There I was, almost finished with a small carve project…was making the last pass with my .25" end mill around the perimeter (to separate it from the surrounding waste) when the board shifted. It caused a full 5/8" of the bit into a knot section of the board. (The board is 5/8" thick pine.) The router housing stopped moving because it was being jammed up against the board.
I quickly hit the big red button and then shut the router off. After standing there for a moment trying to get my brain around what just happened, I began removing all my clamps and the carve board. The bit didn’t break (1/4" Irwin from Lowes) but the plate the router attaches to, the one with the wheels that moves up and down, has a good 1/8"+ side-side wiggle to it. All 4 wheels spin freely. Feeing somewhat disgusted, I just powered everything down and walked away.
I plan on taking things apart to do a damage assessment. Till then, any ideas what I may encounter? Split v-wheel?
Thanks,
Randy
Lesson learned: When you think it is clamped “good enough” go ahead and add a few more clamps.
It might be a good time to reconsider that linear z axis upgrade…
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Yikes! Hopefully, you wound have too much damage.
After a few bad crashes on mine the hole for lower eccentric nut on the Z axis got stretched out so that the v wheel could no longer stay tightened. I didn’t discover this until after I tore down the axis as part of replacing it with an upgrade. But it did explain why I had been having so much trouble. 
I have had similar issue and was lucky that all that broke was a bit.
The bit was not too expensive either.
I tend to buy extra parts. like to have them around in case something breaks. Like the belts…
Had one break once before. It broke and I wasn’t even running a job.
wow. that surprises me. I’ll definitely keep that in mind. thx
yea, me too. I don’t any extras for this particular situation but, if I have to buy anything, I’ll buy extras.
Well, this afternoon I took things apart and found no damage. It did appear that one of the adjustable v-wheel bolts was bent but, after removing it, it turned out to be just fine also. Best I can figure, it got jolted in a way that forced those adjustable nuts to twist and open the gap between them and the stationary v-wheels. So I put it all back together and tightened everything back up. No more wiggle. Hopefully I will get to power it up tomorrow and try again.
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