My very first use of the Longmill MK2.5 was to surface my spoilboard. (I used the surfacing software included in the gSender system. I have the gSender controller.) It made the first pass fine. Then I trammed the router and got it PERFECT. When I re-surfaced it was on the 10th raster pass and the noise was suddenly deafening. I stopped the system. When I brought the router to the xy origin (which it could not find, so I manually jogged to xy), I turned the Makita off. I reset the z “0”. When I turned the router on, three motors started moving all at the same time before I could send the job to start. SCARY. I’ve tried turning power off and restarting several times. AND the router was very HOT.
Sounds to me like your Makita router is just barely keeping the magic smoke at bay. Best to find a replacement router.
@GeneO Welcome to the group, Gene.
There seem to be a few things going on here.
- You said that the machine did not return to XY0 so you manually jogged it there. Did you reset XY0 after jogging to the correct corner?
- What depth were you cutting with each pass?
- What tool were you using?
- What were your feeds and speeds?
The Makita router is a perfectly capable tool, but as it is just a trim router, it does have limitations that must be respected.
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I did reset xyo
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First pass=.05
Second pass=.02 -
IDC’s 1 1/2” surfacing bit
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2200 (As prescribed by Andy on he you tube video for Surfacing spoilboard
17,000 rpm (I believe that is correct. It is whatever Andy prescribed in that same video.")
The Makita was really hot. I have another CNC from Next Wave and the trim router on that one never got hot. I don’t know what I should be expecting for heat, but I could touch it, but not grip it and hold on to it.
You reported a ‘deafening noise’ … that plus the large amount of heat indicate to me that your router is on the way out.
@GeneO Thanks for the clarification. I only found one video by Andy on surfacing, so I may not be talking about the same video.
That said, your numbers are quite different from Andy’s.
First, you set your first pass at .05". Andy used 1 mm or .04".
You are using IDC 1 1/2" bit. Andy is using a much smaller 22mm/7/8" bit.
Andy’s speed was 17000 as was yours. He never does say what he actually set the Makita to for the spoilboard run. As gSender cannot control the Makita, the figure in the surfacing module is irrelevant.
His feed rate was 2200 as was yours.
You did not mention your stepover. Andy used 40%.
IMHO, your issue was that you overworked the Makita. I don’t know why all the axes started to move when you re-started the job. That’s a new one. I assume that you stopped the job before jogging, etc. If you did not, then the machine may have been returning to where it was when you paused it.
But, the router being hot was certainly (again in my opinion) that you pushed that trim router too hard. The router may not be fried. It can take some abuse. However, if you want to keep using that bit, take very shallow passes and use a very small stepover.
Others may well jump in here to contradict all of the above. Fair enough. However, keep in mind that the Makita is a trim router. It was never designed to do what we are doing with it. It was designed to be hand held. We would never put a 1 1/2" bit into it and try to run it hand held.
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