After the requisite shenanigans with metric conversion, adjusting all eleven part clearances in Fusion etc, my foam sheet was being turned to dust which coating everything like the insides of a snow globe.
After the Shapeoko 2 completed the entire pocket clearing routine, the stepper motor juddered throwing off the Y positioning. This happened on two separate occasions at the same place on the bed, and the second time the endmill was clear of the workpiece and rapid traversing back. The tiny chips of foam must have compacted onto the pulley and it was just too much for the puny belt drive! Afterwards I tried replicating the issue with the jog commands, but I wasn’t able to. Maybe, it was a trick of the perspective and the carriage was actually grinding against the far Y stop as I was playing Halo:Combat Evolved. Hey, human memory is so fallible sometimes…
In my haste to update the setup in Fusion 360, I was dual-wielding digital calipers at lightning speeds and I must have drawn too much current causing the watch battery covers on two of the calipers to vaporize instantly and now the calipers won’t turn on. I left the working pair in the toolbox and took the others to the electronics room.
Though I stopped the toolpaths before they got to the airfoil profiles, I still improved my techniques for work holding and Fusion 360 setups. It was especially convenient to have the workstations nearby. I accumulated many steps walking back and forth!
I consider this a success for a first attempt. (of course the hacksaw in the background is there to show scale)
