Hello, I ran a surfacing operation on my C-beam XL, and it seems that I have some adjusting to do. I used the Openbuilds Control surfacing wizard, which ran most of the cuts laterally. The cutting tool used is a Whiteside 6210, which is a 1", 3 tooth surfacing bit. The spoilboard ended up with lines running in the X direction, which seems to have been caused by the router being canted slightly rearward at the top. That seems to be an easy enough fix, but the lines are much more pronounced on the left side, and they gradually lessen in thickness until they are almost not detectable on the right side. Does anyone have any ideas as to what would cause that, and what would be an appropriate fix? Left side, followed by the right side.
Hi @Aeneas, is there a possibility that your X axis is very slightly twisted at the left side? I don't have a C-beam, but I guess there are two places where things could be slightly out - where the vertical frames join the bottom side pieces and where the X axis joins the verticals. Alex.
Hi Alex, thank you for the reply. I imagine that was the problem. After looking at the base of the beam for the left gantry, I found that it wasn't fully seated and was at an angle that looked like it would produce a slight torsion consistent with the pattern produced by the surfacing, as it was leaning back a bit. Some of the t-nuts were loose, so I think that the beam may have migrated. I went through and tightened everything, and I may use some thread locker if they loosen up again. I plan to run another surfacing operation, then tram the router if it looks like it still needs it. Thanks again for your help.
Hopefully that's fixed it. If it was loose the force on the bit would push it out of line. Let us know if it doesn't solve the problem. Alex.
After squaring and tightening the gantry, I did a small surfacing test to check the position of the router relative to the spoilboard. After a couple adjustments to the router, I ran an entire spoilboard surfacing operation, and it looks amazing. I now have a very flat surface from which to work. Thanks again. The next tasks are to add limit switches, a dust shoe, and drag chain!
