Drive Roller Mod First Test

For a short while, I was actually cutting a circle that looked like a circle!


Until my JB Weld bond broke that is...


It was my own fault.  The first roller I experimented with, I used Aileens Tacky glue to try to hold the pulley in place and then I applied the JB Weld to the outter edges of the pulley.  That of course did not hold, so I applied the JB Weld to the whole surface of the pulley and by now had figured out how to accurately position it, but in my haste, I neglected to clean the old tacky glue from the pulley!


How stupid on my part!


I am also using nylon pulleys because the polycarbinate pulleys I ordered last week have not yet arrived.  This material is not conducive to gluing in the first place.


So anyway, the pulley separated with a nice clean break and I am now going to try the JB Weld Kwick which is not as strong as the original JB Weld, but it will cure in only 4 hours vs the 15 to 24 hours that would be required of the stronger JB Weld.


This may fail of course, but at least I should know the results soon and if necessary, I will just do it again with the right epoxy next time.


I am not too concerned about longevity at this point.  I will want to use the polycarbinate pulleys when they come in anyway.


The exciting part is that from the short time I was able to run some tests, the results were positive for a change!


The bit returned precisely to home after doing 10 itterations of moving the X axis 22 inches back and forth and there was zero skew, proving what I have been saying all along.  


All this on just one attempt to position the rollers in the machine and I just eyeballed the rollers this time, no calipers, no special tools, just "that looks about right".  Quick and dirty.


The 2" circle had a very slight dogleg, almost undetctable which I think can be eliminated with a more accurate calibration of both the X and Y axis.  Again, I kind of rushed it this time, wanting to see if there was improvement of the skew problem and was planning on doing a more accurate calibration once those tests were complete but the pulley gave way before I could do that.


My next report should be later this afternoon if all goes well with the lighter weight epoxy, otherwise we are looking at Wednesday afternoon before the next test can begin.