Need Help - Powerstick In/Outfeed Rollers Problem

[gerryv]

Hi, I'm wondering if any Buddy owners using the Shopbot in/outfeed roller assemblies have experienced this problem and can offer a solution.

In a nutshell, the mounting holes for the aluminum (roller) rails sit 3/32" higher on one side of the machine than the other. As a result, once the wide tabletop rollers have been levelled to the same plane as the powerstick, the table/spoilboard is being forced up on one side. This occurs because the outfeed rollers are too high on that side. Adjusting the wide tabletop rollers to bring them in line with the outfeed rollers moves the former off plane with the powerstick - not good.

The problem is that there is no height adjustment such as slotted holes built into either the alum. roller rails or the mounting holes on the body of the Buddy. Hopefully the attached pictures will help show what I'm referring to. The wide shot is from the Shopbot site to show what generation my Buddy is.

We tried flipping one of the rails so that the rollers would sit lower but now they are too low, leaving about 1/4" gap between the table/spoilboard assembly and the rollers. One solution might be to have a machine shop make up four mounting adapters, each with two round holes to mount to the main body and two vertically slotted holes to mount the rails in but that will likely run me a couple of hundred bucks.

Has anyone else had this issue and found a fix?

[Bob Eustace]

Gerald I have rollers but never use them. My take on them is they are only there to stop the Bot tipping over with a heavy job on the table. If this is correct they really dont have anything to do with accuracy. Andrew has pointed out in several posts that the table only needs to be flat where its cutting. I would ring Frank if you are concerned. I've never come across a pic of a Buddy in use with them fitted BUT I have quite a few of Powersticks being used on long jobs without them. I fitted a safety strap to either side of the table on the concrete floor, but I cant see it ever tipping as I'm tooooooooooooo cautious! Lets us all know how you get on.

[dana_swift]

Gerald- I know my buddy had "shifted" during shipment, so I had to reallign things before it was useable.

Its most important to find the correct problem and fix only that one. Otherwise the two others that were "fixed" but weren't wrong, are not just two more problems. One of those if it aint broke dont make it that way.

Everything SHOULD be able to mate up -+- square and flat. If the material on the powerstick drops on one side or the other it will make a divot in your material at that point as the effective Z will change. It needs to be flat.

I would take a coffee break and think about everything. Take a lot of measurements. Drink more coffee, then make the right changes.

Good luck, and post pictures of your findings. Others of us with similar machines can check ours against yours.

I will be particularly intersetd in Andrew Coholics comments, or Bradys. They probably have experience on that particular generation of machine.

D

[Ajcoholic]

Im sorry - I only have the 6' powerstick and no outfeed/infeed aux rollers (which I think are what Gerald is referring to, which are used to support the 10' powerstick).

I would have assumed that the aux support rollers would come with some up & down adjustment?

Is it not easy enough to make the round holes slotted? A coarse round file will make short work of the hole - done it several times on various other metal brackets, etc. Or a carbide burr in a drill, etc.

AJC

[gerryv]

Thanks much for the feedback Bob, Dana and Andrew.

Bob,
Interesting insight; I'd not considered stability in that light. Once I eliminate the problem of the built in rollers being too high on one side when levelled with the powerstick, I'll have to look into the effect of cutting with and without the rollers on similar workpieces.

Dana,
I'm with you on both counts. First, I'll follow your wisdom and really study all aspects before potentially fixing the wrong thing(s).

Secondly, I strongly agree that "everything SHOULD be able to mate up -+- square and flat." It seems critical that the adjustable onboard support rollers are levelled on precisely the same plane as the power-stick and left there, otherwise the workpiece is distorted and the X stepper more heavily loaded, so that's starting point from where I expect I'll begin.

Being an admitted tool junkie more than a craftsman I enjoy fine tuning machines to their max. so yes, I'll be taking pictures and sharing the fix and it's results on the Buddy forum.

Andrew,
Yes, we were a bit surprised as well that there was no up/down adjustment there. You're correct that expanding the existing holes vertically with a file would be the simplest solution. Using the carbide burr sounds like an approach the 'ol rheumatiz will thank you for :) Would you use serrated lock washers to eliminate slippage in the slots over time?

My initial thought of mounting slotted adapter blocks at the mounting points was based on not wanting to make any permanent modifications to the 'bot but that is probably unnecessary overkill and an unnecessary cost.

[Charlie Iliff]

Gerald:

My rollers all came through incorrectly drilled, so they couldn't be aligned with the machine. We fabricated 4 L-shaped brackets to attach to the frame and adjust the ends of the roller bars up and down. It sounds as if you also got one or more that was improperly drilled.

Charlie

[gerryv]

Thanks Charlie,
I'll definitely check our roller rails for that. Glad to see that adding adjustable brackets worked for you. It encourages me to go ahead and do the same.