Mike… Seeing you get it working is for me about 99% the great feeling I had, so THANK YOU for letting the group know. Happy carving!
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I took your advice @StevePrior ! The screws arrived today and were immediately attached… Thanks.
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Looks good…make sure you loctite them in as well 
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If they’re the nylon patch screws no Loctite needed.
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A note on nylon patches: They wear out. If you take them in and out multiple times, they lose their effectiveness each time and may not actually hold after too many times. So just beware.
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@JustinBusby I shouldn’t be touching them now they are in… but if for some reason I find myself needing too, I will loctite those suckers the second time around.
@StevePrior Yes I did get the nylon patch versions. Thanks again.
Just a quick update…
I’ve been carving away like a mad man now for a month or so… The x-carve has been performing brilliantly and I’ve had no XC issues at all. I’ve had plenty of id10t issues that may have been my fault, but other than that… enjoying the machine … finally!
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That is really good news. Glad you didn’t give up on it.
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Yes patience!
Glad you have it working however I looked at your belt pic and you really need to read Phil’s tips on the belts area. I did a modified version of his but its solid and you will get the correct tension which will help.
I bought a scale and did mine according to his tips and I have not had any issues.
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Awesome story, brought some levity and a smile to my face while reading. Congrats on getting it going. As well congrats on working on such prestigious films
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Similar problem although I was lucky to figure it out in a few weeks.
My opinion; Inventibles needs to include 50 sheets of paper in every order that says “Hey Dummy! Check the Set Screws!”
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Stickers.
…or a maintenance list (like for aircraft).
2 hrs – check set screws.
8 hrs – check set screws. check belt tension.
24 hrs – check set screws, belt tension, dust out controller
80 hrs – all the above. Catch up on posting completed projects on Inventables.
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HI
GREAT story. I have 2 X carves, a 500mm I bought new, and a 1000 I bought used. The 500 (usually) plants me in the “smug bastard” camp. The other one, however, does NOTHING but ■■■■ me off.
I feel your pain. Guess I’m tearing down to the studs this weekend and starting over, the RIGHT way.
The carves look great BTW. Was that all in easel?
Thanks
John
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Hi Mark, boy to I understand that feeling of finding a solution to a long difficult problem. I spent 37 years working on large scale laser printers and copiers. Some of these machines cost near half a million dollars. We never had the option of taking months or even days to find a solution but some of the troubleshooting was brutal. After hours and ten of thousands of dollars in parts and downtime we would sometimes find something just as simple as you found. That taught me a lot about patience. Your story tells a lot about your determination to get a solution to a problem. Nice job. Great story telling by the way.
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Was just reading some random posts tonight and happen to read your story. I have to thank you, not for fixing any issues I was unaware of, but for literally making me laugh out loud when I read the following sentence during the frustrating period you had with your XC :).
So thanks for the laugh, BTW sounds like an awesome job you have there.
Brian
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Thanks Brian, I can laugh about it now… but I was hours away from smashing it to pieces!
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Thank you for taking the time to share your story. I also fall into the category with those struggling to still find the value in this. Even today I debated the options of what to do with this… My carves cut at different depths across the board making it almost impossible to get a proper carve on any piece that is longer than 8 inches or so. Once things cross that length the depths vary from side to side… GRRRR… I have tried building a new table to ensure things are flat, tweaked the waste board and just yesterday I was attempting to place a shim under the piece to compensate for the height variance and once again, no luck. I am glad to see you are one of the lucky ones who have resolved their issue! ENOY and have fun!!
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@BrendanRobichaud Have you tried surfacing your wasteboard? You can have the best table in the world but have a crappy surface. These boards are mdf, any small amount of moisture will have a adverse effect. Surfacing should be on your pm list for your router…
I surface regularly and also use a second 3/4" mdf board on top of that which i also surface.
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Thank you so very much for taking the time to help me. I am going to try replacing things once again and see how that goes. I seem to be about an 1/8 off. My next issue seems to be the Z axis seems to be a bit noisy while travelling up and down the spindle (as the height changes). I randomly have to reattach the wire in the control box so maybe that is the issue. However, I will start with replacing the waterboard and move forward one step at a time. Thank you once again Ken!
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Hey Brendan, sorry, just saw this. I would absolutely second what @KenTimblinSr said about making sure your wasteboard is absolutely flat. I stuck a router bit in mine and move the router back and forth over the whole board once I’d built it to make sure the surface was flat relative to the z axis. I was amazed just how much it varied in cut from one side to the other. That fixed my depth issues instantly. Also, I went through a stage where I used a glue gun to stick pieces down. I ended up seeing that this introduced another variation in height on the piece so went back to the clamps.
I know it is frustrating… I spent 18 months or so thinking I’d wasted my money… But once you get it working… you will enjoy the crap out of it. For some, they don’t have the head ache and for others (me and you) we get an unfair volume of newbie issues… but stay on course… you will be carving soon.
As a side note… I’m using mine right now to make parts for a cassette coffee table that I’m making for a friend… Couldn’t do it with the x-carve!
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