Stepcraft is an "unbaked product" and i hate it

Roy - Thank you. Youre a light an the end of a tunnel with stepcraft complete lack of english support.

I just dont get this alignment issue. I get it mechanically but i dont get the design notion behind it. why design the machine like that?

More than half of the people here need to un tight screws to make it run. Some people here wrote they filed layers of paint to gain extra mm. Also, the alignment of the axis as seen in the videos looks like "mambo jambo" (although i did it all meticulously).

I realize its all about fiddling with this machine. Until everything will fall into place and at best I'll get a high maintenance short lifetime machine. Just a bummer imo. Something i thought would be avoided by buying a German brand and not Chinese.

I'll prob continue to disassemble and reassemble it. I'll do my best to keep screws good and hope ill eventually CNC something. Prob around 2027.

Hi there.

I understand your frustration here and I feel some of it myself. Stepcraft should provide detailed instructions on the sensitivities of these machines and how best to alleviate them (a systematic alignment troubleshooting guide if you like). Too many customers, particularly of the larger footprint machines have (reasonable) expectations that meticulous adherence to the build instructions will yield a fully functioning and properly tuned machine when this is not the case. In this respect it is a bit 'unbaked', as you put it.

I would like to suggest a couple of key tips for axis alignment:

1. Some free play in the bearing seat(s), especially at the non driven end is actually helpful. The track roller and extrusion provide the alignment, the lead screw & ball nut assembly provide the linear drive. The two functions are not fully mutually inclusive 😉 A number of users have facilitated this by removing some powder coat from the bearing seat as you acknowledge.

2. Once there is sufficient free play in the lead screw(s), align it/them by loosening the end plate or gantry, drive the track rollers/gantry to one end, align each (in the case of Y axis) then tighten up the end plate screws. This process acts to self-align the assembly.

Going forward, I will also be reducing the full travel speed from 3,000 to 2,000 mm/min. My hardwood cut speed is 1,500 mm/min. At this speed, very fine dust is produced rather tham chips indicating that there would scope to increase speed on a more robust platform.

A surprising issue I noticed recently was resistance in the X stepper motor (when it was de-energised of holding torque, obviously). Exercising it by hand freed it off so I can only presume that some glue was fouling the rotation.

I hope this helps.

Doug

Today, in addition to enlarging the size of the bearing rebates in the front plate, I have also had to substantially enlarge the size of the screw mounting holes in the front plate to avoid it misaligning the extrusions when the mounting screws are tightened. Now the front plate is tightened, both lead screws turn easily by hand. You might want to look at this aspect too.

Doug

I agree it's a damnably unbaked product and I hate it too! I bought one 600 from StoneyCNC in kit form and it was a Triumph des Willens to get it assembled and running! However, thanks mostly to the good humour and patience on Rory Stoney's part, I'm pleased to say my Clockwork Orange runs accurately and with no snags.

Look, I'm not being dismissive, I know well it IS a major frustration. There are a number of competent people in this forum and I'm definitely not one of them, so I have full authority of the worst kind 😛

Please take a few deep breaths, pick up that irritating assembly manual and retrace every single step. Be ready to dismantling anything you are not sure of and reassemble. That helps, and please don't ask how I found out, it's too embarrassing. When in doubt, please put your queries here if possible with a photo or two, I'm sure you'll find somebody willing and able to answer and in good old English to boot (I'm not a native speaker) 🙂 I'm sure those German staff will be unable to efficiently take care of you as they'll likely be busy inventing new glitches not documented here yet :woohoo:

I initially bought the barebones model, and I'm adding the 4th axis and will add more upgrades as the need comes, that's how confidant I've become.

Well ... looks like you learned a lot. Next you can buy a car construction kit from your favourite german car brand. :silly:

If I find an Irish reseller, then yes 😆

I agree it's a damnably unbaked product and I hate it too! I bought one 600 from StoneyCNC in kit form and it was a Triumph des Willens to get it assembled and running! However, thanks mostly to the good humour and patience on Rory Stoney's part, I'm pleased to say my Clockwork Orange runs accurately and with no snags.

Look, I'm not being dismissive, I know well it IS a major frustration. There are a number of competent people in this forum and I'm definitely not one of them, so I have full authority of the worst kind 😛

Please take a few deep breaths, pick up that irritating assembly manual and retrace every single step. Be ready to dismantling anything you are not sure of and reassemble. That helps, and please don't ask how I found out, it's too embarrassing. When in doubt, please put your queries here if possible with a photo or two, I'm sure you'll find somebody willing and able to answer and in good old English to boot (I'm not a native speaker) 🙂 I'm sure those German staff will be unable to efficiently take care of you as they'll likely be busy inventing new glitches not documented here yet :woohoo:

I initially bought the barebones model, and I'm adding the 4th axis and will add more upgrades as the need comes, that's how confidant I've become.

