[Tom_S]

Hi all,

I just got my Orange box X6 assembled and I've run into my first issue. The spindle just hums when I try to test spin it I opened the box and the connections seem good to me, but is there a good way to test?

Edit a few more details: The spindle controller is lit up and I see the numbers count up on it's display. This is the water cooled spindle and I do have water running through it. Also the spindle spins freely by hand.

Thanks

-Tom

Final edit: In case someone else has this issue. I was able to get it going!
After watching some youtube videos on spindles I notice the power connection was seated much deeper on their spindles. I disconnected mine and double checked alignment. Connected everything back up and it's running great now.

[Tom_S]

Now for a real question. Is the post processor by Jay on the BrainRight site for fusion 360, the correct one for the Orange Box?

BrainRight - Modular CNC Controller

Thanks,

-Tom

[dharmic]

Nice to see a simple fix for the spindle, Tom!

Dunno about the orange box. Any orange box owners want to comment pros and cons, it's something that gets asked about by prospective buyers and some feedback would be handy.

Another question. Sometimes I start everything up (start the machine, the laptop, Mach3, reset, ref all axes, a bit of jogging etc to find a workspace zero) and then start a job (usually start with a tool change and Z height zero). But when it gets to start the spindle, all I hear is a whine from the spindle with no movement and the message "PWM bumped to minimum" comes up.

Nothing short of quitting and restarting Mach3 seems to fix this. Anyone else experienced it? Am I inadvertently hitting some random shortcut key for "fvrk it all up"?

[NickB00]

I had all the time in the world prior to buying my machine as work was pretty quiet.
Seems like everyone is busy at the moment, no posts for a while.
I knew that when I got my machine that I would not be able to go near it for 6 weeks
because work all of a sudden picks up. Murphy's Law!

[MambaDesigns]

Hi everyone, my first post here! I just thought I would chip in with my limited experience, it may be of some use to others.
I have recently bought the X8-2200EPL, the one with the orange box. Reason for the choice of this one is I am using it commercially and will be leaving it to run in a dusty workshop so would rather not leave my nice new laptop attached. Also I noticed on the Omio website that this version would be better suited in the event of a power failure and will resume where it left off. Don't know if that is true but our workshop is in a very rural area prone to power outages and I wouldn't like to be in the middle of a carving on a nice piece of oak when all goes quiet......
Machine arrived promptly, around a week to the UK, no damage, all assembled easily. Ran one of the sample files and all seemed well. I'm totally new to cnc so had no software and decided to give Cambam a try. Ran a file that I will be producing for a customer and it all went well with the default post processor. The only glitch was the original sketch supplied by the customer was drawn using splines rather than polylines. It added on some extra arcs in random places but redrawn with polylines it was fine. I did try the Fanuc pp as suggested in the Omio literature but I had to edit out some extraneous gcode to get it to run.
I then decided to have a look at Vectric Vcarve, it looked ideal for our purposes, simple, straightforward and relatively inexpensive. I tried one of their sample files but ran into problems with the machine not being listed so no post processor. I emailed Vectric and they promptly replied suggesting to try the NC Studio or DSP pp as they use .nc files. In the meantime however I had stumbled upon a WWGOA video tutorial www.wwgoa.com/video/v-carving-artwork-letters-with-a-cnc-router-0011765/ where they were using a Laguna IQ HHC. The thing that interested me was that machine also read the file from a flash drive in a similar manner to the Omio. Purely based on that, however misguided that is, I tried specifying the HHC pp and it runs perfectly.........so far. I've not done any complicated stuff yet but I'm hopeful. The Laguna uses .mmg files rather than .nc but it doesn't appear to be a problem.
One other useful source I found was a post processor that Mark Hedley Jones has created for the EPL https://github.com/MarkHedleyJones/OmioCNC-Postprocessor but this is for Fusion 360 or HSM and Vcarve wouldn't recognise it.
Anyway, touch wood (some nice brown oak actually!) all seems well but watch this space.

(Incidentally, our workshop is quite remote from the office so we use a "Powerline" internet extender that uses the mains wiring. When I ran the cnc however, the internet died and came back when it finished. We've had a similar thing when running a laser cutter. Plugging it into a different ring main circuit remedies it.)

Chris.

[dharmic]

Welcome aboard Chris - hope you get as many smiles out of the machine as most of the rest of us, and perhaps a few less tears too

[MambaDesigns]

Thank you Dharmic!

One problem I've just run into. I'm looking at making a dust shoe but there is a lack of clearance between the spindle body and the bottom part of the z axis. There is only about 3mm safe distance which rules out most designs of shoe. The only thing I can think of is to make a steel strap to go around the spindle. The other thing then though is the skirt brush would be very close to the cutter at the back. The alternative would be just to mount a nozzle onto the front half of the spindle aimed at the cutter, maybe with a partial skirt to the front side.

Anyone any suggestions?

[Mmpie]

Hi Nick and Mr Mamba, welcome on board.

Funnily enough I just dug this out of a box and remembered Nicks query about dust shoes before.



