PRS Cam Lock? Help please.

[wuzzerdad]

I recently purchased a used PRS 32 Buddy and am in the process of setting it up. There is a handle below the table which is connected to the drive motor assembly which looks like it engages/disengages somthing. I have read the manual supplied and can not find out what this does, and looking at current pictures of buddies I do not see one on the web site on any of the current models. Any information please.

[Brady Watson]

It is meant to disengage the X axis motor from the X axis gear rack. This is so you can slide out the table and slide in a powerstick (typically longer than the original 24" one).

-B

[wuzzerdad]

Thanks Brady

[kevin_morin]

Rick, this method of engaging and disengaging the X-axis motor to remove or install the various Power Sticks is a great design.

But... with that said I'd like to caution you that the adjustment rod to the outboard handle is critical in length. If, as was the case on our recently arrived Buddie 48 Standard, IF, for any reason, this rod length is just a fraction too short, if the adjusted length is too tight to fully release the motor to engage; the motor will not engage fully into the X axis Power Stick rack gear teeth and will cause repeatability problems.

Circles will be flat sided or eccentrically oblong, lettering will have closure problems and generally, you could end up bothering the folks at Tech Support, for days.

Next, the X motor is on a plate that pivots on a bare bolt or un-bushed bolt hole and that CAN be a source of flexure or motor mounting movement. In this case the motor mounting/pivoting plate might twist on the bolt in response to the torque of moving the Power Stick and table. The result of this potential rotation of that plate under the main Buddie table is a rotation of the X Motor pinion gear AWAY from the Power Stick rack gear strip. If that happens then just tighten the pivot/retaining bolt. Of course when you do this the X Motor might not pivot as easily, but we found that we're replacing Power Sticks much less often than we're cutting (!) so the tight pivot is much, much more important.

We ended up loosening the quick change handle connection rod until it is loose when the motor is in position so it retains NO tension on the X Motor pivot plate. We also found that the pivot needed tightening to reduce motor torque which ended up in lack of engagement and we tightened the X motor tension spring mount point away (stretching the spring) from the original position to increase the engagement force of the X Motor into the Power Stick rack gear.

When we tightened the X Motor Pivot plate we added a very thin plastic washer or two to the stack so there were washers above, below, and in between the plate and the table. I don't recall how many or where they were located, of these washers, were already there but they helped make the compression load more stable. We have to use a wrench to change Power Sticks - but our Buddie finally cut accurately after these slight mods.

(We did have to replace our X motor as well, which S'Bot did send once we all agreed that us newbies weren't completely off their rockers)

All these adjustments took some time to figure out, so we hope they are something you can just check on your machine so you can skip these possible calibration steps and get right to work.

My advice is that cutting small circles is about the only way to see the confirmation all these critical points are adjusted well. I'd use both fast and slow travels speeds and we found that photos of the cuts are the only real form of communications that can help Tech Support to understand EXACTLY what you're getting for results.

WE ended up taking photos and then blowing them UP, super close-ups show the level of cut repeatability and allow S'Bot to see what your machine is cutting in terms of the width of a cutter compared to any run-out or play.

cheers,
Kevin Morin

[gerryv]

Kevin, I just stumbled across this really excellent post. Thank you VERY much.

- Gerry V