HS-1 Arrvied Today

[mattgatten]

My machine arrived today. I took the day off to get a table saw put together and get the workshop cleaned up. The FedEx guy didn't drop it off til nearly 6:00pm. With twin 8 year old girls, needless to say, I had just about enough time to unpack it.

Here we go.

[georgemyers]

Nice going Matt. Whats taking you so long to start cutting, you have two helpers.

Be sure to post pictures of your projects, I need some ideas.

My next project is a napkin holder I saw last month in a wood mag I get. Wife wants it made out of clear acrylic, so waiting for some acrylic rod I ordered before I start it. Not sure what is will look like, but keeps me busy.

george

[mattgatten]

Thanks George. Actually, I need to download the files from the site and start getting the PC ready, mount the PC892, do some 'air cutting', get some foam (for the first cuts), etc. You know the drill.

I added 4 tools to the shop so I was pretty busy this weekend. The new Rigid Granite Top Table Saw, Rigid Oscillating Belt and Spindle Sander, HS-1, and I built a router cabinet for my Freud 3.25 HP plunge router. I'm a planer and jointer away from having a complete shop!

I did have some initial questions for everyone. What is a good 'ballpark' feed rate for a newbie to start with?

Now these next questions are down right silly:

What are the two buttons on the front for? Cycle Start and Feed Hold? I have a good idea but don't want to demonstrate my 'idiot side' if I have them wrong.

Last, can I move the router mount up and down on the Z? I see lots of holes in the mounting plate.

If I can move the mount, where is the optimum place to put the router relative to the mounting plate?

Thanks guys,
Matt

[georgemyers]

Nice workshop. I bought the Rigid Oscillating sander a while back; it is one of the most useful tools for woodworking I have ever used. I’m loosing my depth perception and the doctor and wife got together and decided I had to toss the Jet table saw, miter saw, hand routers, jet lathe and a bigger belt sander I had. Guy I sold it to got a REAL good deal; wife wanted it out that week.

Had to do some real talking to get the Rigid sander and Keep the Romaxx.

Starting out I would suggest loading the 60ipm xml file. Been a while but I think I settled on the 300 ipm file. I tried the 600 and 1200 files but I don’t need to go that fast.
I do most of my projects in the range of 20-50 ipm depending on what I am cutting and the dept of cut. From what I read I tend go slower than what other people are doing. If I see wood burning I bump it up a bit.
I made my first cuts at something like 20 ipm at a .05 depth pass.

Cycle Start and Feed hold…..after you start cutting project and you want to stop cutting use the feed hold to stop it and the cycle start to start it up again. It will not do an immediate stop like if you hit the emergency stop. Not sure but I think it completes the last command and then stops, may be wrong on this.

I have moved my router up a few times when I was using one of my longer bits. Most times I can make the necessary adjustments just moving the router itself in the mount.

I have the router mounted where there is a little less than 1 inch between the bottom of the lower bracket and the bottom of the router base. One of the things to take into consideration for this is the length of the bit you are using.

[Nick]

Feb 10, 2009 12:58:44 GMT -5 georgemyers said:

I’m loosing my depth perception and the doctor and wife got together and decided I had to toss the Jet table saw, miter saw, hand routers, jet lathe and a bigger belt sander I had. Guy I sold it to got a REAL good deal; wife wanted it out that week.

Good Lord, that is the saddest thing I hope to read in 2009. My condolences to you and your manhood. I hope that by the time I am forced to get rid of my equipment, I'll be so sick of it that I'll be happy to see it go.

[mattgatten]

As a matter of fact, I cut 'Anything' 4 times last night. 5, if you count the 'air cut'.

When Ron and the rest of you say 'plug and play', you are not joking. After setting up my shop computer, plugging everything in, installing the PC892, and a cutter, I was running my first program in about 10 minutes. The directions were simple and straight to the point.

First thoughts, I'm loving it. I used a 60 degree V-bit on the first cut (1/4 inch cherry) and it left the fuzzy slivers around the edges of the cuts. Really ugly. I suspect I would need to make several passes with this type of bit to get them really clean, correct?

Then I tried a 1/4 ball nose a couple of times, then I did the last cut with the 90 degree V-bit. It was much cleaner. Plus, I didn't go as deep and I slowed the feedrate down to 50%. (With the 60ipm xml, that makes it 30ipm, correct?)

I know I'm going to need some type of I/O add-ons to make a z-height tool at a minimum. I don't think I need the modIO board because I don't plan on using potentiometers. I have seen guys use the Ultimarc (arcade game controller). I think that would give me all the buttons and signals I need. It's a lot less than the modIO and I don't know if there is any lag. Some guys on cnczone like them. Price is right too.

Any other suggestions? If there is a way to do it without a card, that would be awesome too. Maybe splicing off the MPG to a toggle switch. (Ron started with me down this path and I told him not to worry about it. I wanted to do it myself).

Thanks guys! I'll have pictures of my first ugly cut up on the site soon. ;D

[mattgatten]

P.S. For George:

I tried and tried to pull the little pins out of the router. I hated doing it to a brand new $200.00 tool, but my big old DeWalt Angle Grinder made short work of the pins. Now I hope the toothed mechanism in the base for the raising and lowering are enough to work. If not, I'll be raising and lowering it in my router table by hand. Fun, fun! Might be, yet another, router in my future.

For Everyone:

One more quick question. When cutting wood, what speed do you set the router itself on? I experimented. I got better results at faster speeds, although they weren't perfect.