The Shapeoko Forum

and yet another build log ... some of the info here has been posted already in other threads, but I still included it for the complete picture.

*Shipping and unpacking,

I wanted to get a shapeoko3 earlier, but the shipping into Europe (the Netherlands) was rather extreme in the past (400 euro). Now they offered an 150 euro USPS option I went for it. Due to the holiday season Carbide decided to ship with FedEx anyhow.

For my fellow Europeans, here's roughly what I payed;
999+75 USD (base+endstop kit)
154 USD shipping (for your location you can check the carbide site, just put in an order)
238 Euro duty and tax (most is 21% sales tax, almost no import duty, something like 12,- customsfee for Fedex)
135,- EURO for the makita router, found one on amazon Germany, in NL much more expensive.

All in all I was pretty pleased with the shipping and packaging, also the KIT was mostly complete, though there where a few small things. - Carbide did not ship my endstop kit in the original shipment, but they did put it on the invoice, so I paid customs & tax on it. In the mean time (few weeks later) they did ship it with USPS (it's in transit atm, USPS is not very fast). I guess the separate shipping will cost me about 25 euro extra customs fee & tax. Asked Carbide support about this but did not get a reply.

- In my pack there was no "carbide3d" sticker as I see them on the spindel mount of other machines, did they deliberately stop supplying these?
- There where no screws for mounting the fan.
- There where no M6 bolts to mount the electronics cover, seems in earlier packaging this thing was pre-mounted, not anymore, now all parts are packed in carton boxes i.s.o. the foam insert I had seen in some video's. Think these bolts are also missing on the parts list. I only had longer bolts so I printed a few spacers. for European customers
- the powercord included is US, so you need to get one for your country (just the standard cable like the type just on PC's etc..)
- although the machine is mostly metric, the Z-endstop posts have imperial screws (why on earth did they do this....) and the allen wrench needed (1/8") is not included and difficult to get in the Netherlands..

*The Build

In general the documentation/manual is pretty good. There are a few possibilities for improvement, but if you're the type of person to run this machine you'll be more than fine with the manual.

The small included Allan wrench broke off while tightening a grub screw, I could get it out using a torx driver. Think carbide should include better tools or no tools at all. I replaced the grub screw with a normal m3. Did this on the static GT2 on the Z-plate.

Halfway during the build I decided to change most of the m5 nuts with lock nuts. I did not really like the quality of the m5 bolts + allan wrench, felt I gould not tighten stuff good enough. In some places where possible, like on the Zplate, I repaced some screws with hex-screws. Also, f.e. on the motors I reversed the placement of the screws, to be able to put better force when tightening the nuts. I prefer a combination wrench over an allan wrench to tighten things. one of the V-wheel feels wobbly, like it was not fitting straight on the bearing, I asked to be send a new V-wheel.

I found the most difficult part of the build the tightening of the Z belt. The tightening using the 2 round standoffs is impossible imho, there's no way you get any good grip on these. The real tightening must come from moving the motor. I was thingking some kind of belt tensioner on the Z motor plate like i've seen in 3d printers could be an option here... need to think about that a bit more The tightening of the other belts, using the motors, was ok, as long as you do it with an extra pair of hands...

*first run

While I was waiting for delivery of my shapeoko I designed a plotter pen.
The first "hello world" was upside down, I quickly found out the Y-motor connectors needed to be switched (this could be more clear in the manual, the left motor plugs into the right connector) Also the hello world was plotted only half size, thanks to this forum it was easy to solve.
http://docs.carbide3d.com/article/45-ma ... -half-size

I tried a few test shapes and the dimensions seem pretty acurate at first eye.

*setup for cutting

Now it was time to move the machine into the shed for some real cutting.
I don't have the luxury of a large workshop, so I just created a little corner and made a simple table for my machine. For now a few edges around the machine are ok, but I'll probably make a complete dust cover later

*hold down

I decided to go for the quick and simple way for now. Made a MDF wastebord with screw in nuts. Also designed & printed myself a variaty of clamp sizes and types. Using a piece of M5 tread in a hand power drill made inserting the screw-in-nuts quick and simple. In 6 places I drilled a screw-in nut into the shapeoko waste board, to mount the new wasteboard onto the original. The los of 12 mm Z clarance is no issue for me atm. I keep the shapeoko in the shed, it's connexcted to the house so probably the climate is ok for the MDF, if not I can always replace the board for a plastic version later.

*first cut

Unfortunately it seems this is where the fun ends for now...
sofar, except for a very short test job I've not been able to finish a single job, not even a simple 15 minute job.... The SO3/carbide motion always stops mid job.

The things I already tried;
Run carbide motion from a win10 dell tablet (unplugged)
Run carbide motion from a win8 laptop (unplugged)
Plugin the shapeoko via a belkin surge protector (no idea if this thing filters anything, but
just tried)
Plugin the makita via the surge protector.
Plugin the makita into a different power group (extension cord to another part of the house, not
very practical).
Did all this also with the vacuum cleaner off

It stops at different points into the job every time.
I did plenty of "ballpoint" runs without ever having an error.(although on the win8 laptop I did get a "grbl error", and needed to plug into a different USB, the tablet never had any of this)
I ran air jobs with the makita off, without any issue.
when the makita was pluged into the same powerstrip as the SO3, it would stop in the beginning of a run, say first minute. When I plugged the makita in another power group it took longer (I already felt victorious..) but it still stopped after about 15 minutes.

About the electronics, I notice my Ultimaker 3D printer has all the stepper wires twisted in
pairs, while the shapeoko steppers don't have this.... would it be wise to still do it? If so how
(which colors to combine in the twist?)

I've read the complete "S3 stops mid-job" tread in the forum, I must admit I'm a bit disappointed. I was thinking that buying into a version 3 machine would give me something reliable, but it seems I need to put in more effort than expected to get this thing working. Just ordered an USB isolator, will think of the other measures.
I still have some proto-pasta conductive & iron filled PLA, maybe I can use this to print cover shields for the electronics board.

Twisting the leads should help — just don’t do it so tightly as to make them difficult to fasten.

The Carbide Motion machine control board is new, and seems to have fewer issues than the old Arduino gShield pair, modulo the static and grounding USB disconnect issues.

Eventually we’ll get this all sorted out — in the meanwhile we should all be patient about it, and if the recommendations on the forum / wiki don’t work, contact support@carbide3d.com

The job ending before 100% may be related to: http://carbide3d.com/blog/2016/disconnect-problems/

Shoot an email to support and we'll get it taken care of.

-Rob

robgrz wrote:The job ending before 100% may be related to: http://carbide3d.com/blog/2016/disconnect-problems/

Heh Heh Heh

The only problem with that theory... is that not everyone who has hit the problem is using a DeWalt. eg I'm using a Kress

Still, it sounds like the board with additional ESD protection might be the right solution anyway.

Isn’t the Kress even higher draw / output than the Dewalt?