This is 3D printed, the design is free to use somewhere on the interweb, but you can see I had to cut the front flat to fit between the spindle and bottom Z plate.



It was crap so I barely used it, just the brushes getting a little stuck on a sidewalk was enough to make it move round the spindle a bit, and then it would fall off on Z travels. I also found it would clog quite easily and you couldn't really see what you're doing. So... if you can build a box around your router, much better solution. Then just rig up a small airline with a nozzle pointing at your cut area. Give it an irregular blast, or if fan powered just leave it on I suppose, and Hoover up at the end.


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[MambaDesigns]

Thanks for that Mmpie, I was quite enthusiastic reading your post but then I got to "it was crap"! Oh well! I had been hoping to build one similar to the "floating dust shoe" by cncswede on Youtube, most impressive, but alas it is not possible.

[Mmpie]

Thanks for that Mmpie, I was quite enthusiastic reading your post but then I got to "it was crap"! Oh well! I had been hoping to build one similar to the "floating dust shoe" by cncswede on Youtube, most impressive, but alas it is not possible.

If you can stretch to building a box round it, you will be a happy man. Not only does it contain mess and dust but cuts out a whole lot of noise as well. Doesn't need to be fancy or intricate. Practical. Mine is made of 18mm MDF boards, you could probably do it for less than a ton.


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[MambaDesigns]

I'd actually allowed for boxing it in at some point so I guess it has just moved up in priority. I welded up a stand for it in advance of delivery, made from 50mm square hollow section so it will be simple to fix panels onto the frame. I was thinking acrylic though, so I can keep an eye on it.

[dharmic]

I use a clamping ring very similar to Mmmpies to hold my laser to the spindle, it works fine.

I also find myself loosening off the spindle clamps and sliding the spindle up or down in the cradle on a semi-regular basis. Dropping it down a bit below the Z (if your workpiece and clamping is low enough to allow it) gives you more room, I find 10mm works well.

I think you might be on a winner with the idea of a steel strap. Something with a smaller hole than the width of the spindle and some tabs coming up that you can clamp onto the spindle with a jubilee clamp.

I don't have one, opting instead for an enclosure which lets me see what's going on at the tool. But, then, I don't work much with timber and I had room for the enclosure and cash to make it. A good shoe will reduce dust exposure to ball screws, rails etc and will be a heck of a lot cheaper than the enclosure was if it does the job for you.

[MambaDesigns]

Darn it! Just spotted that my machine has been reduced in price by $151, typical (mind you, the falling pound will have had an effect since I bought mine, maybe, at least that's what I will convince myself!)

[Tom_S]

Hi everyone, my first post here! I just thought I would chip in with my limited experience, it may be of some use to others.
I have recently bought the X8-2200EPL, the one with the orange box. Reason for the choice of this one is I am using it commercially and will be leaving it to run in a dusty workshop so would rather not leave my nice new laptop attached. Also I noticed on the Omio website that this version would be better suited in the event of a power failure and will resume where it left off. Don't know if that is true but our workshop is in a very rural area prone to power outages and I wouldn't like to be in the middle of a carving on a nice piece of oak when all goes quiet......
Machine arrived promptly, around a week to the UK, no damage, all assembled easily. Ran one of the sample files and all seemed well. I'm totally new to cnc so had no software and decided to give Cambam a try. Ran a file that I will be producing for a customer and it all went well with the default post processor. The only glitch was the original sketch supplied by the customer was drawn using splines rather than polylines. It added on some extra arcs in random places but redrawn with polylines it was fine. I did try the Fanuc pp as suggested in the Omio literature but I had to edit out some extraneous gcode to get it to run.
I then decided to have a look at Vectric Vcarve, it looked ideal for our purposes, simple, straightforward and relatively inexpensive. I tried one of their sample files but ran into problems with the machine not being listed so no post processor. I emailed Vectric and they promptly replied suggesting to try the NC Studio or DSP pp as they use .nc files. In the meantime however I had stumbled upon a WWGOA video tutorial V-Carving Artwork & Letters with a CNC Router | WWGOA where they were using a Laguna IQ HHC. The thing that interested me was that machine also read the file from a flash drive in a similar manner to the Omio. Purely based on that, however misguided that is, I tried specifying the HHC pp and it runs perfectly.........so far. I've not done any complicated stuff yet but I'm hopeful. The Laguna uses .mmg files rather than .nc but it doesn't appear to be a problem.
One other useful source I found was a post processor that Mark Hedley Jones has created for the EPL https://github.com/MarkHedleyJones/O...-Postprocessor but this is for Fusion 360 or HSM and Vcarve wouldn't recognise it.
Anyway, touch wood (some nice brown oak actually!) all seems well but watch this space.

(Incidentally, our workshop is quite remote from the office so we use a "Powerline" internet extender that uses the mains wiring. When I ran the cnc however, the internet died and came back when it finished. We've had a similar thing when running a laser cutter. Plugging it into a different ring main circuit remedies it.)

Chris.

