Have had troubles with depth of cut on a VCarve with 3 clearance bits. Through alot of research and testing, I discovered a few flaws with my assembly. I then took off the spoilboard and re torqued all the frame bolts (20 ftlbs) also all the gantry bolts. Re leveled with a digital level. Put the spoilboard and fasteners back on with fender washers (Thanks Mark Lindsay) 10 ft lbs. I then put on a piece of mdf and started the traming process.
I have a SST 6" traming dial. I got a 8" precisely ground plate from a machine shop. Leveled the plate with a single dial indicator, switched to the SST and calibrated 0 to a single spot. The best I could seem to get is .0005 within 6". Adding shims and turning the nut.
The problem is as I do an X traming pattern I get a perfect edge on the first to second pass, then as it does more passes it gets worse, after 5 passes it has quite a ridge. .005 can be measured. the Y passes are good, very faint line.
I have redone the process of leveling the reference plate and adding removing shims. X still gets lines as it progresses.
Reached out to AVID for the third time still no response.
I found that the increasing X axis issue was the tape and glue method coming apart. Poor workholding. Countersunk screws into the corners and solve the increasing x issue.
Here is the interesting part I would like to post to possibly help another.
I went through the traming process, leveling the tram plate, setting up the SST Tram dial with a common reference. Then was able to dial in the X direction within .0005 and rotated the dials 180 deg. and it read .000. Repeated for the Y rotated the tram 180 deg and the Y was perfect. But when I ran a surfacing test pass the X was great but the Y was WAY off. I re set up the gear and measured it again and it was off .001 so I set it again perfectly. even turning the tram dials 180 deg still read perfect. made another test run. X great, Y still way off. Changed to 50% stepover, still very bad. I have been at this for 6 hrs. Just today, at my wits end. Could it be something with the SST Tram??
So…I took my digital level and set it on the spoilboard. it read 00.00. so I put it on the side of the spindle and adjusted it until it read 90.00. Ran a test pass and BOOM. Bang on!
Now it is the smoothest spoil board in both directions I have experienced yet.
Although I am happy I can get on with making stuff. I would like to know what I did wrong with the SST. It dialed in the X with little issues. Would like to know what I did wrong on Y .
Don’t worry, you will retram and resquare the system on a pretty regular basis. I make it a point now to recheck ever month. Part of the maintenance cycle. This time around I finally narrowed “a source of change” as being the cross members in the table moving over time. That too is now part of my 6 month check. The 8020 isn’t cut with precision so they are neither square nor the same length. Over torquing aluminum is a recipe for disaster.
Also, be sure to buy the consumables pack from Avid. You will go through the pinion gears and bearings pretty regularly. Seeing as you are trying to squeeze those decimal points you will replacing them more often than those who don’t.
Yes it is a 1/2 inch collet. could be although I did take it out and reset it a couple times. I also reset each dial. I am walking away from traming now I have it solved. at least for now. will revisit it again when needed. Possible I will find a solution next time.
It turns out this time it was the American Thanksgiving. I did nit realize… Happy thanksgiving!! I did get to talk to someone today but they did not shed much light as the issue is now solved.
I gave my 2 cents on how the instructions for assembly would have been much better with torque specs.
