Been a while since I've been around...

Been making stuff, building up the shop, developing tips and tricks, trying to make a little money, dealing with health/money issues, getting old..

So there are a number of issues with my table, design issues, wear issues, and general improvements I've been wanting to make..

I've been collecting parts for more than a year, and planning in my head some of the things I want to do... and as of Yesterday, actually set upon the project, and began tearing things down this morning....

Murphy's law says someone will call and has an urgent project they need done, just about the time I get it torn down as far as it's gonna get torn down)

A 'partial' list of issues and upgrades...

1) I've been wanting to add a second limit switch on the second X axis rail, so that the table will auto square... So I bought 3 proximity sensors from CNCRP some time ago (2 for x and 1 for Y) and also a PC card for the PC to allows to parallel ports to control the BOB, allowing extra I/Os (no longer having to make choices, will have 'plenty' for virtually anything).. also bought a second cable, and a single gang panduit box to be mounted on the side of my control box, where a cover with (2) DB25 jacks will allow a much cleaner cable routing and connection method than what I have now...

2) I have had issues with pretty good sized 'round cut marks' that are left whenever the X or Y axis change direction during pocketing... These are near impossible to sand out (with hardwoods) and I have been 'hiding' this problem by using a texture after pocketing on things that will be visible... This limits what I am allowed to do, and adds a lot of time and effort and bit wear that is unnecessary... So, there are several issues that are allowing slop and flex in my design, that I plan to address in the rebuild.. There was no point in even attempting to adjust backlash until these significant mechanical issues were addressed.. In the mean time, I've just been living with it and accounting for it in design using things like texture.... One of the things that was a real problem is my wooden gantry mounts 'visibly flexed' when the router bit was pushed down into the material... Also, they were not constructed perfectly plumb, requiring some creative shimming (that I do not fully trust).. So I bought some of CNCRP's heavy duty steel gantry mounts and plan on replacing the wood ones with those...

3) When I assembled my machine, there were no drilling jigs available to drill the rails.. I did the best I could, but a couple of the holes drifted enough where there ended up being a situation where the distance between the outside of the rails 'could not' be pulled to within spec... as a result, there are a couple places where the bearings lose contact with the rail... I squeezed them together as best I could, but this resulted in over-clamping the bearings, and I am convinced caused some out of roundness on a couple of them, that over time resulted in a couple 'clunk' spots as the gantry moved back and forth that was getting worse over time... I am replacing the rails (drilled them with CNCRP's drilling jig), and also all of the bearings...

4) I have become tired of my dust shoe, and want to try something that moves with the router Z axis... I was thinking of getting Kent CNC's shoe, but I have grown fond of the LED lighting I installed allowing lighting of the work during routing, and providing the ability to see issues/mistakes/problems immediately and do something about it before they completely ruined a material.... His shoes do not allow room to do this, and also, his hose connection is 4", where as I need 2.5" (I know I could use an adapter), so I will probably make something 'similar' to his design (with the magnetically attached brush holder).. I have already bought one of the brushes and will be ordering the other 2 shortly...

5) My material bed/spoil board system... I tried to mimic Gerry's MDF cam system, but not realizing he had used nuts embedded below, I mistakenly thought that just the force of the cam was enough to hold things in place... It wasn't and as a result, I am constantly using jigs that have embedded nuts... this causes lots of hassle and other issues, so I want to redo the entire 4' x 8' spoil board using embedded nuts, and replaceable fences..

6) My router bearing overheat and this causes the bits to get pretty dang hot.... This has been an issue from the day I got this router, and I think I got a defective or remanufactured router that had bearing issues.. So I am going to tear it apart and replace the bearings and brushes...

7) I have loaded so much material in the storage area under the table, that the wheels I bought are overloaded.. At least one of them is crushed to way out of round and the table can not be moved... I plan to buy heavier duty rated casters, jack the table up, set it on blocks and replace the casters...

8) I want to add the functionality of auto corner finding to the system using Gerry's screen set.. I know he has also updated it at least once since I bought it, so I want to add that functionality and bring it all up to date and possibly even add a couple of custom buttons that would make life easier for me...

And so the journey begins.... :cheers: