SB Link Tenon Dado Cut Direction

[Gary Campbell]

I have just returned from Nevis, West Indies doing a machine setup and training. During trial cuts using eCabs and the SB Link, I noticed that the tenon dados cut in climb mill direction and they are sized smaller than design, the full dados cut in conventional and the profile cuts climb, then conventional, as I set parameters for. Is this by design? Anyone else notice this? Did not save an export as internet was down there for days.

[Gary Campbell]

I have just had opportunity to repeat this on my machine with a 3/8 bit and found that it is not machine or bit specific. After cutting 6 sheets of parts, most of which had tenon dados, the dados are cut in the climb direction and this yields undersize tenon dados with very poor edge quality. Dados are .020 undersize from nest diagram listed size. And as you can see, there is an extreme amount of "fuzz" in the dado that is the result of the climb cut. Pic shows poor cut quality. All the the cuts in conventional direction were near perfect.

[Gary Campbell]

Must have forgot to resize the pic

IMG00012.jpg (66.42 KiB) Viewed 10197 times

IMG00013.jpg (70.87 KiB) Viewed 10197 times

[Nat Wheatley]

I'm also using the SB LInk, and have had the same issue that Gary notes.

[Donald Thomson]

I am a user of SB Link and have problems with the fuzzy dado's pictured by Gary as well as inconsistency in mortise and tenon fits. Sometimes they are loose fits and other times they are tight fits. I suspect this has to do with flexing of the ShopBot machine (not the 3/8" compression bit).

Having a way to compensate for this like we do with outline cuts would be great. For outline cuts we first climb cut and leave a skin and then final pass cut conventional. Any flexing in the machine is done away from the finished cut line on pass one and final cutting is extremely close or right on the cut line because there is little or no resistance on the second pass.

Any help with having some new settings in SB Link to compensate for this machine flexing would be most appreciated.

[Lorin Ylioja]

I am having this same problem. I have redone my cabinets and am now pocketholing and biscuiting for assembly again. A second pass in conventional or possibly just a conventional cut would be nice.
Thank you
Lorin

[Larry Epplin]

It appears that the correct solution would be the ability to set a direction for dados/pockets. Then you can specify your maximum depth if you wish to complete the cutting in more than 1 pass to reduce load. This will allow you to keep the ability to run your outlines in the climb then conventional manner meanwhile performing your dado/pockets in strictly conventional direction. We will have a version out early next week with this functionality.

[Gary Puckett]

Larry,

Are you talking about version 6 for all ecab. or another version for SB?

Gary

[Larry Epplin]

Gary,

This is an issue for the ShopBot Link to handle cutting characteristics of a ShopBot. There are no cutting direction settings in eCabinetSystems.

[Gary Campbell]

Larry...
Thank You for the excellent service. The "overcut" that I get is about equal to the side clearance I would select. Having pockets and IS profile dados cut in the same direction will go a long way towards consistency.

Another issue that I noticed today was that PE cuts seem to cut only to the material surface...dont seem to have the "cut into spoilboard" added.

Something else I should bring up, but may not be an issue. When the dado preramp (.25) plunge is set lower(greater) than the actual cut depth (.22) (my bad) the tool takes approx 6" to ramp in, and using veneer plywood, rips off the veneer. Other dados of the same depth seem to take varying lengths to ramp in. Any advice for this? (besides of course the obvious to pay attention!)

One more for info purposes. Why would the 3/8 router bit be selected to interpoplate (read burn down) 10mm (.3937) holes when a 10mm drill bit was installed?
I was able to deselect drill/interpolate on the 3/8 bit and achieve expected results.

Thanks again.

[Lorin Ylioja]

Thank you to all at thermwood for taking the few shopbot users problems so seriously. I couldn't ask for better service.
Lorin

[Gary Campbell]

I've received emails concerning the tool order selection criteria. I am not aware of much documentation on this subject.

For Staff,
Is there any available, possibly on the Thermwood controller? The tool numbering order that I set up in the beginning did not take tool selection into consideration. The organization was by heads, then tools. I can see that with a single head and multiple tools, the system works well. With the possiblity of 6 heads and increasing numbers for each, I have it backwards.



I am going to have to rebuild the system complete to give preference to drills over interpolation. Those that are using my TC files, hang in there a couple weeks.

[Larry Epplin]

Gary,

We are adding the cut through value to the non-outline through cuts. This was an oversight that surprisingly has never been noticed until recently.

We will change the pre-ramp to cut to operation depth when the pre-ramp is too large. It has always been set to not do a pre-ramp in this circumstance.

Your tool selection problem with the 3/8" tool probably has to do with the value you have set for Tooling Tolerance. This is how the tool is selected when it comes to diameter. The difference between the 2 tools you specified is 0.0187. So any Tool Tolerance greater than this value will cause the 10mm tool to get selected if it is seen before the 3/8" tool.

This brings me to the answer to your tool order selection question. Tools are 'scrolled' through by ShopBot Link starting at Operation #1. The first tool found to meet the criteria for an operation is used. So if the Tool Tolerance is set large enough and your 10mm tool is specified before your 3/8" tool then it will be selected.

[Gary Campbell]

Larry...
Thank you for the explanation... and the ever improving software. I finally READ the poertion of the manual pertaining to the tool order. Your last post and another from today finally made me understand that it was the operation numbers, not tool numbers that make the difference. Nat also sent me an email explaining this. I hate it when I have a brain block. All is well. Once I set th10mm bit as OPERATION #1, all worked as expected. I was ordering them bass ackwards. Thanks again.

[Donald Thomson]

Larry,

A great big THANK YOU to you and your team for providing such a responsive and service oriented organization.

I am currently awaiting to start cutting some parts until the release you mentioned is out. Do you have an estimate for the new release so I can plan accordingly? No pressure, just wondering. I'd rather have it be right then quick.