I’m using a 3018 with a Y axis extension. Things were good, except the plastic spindle carrier is garbage and the 75 watt motor is lame. I’ve seen r/c cars and boats with bigger motors.
I upgraded to the 300 watt motor (manual speed control 
) and the aluminum spindle holder. The Z axis was reversed. Sainsmart sent me an incorrect solution. that corrected Z but reversed X.
Original numbers:
$3=2
$10=115
$23=3
Sainsmart’s solution:
$3=4
$10=1
$23=0
I downloaded Universal G Code Sender and came up with these numbers:
$3=6
$10=115
$23=0
Everything seemed to be working in Easel until it gets near the end of a project and the Z axis goes crazy. At one point it dove through the material and the spoil board into the aluminum rail. Other times it seems to have not raised the spindle at the end of a carve and tried to return to XY Zero.
I don’t mind too much having to use UGS, except it’s a pain in the butt transferring files and feed rates can’t be adjusted on the fly. I lost a lot of funtionality not being able to trust Easel.
I’m not entirely sure what your issue could be without more information.
Any of your axis travel can be changed in your config file, and you may need to adjust that with the new upgrades.
Just to note, UGS does allow you to change your feed rate on the fly. Machine, Real Time Overrides, Feed Override – or ++ to go slower or faster. The newer versions of UGS also allow you to specify a maximum Feed Rate for the job in the Jog Controller toolbox.
After a few days of chasing ghosts, I deleted my machine and reentered it double checking all the parameters. So far it’s working well.
During this time I also received a couple of Amana O-flute bits for hard plastics an entered those in “Add Bit”. Pretty simple, just search the bit SKU #. I also got some ABS and cast acrylic from Duco Plasticts & Supply, since Inventibles is out of stock of everything I wanted.
I have successfully two jobs in ABS and one with birch plywood. On that, the Amana bits smoked my other plastics bits. There’s no comparison. As for the plywood piece, it was a pattern test before running it with walnut. The 300 watt spindle is a monster upgrade over the 75 watt stock spindle. It only turns 12,000 rpm max, but it has the torque to actually use the bit’s capability.
The $100 spindle is still a disappointment. Admittedly, it’s far more rigid than the plastic one. The 300 watt spindle comes with an aluminum holder that bolts on to the plastic carriage. The plastic carriage is the reason I got the bigger spindle and spindle holder. The on I got has a greater Z travel range than the stock plastic holder, but the idiots at Genmitsu added most of that additional travel at the bottom of the range. Most of the additional travel is completely useless.
Overall, everything is working better. No sign of the mystery high-dive. Feed rates are at least 3 times faster than stock. I haven’t tested the limits. Jobs that I previously ran at 20 inches per minute are now running at 60 ipm with no indication of stressing the machine and getting perfect chip loads with wood and hard plastics.
So anyway, no more ghost in the machine.
Good to hear!
Thanks for the feedback on the 300w spindle. I recently purchased a Genmitsu 4040-Pro to add to my collection, and plan to upgrade to the 300w spindle soon.
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When I set up the 300 motor, the Z axis was backward.
I contacted Sainsmart, they sent me some numbers. Nothing was working.
Long story short, I used Universal G Code Sender, and found the problem.
When I upgraded the motor, I also upgraded the spindle holder which has a different stepper motor. The plastic spindle holder carriage that comes with a 3018 is junk. The 300 comes with a metal holder that is supposed to bolt onto the carriage. The carriage being the issue, I didn’t use the one that comes with the 300 watt motor.
The answer you’ll need, if you change the spindle holder, is $3=6
I believe the original setting was $3=4.
Something to watch for if you upgrade. If you can use the the holder your machine came with, there shouldn’t be an issue. Just an FYI, as I don’t know anything about the 4040.
(I have acquired a used 4540 machine that came with an 800 watt motor installed and a 500 watt motor that was original to the machine. I may put the 500 watt back on it and try it out since it’s software RPM controlled. The 800 is manual control.)