weight limits for a buddy 32

[cowboy1296]

I have a buddy 32 prs standard with a 4 ft power stick. i use a lot of rough cut wood which means i have to use my table surface bit to square up the boards. yesterday i was planing a plank of black walnut that weighs 55 lbs. while it was running along the x axis i notice the buddy momentarily bind up and then continued to plane a couple of times. i noticed that my x setting was off about a quarter of an inch. I speeded up my feed rate of 2fps just a tad and no longer had the problem. do you think the weight is what caused my problem. at this point there are no issues to deal with since i was only planing but when i start to cut this large sign i do not want any issues.

[dana_swift]

Rick the issue with weight is at what point does the friction become enough that the stepper motors lose counts. That is exactly what it sounds to me like you are describing. I am presuming you have a Buddy32 Standard.

Several things you can do is make more shallow cuts, especially at the beginning when the log is the heaviest. Then as the weight drops make heavier cuts. The cutting forces add to the friction from weight.

Slowing the cut helps, and I will let someone with a standard buddy speak more on the speed/weight issues. That makes smaller chips, so I recommend you try the shallower cut depth.

Also use your sharpest newest bits which will have the lowest cutting forces, that might help also.

That is exactly the situation the alpha systems take care of, they detect that the weight has caused a loss of accuracy and add additional steps to correct the error. That is of no concern if you dont have one.

My buddy 32 is an Alpha, and I haven't ever seen missed steps from weight with any of my powersticks. I have had it fault when something is binding, but it detects the error and shuts down the driver.

You might ask SB tech support what they have experienced as a practical weight limit. There is no set number as it depends on so many factors.

If I had a wish list item for future shopbot development, it would be a %power readout on each axis to let me know how much I could increase the depth of cut without stalling the motion system at the weight of part I am cutting.

Our buddies are more sensitive to this than the gantry systems, as the part weight has to be accelerated back and forth all the time.

Hope that helps

D

[cowboy1296]

thanks. yes i do have a 32 prs standard with a 4 ft power stick. i am not in any kind of business and most of my stuff has been donated to a church or veterans groups. the one i am working on now goes to a privately funded organization that supports wounded vets returning from the middle east. where i am going with that, is for the occasional sign i thought that the prs standard would fit my needs. i found the black walnut to be softer then some oak i worked with recently and my cut depth was shallow, maybe a tenth of an inch. the oak caused me no problems but i was working with a lb board also.

if it is the weight that is causing the problem for this project i can cut off a foot of a 4 foot board and maybe i should to reinsure it does not happen during routing.

thanks again

[cowboy1296]

got feed back from tech support, 55 lbs should not be an issue and they suggested checking mechanical settings and grease it. a question on grease dana, do you put so much grease on it that its dripping off or just a thin layer.

[erik_f]

I use lithium grease and put on a thin layer. There may be better types of lube for your rails, rack and pinion, but that is what I use. I wipe down the rails regularly and re-grease. I generally just use paper towel.

[cowboy1296]

I wiped them down, regreased and my 55 lb board worked just fifne. Thanks for the reply

[dana_swift]

Rick- just noticed your post.

I use white lithium grease, and probably dont do it as often as I should. But its just a dab on the rack gears in several places. I run each axis to its limits a few times to spread the grease. There may be a much better way, but thats what I do.

I dont want anything greasy dripping on good hardwoods! I dont grease my rails, probably that is a good idea, but the V rollers should not be sliding over the rails they should be rolling. The bearings in the V rollers may need greasing, but I have not so far. I could add the V rollers to my maintainence if that is a good idea.

D

[ken_rychlik]

They make a can of spray grease for lubing garage door tracks without collecting a bunch of dust and dirt. I get it at the big orange store and I like it much better than the old brush and grease bucket.

[cowboy1296]

i like that idea but what is it called?

[mtylerfl]

i like that idea but what is it called?

Hi Rick,

I use TDL (called...The Dry Lube). The spray can has a big "TDL" on it. Home Depot and Lowes has it here.