Just jumping on here to release frustration as again this morning i start by running my machine into the stock clamps. This problem is not going to go away Inventibles, every person that uses your machines encountering this issue. I fully understand you people don’t give a flying rats ■■■ about the clamps as i have brought this up many times. Please for the love of CNC put time into designing a clamp system that works for 3/4" plywood. It actually ridiculous you don’t have this figured out yet as it is the most used stock. Seriously what are you guys thinking? Nobody should be sleeping at the company till this is figured out WTF!!!
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I have no dog in this fight, but I can tell you this isn’t an inventables issue, it’s a cnc issue. I have all kinds of clamps, but they still get hit once in a while. I make them out of wood and use brass screws so if they get hit, in most cases they get shorter. Blaming Inventables for operator error … it’s your responsibility to check to make sure the clamps aren’t in the toolpath.
I’ll do a dry run to make sure with the Z axis up way above the board and watch what happens. There is also this:
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I have no idea what you’re talking about, Brad.
I cut 3/4" lumber almost exclusively…and haven’t hit my clamps once.
This really sounds like a user error.
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I’ve ran into my clamps once and it was pretty annoying but it was my fault. I’ve figured out you can just get a shorter bolt to fit in the T track and use a 1 inch piece of waste material with a small rabbit on it to just put the lip on the plywood. So even if your cutting on your x or y zero the worst that happens is you cut through the wood. (Made mine out of some pretty soft poplar). Another great option I’ve been using on these speaker baffles I make is this 3/32 of an inch double sided tape and just set my Z zero value at 3/32 so I don’t cut through the tape but my depth of cut is still 3/4.
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I also have hit a clamp but also my fault. I have rigged a spring loaded mini sharpie to comnnect to router to ensure my paths are centered and safe works pretty well saves clamps and waste wood. I have also used double sided tape to the waste board
Thanks all for jumping in here! I have cut bolts and the aluminum arms to reduce the profile of the clamps. THIS IS ALL TOO MUCH WORK. The stock clamps run into the stock dust collection… This is an issue, they have sent me two new motors because of this issue. Point I need to make is add up all the hours we end users spend dealing with this issue verse the engineers and owners of the process finding a solution and distributing which is by far the more efficient route here. I believe this is important feedback for Inventables. Even though a vacuum system would solve for most applications there is still the question of strong hold-downs for hardwoods. I’ve dealt enough with this issue to see and easy change the would vastly improve throughput regardless of clamp style…
Solution For Inventables: Rotate the t-slot 90 degrees. This would allow varying width pieces to use the same t-slot clamps. This should also make your 2x4 less of different machine helping mfrg because all T-slot bars are 4’ in length
Additional Solution: Please Inventables engineer a modular vacuum system, maybe a 2x4 size. Nobody can get provide adequate vacuum pressure for tabletop machines. Vacuum systems improve the user experience soo much. I would pay between 3-4k for one on my 4x4. The vacuum pumps are the most expensive part but maybe y’all could get a discount at scale. This would be amazing and would help your company lessen the gap between your smaller, but totally badass, machine here and the big leagues
Please also provide 8’ sidearms OMG this would so badass
Interested how many are just running plywood thicknesses 3/8 - 1"!?
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Wait a sec…“a spring loaded mini sharpie”.
I NEED THIS.
Please elaborate. I’d like to have the XCP do some drawing for me, before I carve. What’s the design of this spring loaded holder you speak of?
This sounds like more of “user error”, than poor engineering.
If you’re running into clamps, it’s because you told the machine to.
Are you clicking “Simulate” before you carve? That shows you exactly where they head will fly. Also, when the head is moving between carves, raise it higher.
And, rather than rotating the TSlots, can you rotate your stock?
I cut hardwoods almost exclusively, and have zero issues clamping things. I just cut circles in 2" thick hickory, yesterday.
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I made it from a 3" close nipple 2 end caps machined the holes in the ends so i can put in router spindle and have about 1" of spring travel what i was seeing online was 60.00 or more. The mini sharpie fits right in
Pictures please?
Not sure how to get a pic attched
Vert frustrating to once again find that the shortfalls of this company end up in my engineering bucket. This company was supposed to be the difference for small startups like mine but i spend hours a day dealing with this machine.
If anyone claims user error then you simply have not used your machine enough to notice where simple changes can save literally hours a day.
Rotating the T-slots makes an insane amount of sense to anyone who has a brain and runs a CNC machine with stock over 4’ long. I am not going to make drawings. If you don’t understand this then take this as a reminder your “not there yet” with CNC knowledge.
This company has a tremendous ability to grow, The rotation of T-slots is absolutely crucial to unlocking more productivity.