Great to hear that you worked through your problems. Despite all mine (I'm currently waiting for a replacement control card as the Y axis chip burned out, presumably through back EMF generated by jogging the Y axis manually) I'm fairly confident that I can do what I want to do with mine.

Perhaps I should keep hold of my 4th axis rotary table, tailstock and control card then...?

Hi Doug,

Frankly, assembling the damned thing was a horror story. It took a lot of staying power on my side, and patience and humour on Rory's, that's what turned this comedy of expensive errors into what I am happy to say was/is a complete success.

But let me be concrete. The main difficulties IIRC were:

- one of those big brass threaded bodies running the continuous screws which was machined at a wrong angle,
- a card came with the wrong interface making me waste a lot of time mail ordering a male+male cable that proved to be unnecessary
- some software problems problems related to my having Win10

These all all took time to identify and diagnose, but in all instances Rory's reply was immediate and his diagnoses always right, and this is no figure of speech.

Also I have to say that even with the superbly illustrated assembly instructions there are still a few steps that might need clarification, but if strictly followed it's all there! This requires deep patience, attention to detail, ability to think several steps ahead (reading the manual helps here!), willpower to dismantle and repeat until it's all perfectly aligned, etc, etc, etc. Preferably have some help who won't be offended with continuous grumbling and frequent loud swearing.

But in the end when all the parts fall (or get hammered) into place you'll have a perfectly working machine, zinging into three directions all at the same time!

Mind you, I'm not a hobbyist, I bought this awful contraption for a specific professional reason and if this was a failure it would all have been a waste of money and what's worse a waste of my precious time and energy. I am starting up a cottage industry and I need an efficient and precise router. Well, right now I can say I am happy with the product as it is and I have my eye on further accessories.

Unbaked? Yes, certainly, there are problems to iron out regarding product engineering and quality control, but if you stick to it then the basic design is fine and it ends up one hell of of a good machine!

O.k., I'm pleased you got it doing what you want and got your confidence in it.

Frankly, I think that the biggest design issue with these machines is the fact that the end plates do not interlock precisely with the extrusions. It is quite ridiculous to leave the alignment to trial and error by the end user when there are multiple variables that could cause misalignment.

These pieces should all lock together and there should be some float or facility to adjust the lead screw bearing(s) at the non driving ends. This would save a lot of hassle for the customer.

I also think that ball nuts should be offered as an upgrade to the brass lead nut for people like yourself who wish to use it for medium duty/semi commercial work. I would have gladly paid an extra £300 or so for this instead of paying £400 for a fourth axis system I might not use.

Doug

MMorao, Doug, Roy - thank you for your mental help.

Thank you Doug, and I hope you'll find a use for your 4th-axis, might I suggest you use it for your string tightening mechanisms and "knobs"? Sorry for the lack of vocabulary but I'm a non-native English speaker and musical vocab is really outside my skill range 🙂

Orenhag, of course you're free to make your own decisions, but as far as I'm concerned I am quite happy with having stuck to my guns. Of course I had all the help I needed and that's what made it. So if I (we) can be of any use then that's what we're in this world for :cheer:

I'm pleased to report that with a new control PCB, new Y motor and a lot of powder coat removed from bearing holes and screw holes, jog testing at full speed went well this morning so I tried a relatively straightforward two sided cut of a small oak insert for the top layer of my guitar build.

It went very well until the thing flipped out of its surrounding uncut block right at the end. Presumably there wasn't enough double sided tape securing it.

I've cued up another cut with a revised toolpath with two side supports. I'll have another try later this afternoon.

That's nearly 3 months since getting the machine but I haven't had many free days to build, tune, test and cut with it.

Doug

While trying to assemble and disassemble the machine as advised by stepcraft i broke one of the Track Roller Nuts (part 54).

Manual says "must tighten firmly". did it and nut snapped.

Anyhow, anyone ordered spare parts from Stepcraft?

Can't state how much i hate this machine.

Yes, "firmly" is not a setting on any torque wrench I've ever seen.

I get my spares from StoneyCNC, not Stepcraft so can't comment.

Just a friendly word of caution though. Probably not a great idea to keep coming on a Stepcraft forum and reiterating that you hate their product 😉

Regards.

Doug

Hi Doug,

Good advice to Orenhag, I was very tempted to reply "BF&BI" 👿

"Must tighten firmly!" is an invitation to flex ones muscles - note the exclamation mark too. Trouble is that when guidance is written by experts they tend to assume that everyone has their same degree of knowledge - big mistake!!

Peter