X-Axis V-Wheels and Eccentric Nuts Keep loosening

I’m not sure how much of a difference it would make, but I’m interested to see what will happen. Make sure to let us know, please!

Yes. It does seem silly, but working in IT with Computers for 12 years makes you think of testing some odd things that surprisingly return results sometimes. We’ll see what happens

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I agree with this method. I had noticed my old spindle (stock 300w) was a bit out of square, I readjusted my v-wheel in a similar manner and it seemed to do the trick! I’m upgrading to the Makita RT0700, so I’m sure I’ll be looking at this again soon.

Well I just don’t get it. I’ve gone through the whole loosening and tightening thing on the eccentric nuts for the X-axis countless times and test by jogging one time and it will work and then it skips. I loosen and tighten and jog test several times and its good. So I do a test carve, and 10% in it starts going off track and screws up the job. I think, is it not reading the gcode correct? But then when I test it by just jogging it things slip on occasion. Like I said I don’t know what to do. Any more ideas?

You might need to adjust your stepper
pots. Also check that your belt gears aren’t slipping on the stepper shaft.

I’m happy to report a successful test carve after a few adjustments; I checked and tightened the x axis belt gear (thanks Rusty) and I turned up the current a little more for the x axis, and I moved my wood 1 inch in on the x axis, zeroing an inch to the right because the far left seems a little tighter as the x axis travels there. Will tweak that when I need to. I hope to do a more complex carve tomorrow after checking things over, and we’ll see how that goes. Wow. Does it feel good to make some progress on this. Thanks for all the input from everyone

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Your welcome! Glad to hear your making progress!

Here’s how I set up my eccentric-nutted V-wheels. I haven’t had to make a single adjustment to them since I’ve done this (almost 2 months ago!)

Basically I spun the eccentric nut down to the head of the bolt, then used a Nylock nut on the other end. So it would go:

Bolt Head -> Eccentric Nut -> Carriage -> Spacer or Washer -> V-wheel -> Washer -> Nylock Nut.

The trick is to really crank down the nut against the bolt head. This locks the threads together and allows you to adjust it with an allen wrench.

This has a bunch of advantages, notably that you gain much more precision with the position of the eccentric nut rotation. You loosen the nylock with a wrench, rotate the cap head to the right position, then tighten the nylock. Just like adjusting valve clearance or tappets in a car. It also made it much easier to work inside the spindle carriage. Trying to get an allen wrench in there was quite frustrating. It’s much easier to get a regular wrench in there though I’d recommend using a ratcheting wrench.

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That is very clever solution.

How long are those M5 bolts? I like the idea, and ran across some 50mm M5’s at the hardware store today. They are hex head, which means I could use 2 wrenches instead of an allen key.

They are the standard bolts that came with the machine. Without going back in the instructions to see, or taking the machine apart to measure, I’m not sure. I believe all the gantry bolts were 25mm, but the Z axis ones were longer to accommodate the spacer.

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I believe the bolts are listed here in the assembly instructions: Redirecting… and then one can simply flip over to their store under fasteners here, and follow the part number: https://www.inventables.com/technologies/button-head-cap All the parts listed there have lengths and so I would just match up the length of the one from the assembly directions to the one on the parts listed under fasteners in their store

If you opted for the DeWalt, you’ll have to get longer bolts to do this mod for the Z-Axis, as the mounting bracket is much thicker. But, you’ll also have to get longer bolts to replace the three that clamp the router into the bracket anyway, as the ones Inventables includes just aren’t long enough, unless they’ve since changed them.

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The eccentric spacers I have are steel (stainless) but the low profile ones are brass. Not sourced from Inventables though.

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Just a follow-up on the v-wheel adjustment / mod from back in January. I know it was somewhat controversial when I first presented it, but damn…it works well. On the one occasion I actually had to adjust the wheels, I was originally only going to adjust the one that needed it, but it was so easy and quick I was able to check and re-adjust all of the wheels in about 10 minutes.

I just made this change to the X-carriage on mine, except I used hex head bolts and used regular nuts and threadlock on the inside. I’m going to let it cure for another day or so, but I suspect this will be a lot better than having to attack them from the inside with an allen key cut short.

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I’m glad this mod is finally getting lots of traction!

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I used your mod when I built my machine back in December and have not had any problems :+1:

How many eccentric nuts , Do you use?

Thats a good idea Mike I’ll try it out tomorrow thanks