I'm still fairly new at running the router and have come across a problem with it wanting to just stop in its tracks during a rout for no apparent reason.

I have been informed by techs that if the spindle is being put under any excessive stress it will just stop.

Now yesterday I was routing some dimensional letters made out of .5 intecell at 20000rpm, with a .25 pass and a feed rate between 70-80ipm(i adjusted during the rout)using a .25 bit (which is fairly new). To me this isnt very stressfull at all on the bit or spindle in fact i thought I was being quite careful with it. With two letters to go it just quits! Stops in its tracks! Spindle quits and the carriage quit moving too and the status of it was active. So i shut it down and readjusted my paths to .188 pass and it still quit.

This has happened to me before but quite a while ago and with intecell too and on one occassion with MDO and broke the bit.

Has anyone else run into this problem? The router is only about 5 months old and I feel that I shouldnt have to babysit it when its running. After running into these problems I dont feel safe to leave it alone during a job.

I have tried to talk to techs about it and they themselves dont exactly know what it is.

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just stop in its tracks during a rout for no apparent reason.

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I take it that the z-axis doesn’t even lift. Is this correct? When you reset your feed to .188 and it did it again, did it happen in the exact same place? What version of Artpath are you using and what firmware version within the router? Additionally, what is the configuration of your machine? (Router motor, vacuum, etc.) Is the machine grounded per Gerber’s instructions?

We have found that the vacuum does not always hold down the centers of letters, and if the center moves, and does not kick out, the center can twist in place and pinch the router bit. Broken router bit.

If you look at the material at the point where the machine stops, are there any marks on the production piece that suggest anything out of the ordinary happening?

Do you mask the bottom of the material with application tape? This helps keep things in place.

I'm told that the test for sharpness of a bit is to trim your fingernail with it. Are you using steel or carbide bits? Are they sharp?

Are you sure your override settings are where you think they are? Personally I don't like overrides and try to do it all from the computer when possible.

Ive had some new thoughts on this problem. Now when we originally started to use the router it had only a 30amp breaker and would kick it out when having a 4x8 on it with all of the vaccum channels open during a rout. Obviously it wasnt enough for it to handle so it would totally shut down. We got the electrician in and he installed a 60 amp breaker and everything seemed to be fine. Then on the odd occasion the spindle would die right in its tracks ( while routing a 4x8 ).Everything else had power.
Could this be a juice problem?
I would go back to my computer and the spooler is blinkin and would ask for me to restart or terminate. Could this be a Computer problem?

The bits i was using at the time were close to the end of there lifespan and I would think they were making the spindle work pretty hard which to my knowledge would make the spindle quit due to excessive stress. Which kind of has me baffled because I thought i could rout intecell with a rusty steak knife and it would go through it pretty easy.

Now today I did some small routs with 2x2 pieces of intecell and everything seemed fine ,acrylic too.

Vic:
I always use pre mask on the back side when routing letters. And there really wasnt any indication on the cut of anything really bad or wrong with the bit.
Override settings? The majority of the time on the first rout of the day it tends to default to 6000rpm. Even if I send a file that I set up for 20000rpm and indicates 20000rpm on my start menu and I start the job and it sits at 6000rpm. Shouldnt it start at 20000rpm cuz I sent the file that way? Now before every rout I check the rpms first. Is this what you mean by override settings?

I hope this is enough info for you guys.
Thanx for the queries into my problem.
Cheers

Sorry, forgot about this post for a while. Please keep in mind that I’m not a Gerber tech. I am only going on my own past experience, notes from discussions with Gerber router group personnel, and other router owners that I network with. That being said, and reading what has been posted so far, I’d lean towards data spike issues first. There can be multiple reasons for these things to occur. It could also be a combination of problems and not just one factor. You stated that you are looking to trouble shoot this and we can do just that; make a list of things to check off and start with item number one and work towards the bottom. We may not be able to identify the problem, but you will be able to verify some items that aren’t the problem.

I’d like a bit more info from you if you don’t mind sharing. You can take this to private email if you wish. What, if anything, is displayed on the LCD screen of the keypad when this happens? Are any of the lights on the keypad lit or blinking? What length is the serial cable from the computer to the controller box? Does the cable run near any telephone or electrical wires?

What exact router motor is installed? Is it stock or has it been modified? What size vacuum blower motor for the T-Vac? What, if any, vacuum for the chip removal system? I don’t believe you have the ATC, but if you do, what psi at what cfm is the air supplied at? And if yes to the ATC, are any other items consuming air at the same time?

To find the firmware on the Sabre: (From memory, may not be 100% correct)

• Main menu 2
• C: Configuration
• C: Revision Level
  

Record Control Rev & Bootloader Rev and please post back (or email). Control Rev is the current firmware version for the machine while bootloader is the current version of the installer for firmware upgrades.

What is the exact version of Artpath and Composer? Within Artpath, click on the Help drop down then click on About. Record what version of Artpath is installed. Do the same thing within Composer, this will let me know what, if any, service updates are installed.