddies? But, for over $200 the design leaves a lot to be desired thus far. The design has the 4" hose feeding in from the rear instead of coming down from the top like a Kent shoe for example. The problem is that in order to make it fit, the hose is smooshed down and then wedged in the back of the shoe giving it a very narrow opening. I was surfacing MDF and had the hose yank out of the dust shoe mid job...WHAT A MESS on an already extremely messy operation. Now granted, that was my fault for not giving it enough slack. However, the placement of the hose is quite a ways back from where the bit is spinning. My 4" dust collection unit has a ton of suction and is dedicated to the CNC. When I use it for vacuuming up the dust that the shoe isn't collecting, it's awesome. When I was shopping for a solution I talked to Kent CNC about using a hose reducer to fit through the top opening of the benchtop prt (something like a 4" to a 2.5-3" back a 4"), he thought that would lead to poor performance. The benchtop doesn't have a ton of space between the router and the frame of the machine (x-axis rail). Well, I fail to see the difference between that and crushing a hose down to a practically inch wide opening and setting it way back from the bit. My 70 gallon dust collection bag has some chips at the bottom, but my floor and shop vac from me cleaning non-stop during the job has a hell of a lot more. The whole reason I bought a 4" DC unit was for power, health, noise reduction, optimum dust collection etc. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to make this work any better? I'd love for a simple solution and I'll gladly eat that crow. I'm not sure what the return policy is like, but I may have to find out cause right now it feels like a piece of plastic that just gets in the way of bit changes.
Thank you for the help. Sorry if I sound frustrated :)
I have a benchtop PRT as some of you know and have run into a couple issues the past few days.
1st: My zero plate stopped working. I'm not exactly sure what happened as I didn't change anything and had zeroed a bit previously. I wanted to surface some MDF and input 1 wouldn't light up. The way I have it wired is the setup for using a shopbot 3d probe and z plate on input 1. So on the controller side, I have a red wire going into the 5v input, a black wire into input 1 and a white wire going into ground. That leads to a wago clip where I have connected the 3 wires and then also connected in my zero plate and ground wire into the wago clip, doubling up on the black and white cables. From there, the black wire leads to my zero plate and the white wire leads to an alligator clip for grounding. The only thing I can tell you is that when I touch my white grounded cable to the zero plate, input 1 lights up. Some how that is completing the circuit? I will admit that my setup is rather ghetto. My zero plate is this paper thin piece of copper that I glued to a piece of a acrylic (I didn't want something that conducts electricity in case I use the probe). Any ideas?
2nd: The dust shoe that I bought from shopbot sucks...but not in the good way. I'm not sure what other machines have to use this shoe, maybe the buddies? But, for over $200 the design leaves a lot to be desired thus far. The design has the 4" hose feeding in from the rear instead of coming down from the top like a Kent shoe for example. The problem is that in order to make it fit, the hose is smooshed down and then wedged in the back of the shoe giving it a very narrow opening. I was surfacing MDF and had the hose yank out of the dust shoe mid job...WHAT A MESS on an already extremely messy operation. Now granted, that was my fault for not giving it enough slack. However, the placement of the hose is quite a ways back from where the bit is spinning. My 4" dust collection unit has a ton of suction and is dedicated to the CNC. When I use it for vacuuming up the dust that the shoe isn't collecting, it's awesome. When I was shopping for a solution I talked to Kent CNC about using a hose reducer to fit through the top opening of the benchtop prt (something like a 4" to a 2.5-3" back a 4"), he thought that would lead to poor performance. The benchtop doesn't have a ton of space between the router and the frame of the machine (x-axis rail). Well, I fail to see the difference between that and crushing a hose down to a practically inch wide opening and setting it way back from the bit. My 70 gallon dust collection bag has some chips at the bottom, but my floor and shop vac from me cleaning non-stop during the job has a hell of a lot more. The whole reason I bought a 4" DC unit was for power, health, noise reduction, optimum dust collection etc. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to make this work any better? I'd love for a simple solution and I'll gladly eat that crow. I'm not sure what the return policy is like, but I may have to find out cause right now it feels like a piece of plastic that just gets in the way of bit changes.
Thank you for the help. Sorry if I sound frustrated :)