Hi Chris,

Good find on the PP for vcarve. I have an orange box Omio also but I use Fusion 360, I can confirm that the PP Mark created works great for F360.

-Tom

[MambaDesigns]

Ok, new question! I'm looking to make a spoilboard. Up until now I've just been using the t-slots in the bed for workholding and have made up some m8 t-bolts to fit the slots (14mm wide) but if I fit a spoilboard the slots won't be available unless I make the board in sections. I don't really want to do that because I reckon it will be less accurate, also it means drilling the bed to screw the sections down. The alternative is to make a one-piece board and incorporate some means of workholding into it. I'm leaning towards cutting some t-slots into the mdf but I have some concerns about that. I wonder if the mdf will be strong enough to resist the pressure from the t-bolts especially once it has been resurfaced a couple of times. I don't really want to make the board any thicker than, say, one layer of 18mm board as I'm already having difficulties with the Z clearance. I don't fancy using threaded inserts because my workpieces are quite varied and I would need lots of inserts, also they would potentially need moving for each resurfacing.
It seems a shame to have some nice strong t-slots in the aluminium bed and not be able to use them! I cut some 50mm holes, 50mm deep in some pitch pine recently, using a deep morticing bit and it really needed a firm mounting.
I had read other posts about the bed not being particularly flat and now I know they weren't kidding! Each of the sections has a rather unhealty curvature across the width. I guess they are cheap extrusions.
Anyway, what is the collective wisdom on spoilboards? (I'm mostly working in wood btw)

Chris.

[Mmpie]

Chris, I made my spoilboards with slots cut thru them, so I could bolt straight thru and into the aluminium slots. Change to M6 hardware and get some drop in t-nuts and once you find the positions of the slots you can cut right through the board in situ with a 6mm bit and not really risk hitting the bed.

I will edit this post in a bit to add a pic

Actually I have a pic that shows what I did already:


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[dharmic]

Next time you're at your timber supplier, grab a few sheets of 5mm or so thick MDF. Cover sheets for pallets of sheet timber (chipboard, ply etc) work well and they may just give them to you. Cost bugger all so you won't cry about cutting a board to shape for each job. They're sacrificial so no point in getting fancy, you'll end up chucking them out in short order anyway. Cut the piece small enough that you can clamp down around it. Done.

[MambaDesigns]

Thanks for the prompt replies chaps! Dharmic, I have been doing a similar method to the way you suggest and it's been fine but one commission we have is to rout some pockets into small blocks of oak and I intend to set it up to do a whole bed full of blocks in one go. After checking the flatness of the aluminium bed I realised that it wasn't accurate enough, the pockets are 2mm deep and I could lose/add more than a quarter of that across the width of the bed, so it really needs surfacing. I've just measured the bed and there is a dip of 0.6mm in the centre width ways.
Mmpie, I like that idea, just having partial slots in the mdf should do it. I'm a little confused with the pic though, what are the allen head screws doing? Are they holding the mdf to the bed?

[dharmic]

Gotcha - I never bothered surfacing because there's that much flex in the bed that I kinda expected cut depth to be out by up to a millimetre anyway and a thin spoil board just flexed with the bed.

When that got too much to bear I made a new bed out of a slab of 12mm solid 6061-T6 aluminium with alternating dowel and M8 holes so now I have much, much better accuracy in depth across the bed. Most of the time I'm cutting aluminium and I've made up a kind of two part vice with stepped jaws so the workpiece is floating above a gap to the deck, no spoil board required. Not practical if you have to line up a tonne of them though.

On the old bed you might consider dropping a good thick slab of something a little stiffer than chipboard - even a bit of 7 ply - onto the bed. Drill it and screw down to the t-slots around all four edges and it might be enough to give you some stiffness. Face it with a 14mm cutter or something (don't forget minimum spindle rate is about 5000RPM), then route out a pocket 2-5 mm deep in which to push each oak piece firmly in X and Y, then all you need is a way to hold it down in Z. But then the whole arrangement should be stiffer, level and quicker to belt through the parts.

[Mmpie]

Thanks for the prompt replies chaps! Dharmic, I have been doing a similar method to the way you suggest and it's been fine but one commission we have is to rout some pockets into small blocks of oak and I intend to set it up to do a whole bed full of blocks in one go. After checking the flatness of the aluminium bed I realised that it wasn't accurate enough, the pockets are 2mm deep and I could lose/add more than a quarter of that across the width of the bed, so it really needs surfacing. I've just measured the bed and there is a dip of 0.6mm in the centre width ways.
Mmpie, I like that idea, just having partial slots in the mdf should do it. I'm a little confused with the pic though, what are the allen head screws doing? Are they holding the mdf to the bed?

Yes. MDF is bolted down using by those bolts, then you have the rest of the slot either side to use with drop in t-nuts, which are easy to drop in and remove as you will.

Dharmics idea is a good one. You could also put some sheet steel over the top and then spoilboard. He's absolutely right about Z accuracy, it can get all over the place. I forget but I think I was typically seeing around 0.3mm error in the middle of the bed as opposed to near the edges.


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