What happened there? Someone trying to cut through and the saw couldn’t handle it?
Probably forgot to set the material top height or miscalculated/misprogrammed the thickness of their material and the machine chewed completely through the part and into the base.
so when they saw it bury itself for the first letter they just said ‘oh well’ and let it continue. No excuses. Especially since they did not report it.
“Oh, I didn’t see it after I pulled my board off” will be the next excuse.
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I’m not excusing it: just trying to offer an explanation of what happened.
I agree they should have:
- reported it, and
- patched the spoil board with Water Putty as outlined in the class and the slideshow above the MultiCAM.
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There are precisely two ways breakthrough can happen on the Multicam:
- Failing to properly* set max depth after every bit change.
- Bit slippage caused by incorrect torquing.
*This means setting max depth with the vacuum on and leaving gates open for ALL zones where cutting will happen.
Incorrect material thickness or cutting depth instructions won’t hurt the spoilboards as long as max depth is set properly on the machine. I routinely set my cutting depth deeper than the thickness of my workpiece. The ensures that the machine cuts to [max depth] (as set using the pendant and depth block) and allows for inconsistency of my material (usually weird metric plywood or plastic). VCarve spits out a warning but the machine will NOT cut deeper than max depth.
I keep seeing people trying to torque their bits by holding the collet wrench in their hand. You can NOT put enough torque on the bit when you do this. The wrench handle needs to be backed up to the z-axis plate while torquing.
Edit to add: This is getting completely ridiculous. Every single time the Multicam gets redone, it’s less than 48 hours before someone ****s it up. Every. Single. Time. It’s time to start banning people from woodshop when they walk away from stuff like this.
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- Spoilboard either not flat or not parallel to gantry or both. Which has happened, IIRC.
The Lord’s Promise may prove true, but only if you report your sins of spoil board damage…
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Wrong tool, Kapex is for lumber not logs.
For logs like the one Jammed into the Kapex DMS has an electric chain Saw, and 3 Bandsaws. Or not use the shop at all.
I think this begins to explain the constant damage to the Kapex
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I know that part but why wasn’t it able to cut through it and it got stuck?
Wet wood and internal wood stress
Same reason all table saws have riving knife
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True but the spoilboards are cut parallel to the gantry when they are surfaced.
They would have to become uneven by [depth of the ‘accidental’ cut] for this to happen. I assure you they haven’t been that uneven with the vacuum on in recent memory, if ever.
These were pristine spoilboards freshly surfaced and as far as I know the gantry was just trammed as well.
Don’t I recall the blade guard being broken too lately ? I was trying to figure out how that might happen. I think we have a candidate.
Someone needs more briefing at least.
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It also appears that a piece of lumber was placed directly to the left of the work-piece and then braced against the flip-stop…effectively pinning work-piece against the blade and creating a “cross-cut against a fence” scenario…a big No-No.
Given the set-up (a non-flat/non-stable work-piece pinned like it was) this cut would probably kick back like this 90+ times out of 100.
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We need to have a class on emptying the dust collector. Or someone show us please.
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When are you available?
I regularly give the lesson to anyone in the shop when it is time to empty the Felder
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Sunday evening?
The process is real easy [I’m writing it up for those not able to attend Sunday (like me)] - this is how I do it, so if there is an easier way let me know.
- Turn off the dust collector [red button on the side of the machine]
- Turn local disconnect off [rotary switch next to red button] - doing this will prevent the cleaning burst from happening
- Raise the bar which will lower the cart and allow it to pull out from under the machine
- Take full bags out and put on roll around cart [they aren’t too heavy just bulky]
- Empty bags [but save them] in dumpster at the end of the automotive ramp - try and be upwind of the dumpster, the sawdust does blow around
- Reinstall bags back in cart, push cart back into place under the machine, lower bar, turn machine back on
Getting the cart back into place is the biggest pain of the sequence. If you look in the hole where the cart goes, you can see the two rails the bar rides along - make sure they aren’t covered in sawdust. I sometime need to “reset” the cart (lowering and raising the bar) a couple of times to get a decent seal between the cart and machine.
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That, and an unflat, unlevel underside allowed the wood to twist while being cut, leading to a curved cut which eventually bound up. A thin bandsaw blade has MUCH less contact inside the kerf and is much more tolerant of this sort of issue.
If they had
a) used the resaw bandsaw
b) used a crosscut sled on the bandsaw and stabilized the wood’s position with wedges or brass screws, or
c) used the jointer to flatten one side, or
c) all of the above
They would have had much more success. The wood’s greenness and internal stresses would still have been an issue, so the bandsaw would still be the best bet for the actual cut.
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I hope you don’t mind; I “borrowed” your directions into the freshly minted Felder RL350 wiki entry.
https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Felder_RL350
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Agree on the fiddly bit being the final step. I’ve emptied the Felder a few times, and getting the cart to reseat properly is always the hardest part.