Sun spots, moonbeams or meteors messing with the bot? Just blowing off steam & dust
Sometimes I think the machines are purposely out to make my life more aggravating. Does it happen to you too?
Everything seems to be going great for some length of time and then for no obvious reason things start going screwy.
Last week the mini fridge decided on it's own to imitate the arctic circle and 4 cans of soda exploded inside of it. The entire tops of the cans blew off with such force that one stuck to the roof of the fridge. One wound up inside the freezer compartment. Dehydrated sticky soda all over the fridge walls and roof. Thank the malt and hops gods - the beer was alright!
Then tonight I was working on making a room divider from MDF. I had the H.D. store cut the panels to 2'x6' for me so they would fit in my vehicle. Got home and started with the cuts - first cut a gentle arch across the top of two boards. Change bits. Then the 3 faux raised panels on two boards. No problems. It came out exactly as planned.
Unfortunately when heading back to the home position after the second board was done, the router hit one of the clamps but since it was plastic and rubber it didn't hurt the bit and it appeared that it wound up at 0,0 so I put the third board on the table.
This board had different tool paths because of the arched top and because the over all width varied 1/4 inch less than the first two panels. Thank you Mr. Orange Apron for those precise cuts. No problem though as I adjusted for this in my tool paths.
Started the third board but I heard an unusual sounding motor noise, like a jet slowing down, so I immediately hit the S key. About 6 inches of the cut had been done and I couldn't tell if it was in the right spot or not because it was starting the cut in the X direction.
I sent the router back to home, but now the X was 6 or 8 inches to the left of zero! I had no vacuum on and it was really humid so surely it couldn't be static discharge?
The V rollers were all on the rails, no cables got dislodged or crimped. There was MDF dust everywhere and I had used my air hose to clean the table between processing the panels. Could that have created an electrical discharge? My 4G board seems unusually sensitive to fluctuations.
The computer is not connected to internet and as far as I know nothing is trying to get online to update. I'm using most of the settings "Black Viper" recommends.
I shut down the control box, waited about 30 seconds and restarted it. I re zeroed the X and the Z. The Y looked perfect. I then ran the file again and it went back to the same place it went before and I thought something just wasn't right. This time I let it complete two of the faux panels and I knew it was way off on the X axis.
I stopped the file, gave it a home command and it went to about 12 inches left of the X=0 before it stopped. One ruined board. And this time there was no strange motor noise.
I decided to shut everything down, blow the dust off me and take the dog for a walk. Tomorrow is another (hopefully better) day...
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