It's here, but not!

[ADAPT_Shop-Brady]

Our PRS Alpha 72x96 just arrived, but the driver cant maneuver the large crate out of the truck and get it onto the drop gate. He's worried he's going to drop the whole thing off the end!!! Argh, so close.
27441

[bleeth]

You need a forklift or ramps!

[ADAPT_Shop-Brady]

Yeah, they ended up getting one of our neighbors to use their forklift to "assist". That crate is in the shop but now there's another problem...

[scottp55]

Keep going Brady:)
We love drama and hate cliffhangers:)
scott

[Davo]

Trying to decide if I need popcorn or not

[steve_g]

Let me guess… you didn’t get the self-assembling model…
SG

[ADAPT_Shop-Brady]

Sorry, home from work now, cooled down from my dissapointment and can now share the hang up.
There weren't any table side extrusions or rails so I couldn't event start the assembly of our tool.
ShopBot and YRC are both looking into it. Matt @ ShopBot has been very responsive and I'm confident it will be resolved with rapidity.

[scottp55]

Bummer!!!!
But least the thread title is now even more accurate.
my bets on the shipping company sending awry.
scott

[ADAPT_Shop-Brady]

Had to go get the rails myself, thanks YRC... :p
But I was able to make good progress yesterday with the help of a couple great friends!
Electrician is scheduled for Monday morning and hopefully I'll be cutting the plenum by lunch! :cool:
27450

[coryatjohn]

My advice to you at this point would be to double and triple check your table for being absolutely as square as is humanly possible. The extra effort you take now will make your life a lot easier later. Check it carefully and use your brain as much as possible to be sure that not only is the machine square but the rails are absolutely parallel. Being off just a tiny bit can make thing messy later.

[bleeth]

Expect to spend a full day in squaring and leveling x and y and adjusting z plumb, making sure motors are set at proper pressure against the rails, etc.
John is dead on when saying how much it will save.
Resist the urge to "crank er up" and start cutting stuff until you really get it tweaked and fully set up.

[myxpykalix]

First of all...it looks like 3 kids with a new toy! I know that excitement, enjoy it.
Before you hook up any electronics at all take one guy and have him eyeball your rails on one side, and one on the other and roll your carriage back and forth keeping your attention on the wheels and rails to make sure they are ring in the center without any tension pushing it one side or the other.

[ADAPT_Shop-Brady]

OK. Yes, I hear the wisdom in all your responses. We did spend almost 2 hours leveling and squaring last night. I'll go over it again on Monday to see if our tolerances loosened in the late hours. Cutting by lunch is unreasonable, but I am itching to "crank her up"!

Why aren't there any torque recommendations on the framing assembly?

[coryatjohn]

>> Why aren't there any torque recommendations on the framing assembly?

It's not really important to get all the bolts to the same torque as it is to get them good and tight. I think anyone who's worked with machinery can guess at what would be a good torque. There are some torque settings in the gantry that comes pre-assembled. I think they require 80 ft-lb. "Good and tight" is probably a non-technical way of doing things. I checked my table after a year and nothing had loosened up. The problem areas are going to be where steel meets aluminum. I think on all those areas, lock washers are supplied.

What are you using as a level? If you're using an off the shelf Stanley that you got at HD or Lowes, I would say that's not nearly good enough. They can vary 1/4" in 8'. You need something a lot more sensitive if you're going to get excellent results. Not only does the table need leveling, but also the rails and across the rails on each end. You can do that by placing a sensitive level on the gantry and roll it down the rails. The bubble should not move at all and be dead centered. Try and obtain a machinist level if you can and use that. They can measure changes in 1/1000th in 8 feet. Much better than a standard carpenter's level.

Once you get your spindle or router mounted, find a piece of heavy wire, 10 ga or better about 2 feet long, give it a bend with about two inches near one end and then chuck it up in your router. The bend doesn't have to be exactly 90 but close. Once you have it in your chuck, lower the Z axis until the wire is just above the table, but not touching. Check the distance the end of the wire is off the table while rotating the chuck slowly. Move the gantry from one end of the table to the other while making this measurement. If everything is set correctly, and your table is flat, level and Z axis is plumb, the measurement won't change at all. The wire magnifies the issues so they become easily measurable even though they may be very small. It's a quick and easy way to test that you've got things pretty well put together. A further way to magnify the results is to shine a flashlight at the gap while laying it on the table. The shadow cast by the gap can magnify the gap 20 or more times. It's easy to measure with a ruler then. It's quite easy to see by eye if the shadow is the same from place to place as you move the gantry around the table.

Anyway, I'm sure you'll have good luck with the machine even if you're out a bit on level and square. A lot of how good your machine works depends on what you're going to do. If you're cutting cabinet parts, 1/32" error is probably good enough. If you're doing small intricate parts that have to fit together, 1/32" would ruin things. It all boils down to your mission.

[ADAPT_Shop-Brady]

Electrician will be by again in the morning to finish wiring up the control panel and blower. I think all I have left to do is mount the bed/vac table, plumb the vac hold down system, make connections at the control panel, and tie it into our dust collection system. Cutting by lunch was a dream for today, more likely for tomorrow! ;)
Here's where it sits right now:
27498