I’ve spent a lot of time on the CAD based on my measuring up of the one of the 2 sliders that was not broken. Great learning experience for getting into Fusion 360. I’ve probably spent 50 or 60 hours all in on this project to this point. Usual stupid stuff like not taking the time with my measurements of the existing slider, etc. I had 4 for the waste bin before I finally created the drawings with all the correct dimensions. It was beautiful looking! I only had one more procedure to do which was a very simple counter bore for the screws that attach the slider to the seat itself.
I load the part in the beauty little Carbide3D vice and centre up the part to contour the countersink. I hit the send button and the router heads off to home then directly to the spot for the countersink. . . Machine dies. . . Z-axis drops dead. . . Mill cuts right through the part and into the vice. . . Arghhhh!!!
Like every good little hobbyist I immediately reboot everything as it must be a problem with the machine. Go through the setup again and hit the Send button. Exact same thing happens. . . Got to Home. . . Go to place on part for the countersink. . . Z-axis drops dead. Geeze. . .
I do it yet again. And, oh ya, at this point the counter sink is now a hole through the part. All that other work down the drain yet again. Double Arghhh. . .
So I have to get smarter. I get the new version of UGS as that must be the problem. Yes, even though 1.08 work fine yesterday and the day before, I need 1.09 today and all my other hardware obviously knows this.
I do it yet again but with UGS 1.09. Same result. . . Z-axis just crashes. Triple Arghhh. . .
So I try just a clean “air” mill procedure for some aspect of the part I did yesterday. Worked perfectly! I did a couple more “air” mills including the procedure for the countersink. They all work perfectly! Big smile.
I do the setup for the countersink again and hit the Send confident that whatever gremlin was in the machinery was gone. Baam! Z-axis crash AGAIN!
Not happy at this point. So I start doing the math. Vice is ~ ¾” high. Part on edge is 1 1/3” high. Ya, you got it. Not enough room between the top of the part and the limit switch to accommodate the bit length combined with the CAM retraction height. I could have cried about how stupid I was. When the machine travels from Home to the start location, the last thing it does is a retract move. Just enough to hit the limit switch and immediately drop the Z-axis. Took it out of the base and mounted it directly to the aluminum bed. Located the part. Hit Send. . . Worked perfectly.
I’m laughing about it now. And you can bet that is never going to happen again on my machine!
