Heiz High-Z S-1000/T - stops in middle of job

Heiz High-Z S-1000/T

I have been VERY happy with this machine but today it stopped in the middle of a job.

It is none of the usual culprits (I use a stand-alone PC with just about everything shut down and I have had no problems - so far!)

The controller shows no error lights and WinPC-NC USB shows no error.

I was cutting 12mm ply with a 6mm cutter with depth of cut 4mm when it stopped and turned the Kress spindle off.

The only clue is that I cut a LOT of stuff last week with this same cutter - no problem and with even deeper cuts.

Could it be that the cutter is blunt and in some way the controller recognised increased current draw and shut down? The fact that it switched the spindle off and stopped in its tracks would seem to indicate something intelligent was going on - but no error lights or messages to tell me.

I tried reducing the depth of cut first to 3.2mm then to 2.1mm with the same result - it got a bit further with the job each time but still stopped eventually.

Do blunt tools stop machines? (I have some more cutters on order from Wealden!)

..........

Just run the job again. This time I stood and watched the LEDs on the controller. The result of this was that I was NOT using my dust extractor.

The job was going brilliantly so I decided to suck up the shavings. A few seconds after turning on the vac the spindle stopped. I tried again - same result - a few seconds after turning on the vac the job stopped.

I decided to run the job with no dust extraction. It went right through with no problem!

So, new theory.

The vac is causing some sort of spike which is causing something to drop out of synch. Pity that whatever is dropping out does not produce some sort of error report - flashing LED or software message.

I have used the vac and CNC for months with no problem - so what's different now?

Maybe I need the vac on a separate ring main? That's the problem with theories - tying the right one down!