I am wondering where I should put the Xcarve. I want to put it in the garage (detached) but it gets below zero here so I am not sure if that’s such a good idea. my other option is put it in the basement and make a sound dampen space. Is there a recommended temperature for operation?
The thing you do not want is moisture
Electronics can handle the cold.
Just not extremes or sudden changes.
The chips and board will be fine. What you have to watch out for is the Belts, bearings, LCD’s, Motors(cause they use bearings)
The lube in the bearings have temperature rates and can gum up in extreme weather.
As long as its not -40 out then I think you will be ok with the bearings.
Its hard to find datasheets on the lube used in the bearings as most are not concerned with it.
The belts can handle a range of temps. Here is a list of materials and the temp range.
Any LCD’s Like your laptop screen will be affected by the low temps.
You can google to find out just the temp a laptop can handle.
So if a laptop or ipad/tablet cannot handle it then you should not put the X-carve into that temp.
Be weary of extremes and moisture. These can affect things as well.
Usually its not too much of a concern but humidity can cause you grief if its very high when going from extreme cold to a warmer temp.
Hope this helps.
1 Like
I use mine during the winter here in Canada. My shop is attached to the house and insulated, but not heated. The shop get down to about -5C at most and I never have a problem.
Should be fine I have not been heating the shop lately it has been 5 to 13 deg on the coldest days. My computer monitor is just a little dim at startup. Condensation in the cnc controller and power supply should not be a issue with the cooling fans running keeping condensation from building up But if you want to bring the temp up a bit power it up a half hour ahead of time. The steppers being on hold should warm up a little you could also do some air cutting. But so far I have not had a need for any of this.
thanks for the info. Everyone around here says it doesn’t consistently get colder then about 10 F, so I figure with what everyone said it should be fine in the garage, I will just start it up early. I think I will go get a hygrometer and stick it in the garage just to be on the safe side.
I have the opposite problem. I want to put my Xcarve in the garage but today it was 41Degrees Celsius in there.
That is 106Degrees Fahrenheit, whilst I am not big fan of minus something or other, I would give anything for a cool breeze!!!
So I dont not have problems with my x-carve in the cold it seems to work fine
if you are trying to cut something really accurate you might be mindfull of the temp change and things moving
but I do know if say you plan on upgrading your machine with a spindle or linear bearing z-axis you need to warm up your spindle before use and also move the z-axis around to get the lube in the bearings flowing
you can use a warm up procedure similar to what I use on my bigger machines
basically create a circle and stepdown by say .005" and go around and around for around 20minutes and if you have a spindle start out slow and then work your way up ot max speed over 20 minutes or so
best way to do things on that circle is to create a oscillating toolpath around the circle
Wow, I wish! I woke up this morning to -32C, -43C with the wind! (not that the windchill affects the x-carve/shop). I’m guessing my shop will be a nice 0C tonight.
I’d previously asked this question of our Inventables customer success team. The response was that the important consideration, as mentioned above, is humidity.
Beautiful!!
Thanks for that, 20 years at sea I always did enjoy the wind in my hair (what’s left of it).