S600 Build Experience

First of all, I must express my gratitude to Rory Stoney of StoneyCNC for his help and support in getting this build working. I have no experience of CNC machines, and Rory reassured me from before making the purchase "there are no stupid questions". I felt I asked a lot of them!

Some tips from my own build experience of Stepcraft S600 in December 2014, which I hope may be of use to others.

Before you start:
1. Make sure you have some way (small boxes, plastic bags, envelopes) of holding all the pieces separate. I did that that but omitted ...
2. When separating all the parts make sure you NUMBER the boxes/packets, or you will have to do all size checking twice.
3. Note, before starting to identify pieces, that the parts list is NOT TO SCALE ... but at the end of it there is a 1:1 scale section for screws/bolts and washers.
4. Tools and materials - I'd add sandpaper to the list, and possibly a 6mm thread set (and in my case a soldering iron - see later).

My kit was missing part 31 - 4 of M3 30mm lens head screw - I was able to source a suitable replacement from B&Q rather than wait for supply by post.

On to the build - I'll use the number system from the assembly instructions.

1. A general comment - this is probably the hardest bit of assembly with a huge number of parts, so don't get concerned about the time it takes! Some of the parts you are told to tighten have to be temporarily loosened again to get parts into place - don't forget to tighten them again!
1.1 Part number 54 fits easily into part 6, with a bit of play. You want the internal threads to run as close to vertical and horizontal respectively as possible - you may find your threaded spindles (parts 13 & 14) are wildly off when you come to adjust them (2.3 & 3.3), if these are not set right at the start. If I was doing this build again I would thread the spindles at 1.6 and align them parallel to the edges of the orange piece 6.
Make sure you have the orange piece 6 oriented correctly throughout the build!
1.7 Pay attention to the direction of the hole in part 56!
1.9 A problem for me with part 74. The colours of the long/short wires were revrsed compared to the manual, but this does not matter at the other end of the connections. What I found was one of the connectors was crushed beyond redemption - after consulting with Rory Stoney I cut it off and soldered it to the switch.
1.10 Pay attention to the direction of the hole in part 55!
2. A good time to say, "don't worry about the F=1Kg" notes.
2.1 Adjust the screw until it just starts to tighten, and leave it for later (when the whole machine is up and running). I spent ages with a scale trying to get this right until Rory put me right.
2.2 IMPORTANT - this shows the optional accessory part 81 in the tool holder.
Whether you plan to use one of these or a Stepcraft HF350 or anything else, check that you have a clean fit before assembling. I put the whole thing together and had to take off part 3 to sand off excess powder coat from the inside edge.
A.1 Ball head allen keys are not your friend with grub screws. 🙁
Part 76 (plastic tubing) is also required in C.1 - cut to required length. If you have S600 use the S420 length (180mm) in A.1.
I was pleased with myself at successfully threading the wires though the entire length of plastic tubing until I found I needed to take it out again to cut it. HINT a piece of thread tied to a heavy needle/bodkin drops through
the tube, and can then be taped to the wires to draw them down the tubing.
You'll find this technique useful later as well!
Label the wires once you have pulled them through! (I got this tip from reading experiences of others and feel it is worth re-iterating, even though it is noted in the manual.)
My kit had X & Z motors marked (the unmarked one obviously being Y) - take note of which is which; they are all the same motor but the wiring is of different length on each!
3.1 Again, don't worry about the F=1Kg. Adjust the screw until it just starts to tighten against the rail.
C.1 Our old friend part 76 (again, same length for S600 as S420) - thread the motor wires through and LABEL THEM.
3.6 You want those little clips (part 61) to go to just before the half way mark on the cross bar - any further and they are likely to ping off when you move to the start of the X axis.
4.8 F=1Kg, treat as before.
4.10 Pay attention - get those lock nuts on tight enough to stop the threaded spindle Y axis being able to slide back and forward. If you get a tick-tick-tick from it when moving under power, this is probably not tight enough (that was my problem anyway, on one side). I saw a note somewhere from Rory about holding the spindle with pliers to let you tighten the lock nuts, I'd add (what is obvious to some people) that a bit of cloth between spindle and pliers would be a good idea to prevent damage to the spindle thread; and/or make sure you apply the pliers as close to the end of the spindle as possible so any damage to the thread will be beyond the travel of the spindle nut.
4.14 A lot of cables to get through that tube; I dropped a needle with thread first to get three loose ends to tie to cables, then put through the thick X-Z cable then the X & Z motor wires.
4.19 A surprise here. I got the t-slot table, and couldn't get it all the way in. So I tried the laminate table and had the same problem. The trick is to loosen the end bolts (see 4.6 and 4.18/4.19), slide in the table and then re-tighten the bolts. You will have to loosen these bolts in section 2.5 of the Getting Started instructions as well.
5.4 Connecting wires to control board - make sure enough insulation is stripped so that you are crimping wire and not plastic!
I have to say this was my low point - when I powered up the status lights were all green. I powered down and disconnected the machine to check the connections of my X motor (movement OK in other 2 axes), and when I powered up again the controller was dead - no lights. Rory Stoney reckoned it must be a power supply issue - never had a dead card. A quick check with a volt meter showed the PSU was fine (and it had its own light on anyway).
Rory was brilliant at this point, and I was so glad I hadn't bought direct from Germany. He was very supportive and got me a replacement card within a few days (this is week before Christmas!) and everything worked perfectly with the new card.
6. While waiting for a new control card I had a look at the clamping system.
The powder coat was clogging the threads of the clamping bars. I guess you could sort that by screwing the M5 hex bolts in and out a few dozen times, but I luckily had a tap handy that cleaned them up nicely.

