Acacia Mills, 500 Dagg Road, Yoakum, TX (2026)

05/19/2023

Cutting doors! How’s that for a “first project”.

Tweaking the machine and getting speeds and feeds dialed in (how fast the CNC spins the bit and how many inches it travels in a minute).

05/15/2023

Quick! Somebody make a note!!

Today we cut wood!! Finally…

Dust collection is setup and grounded. It’s gonna need some tweaking - but everything is 100% fully operational!

This video is the CNC cutting its own spoil board. In this case we are removing 0.040 of an inch off the top of the MDF board. This removes the factory top so we can flow more vacuum through the board to hold down parts we are cutting. We’ll flip the board over tomorrow and do the same on the backside.

In this fashion the “spoil board” will handle any whoopsies and absorb the damage if we cut too deep - leaving the factory top undamaged.

05/08/2023

Tool change operation. The CNC has a 5 position tool changer allowing up to 5 bits to be installed at once. As such, the CNC can switch to a different bit during a carve as needed. This particular bit is a spoil board surfacing bit that would not normally be stored on the machine.

05/07/2023

Working on the dust collector setup today and tomorrow. Everything else is done and we’re ready to “face” the spoil board. Need to determine the best way to attach the dust collector hose so it doesn’t interfere with movement of the gantry. So close…

05/05/2023

Today was a VERY good day. Our ShopSabre PRO408 CNC is fully functional and has passed all mechanical and operational tests.

We installed tools into the automatic tool changer (ATC) and verified operation. All the control software has passed testing and we only have one mechanical device left to install - our dust control system. But that can wait till next week.

Tomorrow we will install our design software - VCarve Pro - on the shop’s computer. From there we will be able create cabinets, doors, signs, furniture, woodcrafts, and everything else we can think of.

Pictures - and maybe a video - tomorrow!

04/29/2023

Replacement PCIe card for the CNC arrived Thursday at 1pm. I had the card installed by 2pm. Would have been sooner, but the card they sent was the “base” card and not the whole assembly. So I had to take a riser off the old card and transfer it to the new card. Thankfully I have several years of experience building computers. Once that was done - think lots of itty bitty screws - we were up and running!!

Ran tests for several hours and I’m satisfied the issue has been fixed. We are fully operational - the CNC is ALIVE!

What’s next? Assuming the weather doesn’t mess with my schedule, I’ll install the router bits into the 5 collets I have - then load those into the ATC (Automatic Tool Changer), then run additional tests to ensure everything lines up, and then…. grab a piece of test wood and get to carving!!

04/21/2023

Unfortunately both Wednesday and Thursday were “tech support days” here at the shop. Most of both days were spent simply waiting for replies to emails I sent. I’m quite pleased with the level of support I’m receiving from ShopSabre, however they do MUCH better when I phone in. Their email support is slower than I’d like.

After spending all day Thursday waiting for an email reply I finally broke down and called tech support - waited 15 minutes in their queue - and had one last go at trouble shooting the software issues. The final determination was what I already knew - there is a bad PCIe card in the computer. A new one is shipping out, so now we wait for the replacement part to arrive.

I did have the CNC fully functional on Tuesday just before lunch. Went out for a celebratory meal - high fives all around - drinks on me! Thought we had all the bugs worked out, but after we got back we had less than 30 minutes of run time until the software froze again due to the PCIe card.

Oh well, it’s a big machine driven cross county in a semi truck trailer. Then yanked out of the trailer by a HUGE lift (I got pics somewhere) and then literally dropped into our building. Stuff is gonna get jostled. We’ll have it running next week - so stick around, it’s gonna be a hoot!

04/19/2023

Well - we almost got the CNC operational today. Went in to fire it up and it was a no go. The software would not boot up. The computer did - had it running yesterday - but the actual program, nah it didn’t want to start.

Called tech support and ran through trouble shooting steps - reboot this, reboot that, reinstall this driver, reinstall that driver - all no go. Tech support says it looks like the PCI card is bad and will need to be warranted, so I suggested that perhaps it’s a loose PCI card and I asked for permission to take the computer apart and reset the card in the computer.

Tech support - you know how to do that?

Me - hold my beer…

So I pull the cover off the CPU and reset the card, but it doesn’t feel right. A bit loose for my tastes, but I put it all back together and BAM! Still doesn’t work. So I call back tech support and tell them my concerns with the slot the card went into and ask if it’s ok to move it to a different slot. Permission was granted and away I went. The second slot didn’t feel any more secure than the first (they are supposed to “snap” in and these didn’t). But once back together the computer booted up and the software I needed started! Yeah me!!

So the first task in the software is to select HOME, which should move the gantry and send the head to a specific spot on the left front of the CNC.

I select HOME and nothing. It’s telling me it has aborted due to an error code. So I reboot everything and try again - same issue. So back to tech support. By now they’ve figured out I know a bit about computers, so let’s dive into the CNC Controller box. We do - and I have an error =. .C90 on one of the servos. Of course being that I’m special - they’ve never seen that error before. So I have to photograph the error and email it to them.

Took the rest of the afternoon to get an email back telling me what I need to do TOMORROW.

So we’ll try again tomorrow…

04/17/2023

Setup of the ShopSabre PRO408 CNC is… DONE. We will fire up the CNC tomorrow for the first time. Could have done so today - but I’m exhausted. Today’s to-do-list was very long, but it’s all complete now.

04/17/2023

And as can be expected… we ran into issues today (Sunday) with the final tasks we needed to complete to fire up the CNC on Monday. But we did get a lot accomplished!

Securing the air tubing pipe runs took longer than expected. Had to engineer a bracket to hold everything in place. That said, we were successful and the air lines are FIRMLY attached now. We also ran tests on the air system and it’s ready to go and fully operational.

We also ran into issues with the CNC Computer system. The issues were minor, but the fix eluded us. We’ll try again tomorrow. This issue has to do with securing the computer to the rolling cart. I think I have a work around, we’ll see tomorrow.

Other than that the day was uneventful. My time line suggests we will be finished late Monday afternoon. As such the initial fire up of the CNC has been postponed until Tuesday.

So close…

04/15/2023

CNC setup part one million and five… Just kidding, but it sure feels that way. Today we installed the air piston on the CNC spindle and hooked it up to the air lines. The “head” of the CNC is very heavy and requires an air assist piston to speed up the up and down motion. Next up was the dust collection shroud - had to figure out how it attached. Turns out it has magnets! Then we worked on removing the shipping bolts put in by the factory to keep everything in one place during shipping. Took the shipping bolt off the head and down it went - slowly thank goodness - but it did trap the dust shroud to the table! No worries - we’ll free it up once we power up.

Next up - visualizing all that still needed to be done. Measured power lines/cords and determined how we’ll get everything in place to minimize tripping hazards. Discovered we still needed a few items - which were not available locally, but I did look! Hopefully these are the last items I need to order to complete assembly. Hit up Amazon to source the parts. Main shipment will arrive Sunday followed by a second shipment on Monday. Luckily the parts I really need arrive Sunday. Thankfully we have a Prime account, so we generally get things in two days. That said I have never placed an order where it was/is expected to arrive on a Sunday.

A Monday fire up seems quite likely now, so stick around for pics and videos!!

04/13/2023

And just like that the ShopSabre CNC wiring is done! Lots of minor tasks to be performed over the weekend, but the most difficult items have been completed. Hope to power up on Monday.

Acacia Mills

05/19/2023

05/15/2023

05/08/2023

05/07/2023

05/05/2023

04/29/2023

04/21/2023

04/19/2023

04/17/2023

04/17/2023

04/15/2023

04/13/2023

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