CNC.xyz

So I DID NOT break another router mount, but with great chance of breakage comes great responsibility. I was cutting the other day and as the machine was happily plodding along it bogged down and set off one of my limit switches by vibrating the table enough. I turned off the router and checked it out, I noticed the Z axis was lower by 1/2" than it was reading on Mach3, so I reset it and back tracked in the G-code a little and set it off again. A minute later the same problem so I turned off the router again and raised the Z axis and the router dropped to the work piece. What happened was the wing-nut vibrated loose. This brings up an issue, with the plastic of the router mount being prone to breakage and not being able to tighten the wing-nut down safely, the router may just vibrate it's way out if the machine at regular intervals, to combat this my current fix is a locknut with a nylon insert to keep it from backing off. I think in the future the mount should be cut from abs or a similar plastic, which is going on my list of projects to do. So be careful out there and remember to check your nuts and bolts each time you use the machine.

Tommy

We have had trouble finding a cost effective and thick (maybe 1-1/4" to 1-1/2") plastic to use as the router mount. Right now we are considering going for a more flexible router mount using a poured plastic resin, but ultimately a milled / machined version would be better. We are also considering making blanks from poured resin, and then milling them to the final shape.

If you have any suggestions on what to use or how to improve.. please let me know!

I would ultimately like to replace everyone's router mounts that are having issues.

do you have any specs on the plastics you are using rigid and flexible? I am pretty comfortable with the Smooth-On brand of resins and might be able to suggest a plastic from them. Or maybe a composite of some kind, my first thought is a steel band that is embedded like the Oilite bushings in the rest of the z axis. I'll post here on what I end up trying to do.

TL

I've got the prototype more flexible mount from AJ if someone can do some testing on it and post the results here. First one to respond, I'll ship it out to you.

I have had an aluminum mount made and I'll update some picture on my build site when I get to mount installed.

Dale