Pay attention to the maintenance schedule. I used Halfords bike grease (comes with a neat little grease gun that allows accruate application) that is bright pink so easy to see. After the first two hours this was pretty grotty
looking, but after the wipe/replace the new grease looks clean after another two hours of use.

I did all the Stepcraft set up stuff, then moved from WinPC to UCCNC and did some cutting on scraps using my Dremel. First problem I had was the wood wasn't even, so some of my v-carving was pretty shallow at one side.
Surfaced the next scrap and it went fine. My third go introduced me to the emergency stop button - I started the job cycle without switching on the spindle! It was carving the wood pretty raggedly and I instantly realised
with the first stroke what I had done.

I went on to v-carve a Celtic cross to show off to my wife, from 9mm ply, with a tool change a second toolpath to cut it out. She loved it but thought it would be better if it could stand up, so I created a circular base with a 5mm pocket in the middle. Easy! Or maybe not. The pocket was cut way too deep (guess who forgot to zero the Z axis?) and I was grateful for sacrificial material. Emergency stop again.

So, set up the job properly, all zeroed, Dremel spinning - perfect pocket!
Then it started the circular cut out, went round a couple of times, stuck and made a horrible noise as it chewed wood - emergency stop! Checked my toolpath (again), removed the workpiece to check sacrificial layer and machine table - barely touched.

Tried again - same result; good pocket, circular cut out started well and emergency stopped when it went bananas.

This time I had noticed the SC600 vertical tower had been moving - turns out the adjusting screw wasn't tight enough, or at least after I tightened it I saw no more movement. I also amended my cut out path to take 1mm at a time (remember I had cut a much larger Celtic cross from the same material with no issues) and ran again - perfect.

I think this may be the "stiffness" that experienced operators talk about; if the machine is not stiff enough you will get movement of the spindle/bit and the vibration may shake things loose to make it even less stiff.

Thanking my lucky stars that I never broke the bit, and glad I re-arranged my layout to get the laptop at the front of the Stepcraft before starting, so I was placed next to the e-stop!

I hope sharing this experience is useful to someone, but it really does not do justice to the help I had from Rory who responded positively to my many emails. I'd recommend anyone in UK buying one of these to get it through
StoneyCNC.co.uk - it may cost a little more than buying direct from Stepcraft but the quality of support is worth much more than the difference in price.

Donald