Next CNC Router... suggestions please.

[JBurton]

I was worried about how it would mill off the table, but I didn't have any issues with a 1.5"D spoil board tool taking it right off.

How did you secure these to the table?

 

[johnnysigns]

How did you secure these to the table?

It's adhesive backed. You mill the table clean & just peel and stick.

 

[JBurton]

Ah, the stuff I got was literally a roll, no adhesive or marked front/back. I may just banner tape it down and see how it holds up.

 

[johnnysigns]

I've got a whole new batch of tile gasket to put on the bed soon. I'll take a bunch of pics when I get to it and start a thread about it in the cnc forum.

 

[nsm]

I don't know how or why we got so lucky on the flooding, but I'll take it. I did have the Busch Mink vac pump lock up on us as we worked through our dryout period, but some wd-40 honestly freed that up. I ran transmission fluid through it and manually spun the motor several times a day for a couple weeks before draining and flushing for the spec'd oil. I did that as automotive trans fluid is usually full of cleaning agents, just something I picked up from my father and vehicle repair. We did pull the whole motor apart and had to lightly scuff/sand all the corrosion out of there. I don't know if that pump would've given us 20yrs of use and that's now significantly less after the flood remediation? I keep an eye on the oil pretty religiously and so far it's always looked perfect. Overall, I haven't seen any loss of vacuum from the pump. I'm just not a fan of the plenum vacuum setups on these machines.

If anyone's interested we've had amazing success with tile gasket from all star CNC. It's a low tack foam that has offset holes to focus the vac draw to 8mm holes cut in the foam. I covered our bed in that for a program cutting 2x3 1/8" polycarbonate parts and only lost 3-5pcs from movement out of 500pcs per sheet yield. You cut slightly into the tile gasket so it's reusable until it's completely torn up. We cut it all off using our spoilboard milling tool after it was pretty well beat up. I think it cost me $250 shipped and it lasted about 8 months. Whatever the foam gasket is made out actually stuck to poly and paper liner on acrylic or plastic sheets so there was very little part movement and you get the added hold down from focusing the vac draw to small holes.

We do an annual plan with AXZY for the support. It's nominally $600 for the year and gets us access to their phone support system. Given the flood remediation and the parts I replaced before and after frying the A2MC computer we've been really fortunate that we've had no additional repairs for the machine.

We sell something similar called VTXtra Premium Grip. It's a sacrificial that has grippy rubber face and is perforated to allow vacuum. We don't sell much to CNC shops. More to flatbed cutters but if you would want to try a sample and let us know your feedback how it compares would be great.

 

[Bxtr]

I've had 3 major issues, and they've helped resolve all of them over the phone. This last time I talked to 4 different techs, all seemed knowledgeable, but every time I called back the last fellow I talked to would be on another call. Free lifetime tech support, going on year 3 now. (It also helps that I know these machines thoroughly, but they give very clear instructions made for the layman.)
Issues were:
1 bearing failed, not enough grease, user error
2 code on the servo table was miskeyed at the factory, found it cutting a large arc that had a straight 1" section in it, manufacturer error
3 machine lost square, found an error in the code that never used the second limit switch, manufacturer error
To be fair, my machine was built 6 months after covid lockdowns started.
I'd swing by shopsabre if I were that close, I very much considered flying out to check them out, but ya know, covid.

I finally got around to getting something like this that someone on the forum recommended, but it's a 5x10 roll with a porous surface rather than holes. It's worked great for a whole day, can't attest to longevity, but the added friction really makes the horizontal hold down phenomenal. Not sure how much it does to counteract the upcut forces on a bit. It's quite a bit cheaper for a 5x10 roll too.

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Hey JBurton,

I appreciate the feedback on the ShopSabre, we have talked to a few people and it seems like a good fit.
We aren't looking to pull the trigger for a couple years... So we plan on visiting ShopSabre to take a look.
The lifetime support is a big plus as well as just being able to talk to a human everytime we call in.
I'm hoping they will have some of those post covid issues all straightened out by the time we make the purchase.