[Big S]

If you don't have the whole bed covered the holding power of the vacuum is diminished by quite a bit. Mdf has a fair bit of suck through (we can stack 3 sheets of 4mm on top of each other and it holds down fine) If you put a sheet of alloy or plastic on there and try and lift it when the vacuum is on... it should hold down really well

Shannon.

[cabnet636]

shannons right with all valves open it wont feel like much by just placing your hand on it but when you put a full sheet on it you will not be able to move it,

a temporary spoil board can be a piece of what we call her "pegboard" made of masonite or 3/4 inch or 1/2 inch mdf with the slick machined off,
you will need a spoil board bit.

i am still looking to get what i know is "trupan" for use as a spoil board
kiethg uses 3/4" mdf machined on both sides and tapes his edges

i am sure he'll chime in on this

thanks again jimmy007 i got my copy of type 3 today you are alright

jim

[Balam]

thanks jim

[Kent_Norway]

Arrived yesterday,and so far so good.
Having said that,just about all the small faults reported on previous posts have also shown up.
Construction /Components = Excellent
Electrical / Electronics =fair to Good ,(QC -Poor)
Yet to test accuracy,Kent,stay tuned.
All in all, happy with it at this stage,value for money.

Not to sure about the DSP,seems very limiting
ie Unable to control Spindle speed through G-code
some g-code not recognized, maybe mach would
be a better way to go,not sure could be just me,
another learning curve.

regards
jubee

Ho ho ho, that's great news Jubee. It would be very very interesting to hear you're experiences and if you have more pic's I PM you my email address if you bother. For me it's now either buying a SHM1312 and park it at my parents place 1250km from me and work with it during the weekends or buying a SHG0609 which I can fit where I'm currently at.... Feels not 100% right the first option since it's on the limit of my money break point...

So please keep me/us updated Jubee

K

[Jimmy007]

Jimmy, yes we will give it a go.

Your assistance to us newbies is priceless. You are the Aussie icon of cnc.

Rocket.

Not sure I deserve a special title Rocket....

I am, as clearly we all are here- trying to get the best from my Machines. Figure that If I can contribute where I can to the community I feel a lot better about what I take away.

It's all good.............

[Big S]

We use 2.5mm and 4mmm MDF sheets as spoil board, they get one or two uses and then we swap them, The 4mm usually get made into mirror backs so only get used on one side, We have just got some 2.5mm this week and will be using that on both sides eventually.
The bed on the machine is slotted with holes machined in the aluminum for the vacuum. The vacuum sucks through the 4mm spoil board just fine.

Shannon.

[Jimmy007]

If you don't have the whole bed covered the holding power of the vacuum is diminished by quite a bit. Mdf has a fair bit of suck through (we can stack 3 sheets of 4mm on top of each other and it holds down fine) If you put a sheet of alloy or plastic on there and try and lift it when the vacuum is on... it should hold down really well

Shannon.

I found in one instance where I had a lot of through penetrations and smaller parts to cut (likely to move) I had good results by cheating and placing a sheet of thin plastic where the tool had finished... You need to be sure of your tool paths and that the machine will not try and return to that area and cut- would not like to see the result of the spindle picking up the platic.

Now I prefer to leave small tabs- safer and more convenient.

[Jimmy007]

shannons right with all valves open it wont feel like much by just placing your hand on it but when you put a full sheet on it you will not be able to move it,

a temporary spoil board can be a piece of what we call her "pegboard" made of masonite or 3/4 inch or 1/2 inch mdf with the slick machined off,
you will need a spoil board bit.

i am still looking to get what i know is "trupan" for use as a spoil board
kiethg uses 3/4" mdf machined on both sides and tapes his edges

i am sure he'll chime in on this

thanks again jimmy007 i got my copy of type 3 today you are alright

jim

No worries Jim,

You will be able to download the English Manual from the Excitech website.

Have fun.....

I am still trying to track down the elusive truepan also- I am flycutting 6mm MDF both sides and re-machining top surface as and when required. The advantage here is that you are working with a dead true surface, I find now having got my tool sensor dialed in that where I have through cuts I can see where the bit was if I look hard but the spoilboard surface is undamaged.

I tried edge taping but just brush on some straight pre-cat, works for me.

[cabnet636]

i saw trupan being dissussed on shopbots forum and developed some idea it was the thing to do. i have learned its hard to get, $$$$$$$$ twice normal mdf, and is most commonly used in speaker boxes as it is 70% of the weight of mdf

kiethg is using mdf machined as described by jimmy007

kiethg any thoughts ???

i asked bill for his thoughts on vaccum and we may see some info from him

on my way to the farm back later
jim

[howzat]

Anyone after the Excitech DSP manual can download it from their web site here:
http://www.webshcnc.com/english/Download.asp
using the password "sign in".

