Jason's 5x5 Router Build

**LeeWay** · 12-27-2013, 06:41 PM

Excellent. Patiently waiting on the video.

**Jason Marsha** · 12-31-2013, 09:11 AM

No vid yet Lee but a few pics.

Screwing in 2x4 supports to fasten the plywood.

Split Tubing and plastic guttering cable management

Jason

**Jason Marsha** · 01-02-2014, 05:04 PM

All 2x4 supports installed. Capped with 3/8" MDF and leveled with the router.

Plywood base to be installed Friday.

**Jason Marsha** · 01-12-2014, 07:35 PM

First sample products off the 5x5.

Bitmap imported into and converted to vectors by VCarve Pro V7. Easiest software to use.

Two sawn balusters 11" x 30" side by side. Four of them will show up the pattern a lot better. Treated pine is an awful wood to cut.
There is some fuzz that is really hard to clean up due to the tight spaces.

This cut was almost a disaster. Cut at two 10mm (~3/8") passes at 40" min with a 1/4" upcut. The bit slipped in the collet dug up the plywood base but somehow the cut finished.

Then a large cutout popped up and got stuck in the bit, wow what else could go wrong. After that I recalculated the tool path with tabs on everything.

Jason

**Owen Gao** · 01-12-2014, 08:31 PM

so amazing those are ,studying

**Jason Marsha** · 01-13-2014, 11:45 AM

Wood flattening 101.

Stacking blocks to remove the cup in the wood.

Kiln dried wood is really expensive in Barbados but I will compare prices to 3/4" sign foam and see what happens.

Jason

**Jason Marsha** · 01-13-2014, 01:57 PM

Just checked the dimensions on the balusters and noticed the width was off by 1mm which corresponds to the X axis (belt drive). I wonder if the belt stretched
when it got stuck on the cutout yesterday for a few seconds.

Jason

**Jason Marsha** · 01-13-2014, 06:19 PM

Cut 3mm sign foam and strapped it to cable to create quick and dirty cable chain. Works better than I thought it would.

Got 4 of the balusters cut and the pattern shows itself much better. I will buy some sandpaper and sanding discs tonight

to get rid of that fuzz. I used a sharp metal file for the hard to reach places and it worked quite well.

Still worried about the variation on the X axis.

I cut a 250 mm, 200 mm and a 180 mm square and all showed the same variation.

I tightened the belt as well and the error remained.

Maybe I can figure out what the new pitch of the belt is and enter the recalculated figure into the motor config in Mach 3.

If I can't figure out the number I will switch out the belts tomorrow and see what happens.

Jason

**Khalid** · 01-13-2014, 10:01 PM

wow.. nice work and cable carrier idea is good. I have been using this type of improvised cable carrier using Flat Belt and cable tie since long without any trouble.

**CarveOne** · 01-14-2014, 06:55 AM

My smaller CNC machine uses two layers of vinyl siding that was cut into narrow strips for managing the cables. It has been working as well as commercial e-chain for over a year. It was cut from scrap siding left over from my workshop build. One layer was not quite enough support for the cables. I used a paper punch to put holes through the vinyl for inserting zip ties to hold the cables and the vinyl layers together. It isn't as elegant as e-chain but the cost was near $0 usd.

**epineh** · 01-14-2014, 07:59 AM

Originally Posted by Jason Marsha

This cut was almost a disaster. Cut at two 10mm (~3/8") passes at 40" min with a 1/4" upcut. The bit slipped in the collet dug up the plywood base but somehow the cut finished.

Then a large cutout popped up and got stuck in the bit, wow what else could go wrong.
Jason

You realise you are tempting fate by saying that ? In my experience there is a whole world of other things that can and possibly will go wrong

Great job sticking with it and making it all work !

Look forward to seeing that video.

Cheers.

Russell.

**Jason Marsha** · 01-14-2014, 10:10 AM

Khalid,
Thanks. So far it has been trouble free and I do not foresee any problems.

CarveOne,
Yes the cost was excellent as this was a piece of scrap and as you said it seems to be working as well as e-chain.

Russell,
I guess I am tempting fate, but even after discovering the belt may be stretched I am unusually calm.

I recorded a video but the quality was poor so I will do another.

Jason

**Jason Marsha** · 01-15-2014, 08:50 PM

Well Russell you got me good.

Today I got up and decided to sort out the belt issue and guess what, the machine goes haywire.

I narrowed the problem down to the Y axis after switching the slave and master axes.

I checked the wires from the board to the machine front and they were all good.

So I hoped I did not blow a chip but figured not because the motor was still moving but erratically.

So the last thing to do was disconnect the circuit board for an inspection of the soldered joints.

There it was! One of the commons on the Y axis screw terminal had a poorly soldered joint (had to use a magnifying glass).
So I corrected that joint plus a few others that looked suspicious, reassembled everything and now it works again.

Blood pressure back to normal.

Jason

**Jason Marsha** · 01-16-2014, 12:58 PM

Vid as promised.

Sorry its a bit fuzzy.

Jason

**Jason Marsha** · 01-21-2014, 07:06 AM

These are the four initial balusters, I will offer more later.

Its been been tough cutting this treated wood as it is very prone to cupping when the heat dries out the moisture.

I looked for kiln dried 1x8's and 1x12's but only 2x12's were in stock.

I will buy some green heart and see what happens as its is cheaper than pine in these parts but its so damn hard.

I avoid purple heart as it burns too easily and destroys the bits unless its really really really dry.

I have been making more newbie mistakes than normal since running this machine. The second baluster from

the left got cut in a single 3/4" (19.05mm) pass at 40" per min. I though I had it set for 3 passes. The advantage

though is that there are no pass marks on the sharp curves which means no sanding.

I snapped a brand new Whiteside 1/4" upcut spiral on the third baluster from the left using 1/4" (6.35mm) passes

at 150" (3810mm) per min router at 24,000 rpm. That was an eye opener.

In terms efficiency, it seems that cutting 3/4" in one pass at the slower speed results in minor sanding which saves

lots of time. The fast cutting at shallow passes works me a lot harder to sand off the pass marks especially at some the

sharp curves. Just to be clear I hate hand sanding.

Its been fun so far cutting with a larger machine and not having to consider material width or length.

I scored some 3/4" PVC foam board last night from a friend so i will cut a few balusters from that.

Today I will take the balusters up by the old man for approval and hopefully finish a solid surface picture frame which will

be for the grand-kids.

Jason

**Jason Marsha** · 01-22-2014, 04:04 PM

Picture frame for dad to show off the grand-kids.

A black inlay should show up the carving. The size is 17" x 14"

90 deg 1" V-bit carving the outer border.

There is a keyhole slot at the back for wall mounting.

I will post a video later

Jason