Osprey Setup fine tuning

Leo Voisine

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5,703
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East Freeetown, Massachusetts
There is a bit of a step in the facing cuts so I wanted to get that out before making the legs to raise the machine higher.

I was able to get to tramming the spindle on the Osprey, to check perpendicularity to the table top. Front to back was factory set to within less than .001 over about 6" of travel. Side to side was .005 - .009 I got it to .002 - .003, but not happy about that. I need to drill the mounting holes a little bigger, retap the screw holes and add some washers. No big deal. I just need to take the spindle off and then remove the mounting bracket. I also need some metric taps. They didn't tap the holes deep enough, to the tip of the screw is jamming a little.

After I got the side to side to .003 I faced a couple of big pieces of 4x6 for my machine legs. It was better, but not to my liking yet.

I also have a little jerkyness in the "Y" axis when doing fine v-grooving at a higher speed. Not sure what it is. I will find it in time. I didn't see anything in the cut - that looked OK. I just didn't like the noises.

The machine is running FINE. The stuff I am after here is small fine details.
 
Do you use a test pattern of any kind for calibration? I set up different sizes of Square-Circle-Diamond patterns to check my calibration after reading about that process online.
 
Bill, yeah.

I did a straight line - then a square - then a circle. I did this the first day I had it operating.

Straight line tells you that a programmed travel of 6 inches and it will do 6 inches.

A square will move each axis one move at a time in both directions. It should measure as programmed.

A circle will move 2 axis simultaneously, then change direction. It measure play, backlast and dual motions. Again should measure as programmed.

I am not there anymore. Now, I want to calibrate and tram everything. If I bought a $25,000 Camaster I would fully expect that all of this would be part of the purchase price. But, hey, I didn't do that. I bought a Chinese machine at 1/4 the price, and I expect there to be a few bugs. I now need to find them and fix them. Yes there are a few.

One is the perpendicularity on the spindle. What I did was to clean inside the spindle taper and clean a 1/2 collet. I just happen to have a solid carbide shank tool about 6-7" long. I mounded the carbide shaft into the router spindle with about 5-6 inches sticking out. I mounted a .001 increment dial indicator on a magnetic base indicator on the table top. I moved the spindle so the indicator tip was touching the carbide shaft, parallel to the "X" axis. Then I moved the "Z" axis down and recorded the indicator reading. I lostened the spindle mounting bracket and tilted it as much as the mounting screw holes allowed, then lightly tightened. I repeated the test until I got as much as possible out. I was not successful, in that I cannot get better then .002-.003 I need to make a modification.

After that I did the same with the indicator parallel to the "Y" axis (front to back). That was less than .001 and I didn't need to make any adjustment.

To go a bit further, I will also test for the longest motion calibration. I want to adjust so that when I program 50" in the "X" and in the "Y" - the machine will move that far. I may also look at diagonals. I will also calibrate 10" in the "Z". I have already calibrated the "A" axis for 90*, 180*, 270* and 360*

Then I will do a little more motor tuning, acceleration, and max velocity.

Then I will do some repeatability testing.

I expect that I will be tweaking for a year or so before I am happy.
 
I had done a calibration check with a 10" circle and square and they seemed close but I wanted to be sure. My gantry is my Y axis and is 660mm; X axis is 1500mm. So, I ran a check on my X axis over a length of 50" and found it was off about 1/8". I tweaked the appropriate grbl setting until I had exactly 50" of movement with a command of 50". With only 17" of movement on my Y axis, I used the same value for the grbl setting for it. I checked Z using a caliper because of my limited range and tweaked the setting until I got 100mm of movement with a like command. Circles and squares came out just right as did depth of cut.

One thing I noticed when flattening a waste board was there was a very slight tilt across the 1.25" diameter. At first, I thought it might be the effect of the bit going one direction on one side and the opposite on the other. Checking more closely, my gantry was dead square with the long axis and dead square to the waste board. Further checking showed my router mount a tiny hair off top to bottom which was corrected with a careful adjustment of the locking bolts.

Since updating my machine with a new extruded gantry mount and a DeWalt DWP611 router, I can carve more quickly than before. Sure makes for a happier me!
 
Leo, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one tweaking all the time. Between all of us, we should document our tests and save others some heart ache. ;)

Since updating my machine with a new extruded gantry mount and a DeWalt DWP611 router, I can carve more quickly than before. Sure makes for a happier me!

Did I miss this update? I was wondering how your previous spindle performed, I know my rotozip won't last forever, but sounds like I should just consider updating to a larger router when it's time. I'd go with another rotozip, but they've changed the design and not sure I can make it fit a mount in the same way.
 
Did I miss this update? I was wondering how your previous spindle performed, I know my rotozip won't last forever, but sounds like I should just consider updating to a larger router when it's time. I'd go with another rotozip, but they've changed the design and not sure I can make it fit a mount in the same way.

Nope, you couldn't miss what I didn't post. Bad on me!!! I'm editing a post now to explain some updates.

I had no problem with the 300W 48VDC spindle that came with my SO2, but it does what it does. As to a mount for a newer Rotozip, I found it's really simple to layout what I want in SketchUp or VCarve.
 
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