All that was left to do before I can start cutting is mounting the router and cleaning off the table.
I put the router in place, which went very smoothly. Then I got the clamp bolts drilled and installed. Easy as pie.
Then I tried to put the vacuum show back on, and ran into a show stopper. The hole in the vacuum shoe does not line up properly with the router mounts! Tragedy.
I needed to drill some new mounting holes in the vacuum shoe. I determined where the new holes needed to go, using nails sticking up out of the existing holes. Off to the drill press, and the new holes were in. Minor modification had the shoe installed.
I think that the router mounts have a design error which caused the shoe to be off a little. I will definitely be cutting a new gantry as soon as possible.
Here’s the router installed.
I then got to spend some time doing a thorough cleanup of the work area. There were lots of different types of nuts, bolts, and screws around that all needed to be sorted. Scrap wood need to be put away. Tools needed to be put in their cases and tidied up. And finally, all the garbage and sawdust got cleaned off, and the CNC machine is ready to cut!
Well, let’s say that there is a bunch of testing and tweaking of software parameters that need to happen, and I need to get a spoil board laid down, and all of that. But this is no longer a “construction” project — it’s a new tool.
I am awash in the glow of a job well done, or, at least, well, … Done. 🙂
