- Joined
- Aug 20, 2017
- Messages
- 31
First of who knows how many updates.
Haven't actually tried to mill anything yet; I'm proceeding very cautiously, particularly as I did not install any limit switches. Also, I've been having a bit of an ordeal with the controller On-Off switch, something that should be pretty much a no-brainer. All I can say is, if anyone is considering buying any of the cheap, Chinese-made rocker switches on Amazon -- STOP! DON'T!! I bought one, a DPST, supposedly lighted switch, and it took so long for it to ship from freakin' Thailand that I forgot about it and ordered some more from another vendor, a package of five SPST models. They're switches, thinks I; what could go wrong? Boy, was I in for a rude awakening. Put two of the five in and they both failed within just a few cycles. Then spent all afternoon putting in the original DPST switch (Yes, it finally arrived) and it failed almost immediately.
So today I went to my local Lowes home store and got a Hillman Group rocker switch, which looked much like the ones from the 5-pack, but US made and put it in. Now, understand, "put it in" is a bit of a misnomer -- There's nothing casual about it; it requires quite a bit of undoing, redoing, soldering, shrink-tubing, etc. worth about an hour for a person with normally-working hands; with my hands the same job takes two hours or more, and always, always lots of cussing.
But put it in I did, and cycled it a few times; it seems to work perfectly now.
Think I've got it basically calibrated, and it does seem to move the correct distances in all three dimensions, so that's encouraging. Today (after finishing with the damned switch) I mounted a piece of wood and a router bit. The PM-932 has a top speed of about 2000rpm, so don't know what kind of cut I'll get with that setup, but I'll try it out tomorrow...
Haven't actually tried to mill anything yet; I'm proceeding very cautiously, particularly as I did not install any limit switches. Also, I've been having a bit of an ordeal with the controller On-Off switch, something that should be pretty much a no-brainer. All I can say is, if anyone is considering buying any of the cheap, Chinese-made rocker switches on Amazon -- STOP! DON'T!! I bought one, a DPST, supposedly lighted switch, and it took so long for it to ship from freakin' Thailand that I forgot about it and ordered some more from another vendor, a package of five SPST models. They're switches, thinks I; what could go wrong? Boy, was I in for a rude awakening. Put two of the five in and they both failed within just a few cycles. Then spent all afternoon putting in the original DPST switch (Yes, it finally arrived) and it failed almost immediately.
So today I went to my local Lowes home store and got a Hillman Group rocker switch, which looked much like the ones from the 5-pack, but US made and put it in. Now, understand, "put it in" is a bit of a misnomer -- There's nothing casual about it; it requires quite a bit of undoing, redoing, soldering, shrink-tubing, etc. worth about an hour for a person with normally-working hands; with my hands the same job takes two hours or more, and always, always lots of cussing.
But put it in I did, and cycled it a few times; it seems to work perfectly now.
Think I've got it basically calibrated, and it does seem to move the correct distances in all three dimensions, so that's encouraging. Today (after finishing with the damned switch) I mounted a piece of wood and a router bit. The PM-932 has a top speed of about 2000rpm, so don't know what kind of cut I'll get with that setup, but I'll try it out tomorrow...