[Jimmy007]

i saw trupan being dissussed on shopbots forum and developed some idea it was the thing to do. i have learned its hard to get, $$$$$$$$ twice normal mdf, and is most commonly used in speaker boxes as it is 70% of the weight of mdf

kiethg is using mdf machined as described by jimmy007

kiethg any thoughts ???

i asked bill for his thoughts on vaccum and we may see some info from him

on my way to the farm back later
jim

Another quick note for the users of Excitech standard VAC table setup- check your o'rings that define the zones to ensure they are seated correctly. In sliding a sheet you can manage to dislodge one.

I have found also that if a sheet is warped you can close the main valve and open quickly once maximum VAC is obtained in the tank- this usually provides enough of a quick suck to pull things down flat and the pump can then hold it pretty well.

[rocket67]

Another quick note for the users of Excitech standard VAC table setup- check your o'rings that define the zones to ensure they are seated correctly. In sliding a sheet you can manage to dislodge one.

I have found also that if a sheet is warped you can close the main valve and open quickly once maximum VAC is obtained in the tank- this usually provides enough of a quick suck to pull things down flat and the pump can then hold it pretty well.

Just did that very thing Jimmy. It pushes back in very easily.
We put a 2400 x 1200 x16 mm piece of MDF on the table and the vacuum held it very firmly.
We have now decided to make a spoil board for the whole table using 12mm MDF. Our table size is 1500 x3000, so 3 pieces. Each at 1500 x 1000 with tape across joins.

Whaddyareckon?

Rocket.

[Jimmy007]

Just did that very thing Jimmy. It pushes back in very easily.
We put a 2400 x 1200 x16 mm piece of MDF on the table and the vacuum held it very firmly.
We have now decided to make a spoil board for the whole table using 12mm MDF. Our table size is 1500 x3000, so 3 pieces. Each at 1500 x 1000 with tape across joins.

Whaddyareckon?

Rocket.

Recon that sound good.

I would use 6mm or even 3mm- our Becker pumps are probably at the limit power rating wise of what is required.. Particularily with your table size. If I knew what I do now I would have probably sourced a 10kw Min so I didn;t need to be as critical in set up to keep things still.

I would be applying some effort to mask off areas that lie between the edge of your sheet to be machined and the table edge, tape plastic sheet down, paint, another peice of MDF or whatever you come up with that works for you.

I quickly discovered that VAC sneaks through the path of least resistance and there is a fine line between firmly held and letting go.

[cabnet636]

your pm is full and will not allow access

jim

[cabnet636]

havr tried to use password "sign in". to get to dsp and type 3 manual with no success jim

[Jimmy007]

your pm is full and will not allow access

jim

Just made some space Jim.

Cheers,

Jimmy

[Jimmy007]

Sign-in to download area is a no-go for me atm also Fella's.

Might be that they didn't like having the password posted.

Not sure why there is a password anyway- stuff there is either helpful to a current or prospective customer or of no use. Certainly no commercial in confidence level stuff that I could see.

[cabnet636]

late here and sleepy

tomorrow will be another day

jim

[rocket67]

Hi fellas, we have been operating router manually as we are not sure of DSP operations as yet. Works great.

Fitted the 12mm spoil board and with 9mm melamine MDF board on top the vacuum was working well. The reason that we went with the 12mm board is to give us a good margin for error until we are up to speed.

The DSP manual would be a good thing to have.

Our thoughts about it so far - FANBLOODYTASTIC.

Rocket.

[lgalla]

Been late at work to-nite and missed lotasa posts.Just downing a few Holstienes,Don't have the same excuse as theAussies of 40C shop temperatures.Its frez'n here in Canada.
We have a 20Hp Busch R-5 vacuum pump on the Thermwood 5X10 and do not require to heat the shop in the winter.In the summer it is exhausted outside.These large pumps produce lots of heat.
As we cut textured plastics and rough ply,this puts a strain on the holding power of even a 20 Hp pump.The spoil board should be surfaced 2 sides and the edges sealed or taped.If cutting 4X8 on a 5X10 table seal the unused area with plastic film.
We use 5'wide weather stripping on top of the spoil board and drill 8,000 1/4" holes just skiming the spoil board below the weather stripping.It costs $80 for the rubber,but has been a solution for textured plastic sheets and warped ply.
Even with all this trouble 3"X3" cutoffs get sucked up by the dust collector and make one hell of a noise in the cyclone.The software allows what I call tabs where you do not cut through or leave holding Tabs.Solves the problem of holding small parts but requires secondary hand machining.ALso down spiral bits push the piece down,but compact the chips.Up spirals clean the groove but tend to lift the parts.
Make any sense?I don't know.
Time for Holstien#3
Larry