GraverMach tips anyone? 901 handpiece.

We have been having a great deal of trouble with getting our 901 handpiece, graver max, and foot control to operate properly today. Pretty recent purchase.

We have nailed down that the pressure guage at the air compressor kept vibrating to different pressures...fixed that.

Also found out that the light weight spring is supposed to operate at 14psi... different to the other. Do you still tune it as per the normal instructions?

Does anyone have a picture or instructions on exactly how the foot pedal should be adjusted? Or any other tuning/maintenance tips for new users.

We are being careful to keep the air clean with lots of filters.

What's the bias valve do?

Thanks all

Danae.

Is it just not running well, or not running at all?
I just fixed my partners by flipping the hammer (internal one)
Guess he was cleaning it , and flipped it.
No advice for light hammer tuning.

I rarely pay attention to gauge when adjusting the Gravermach regulator. Let your ears and feel tell you when it's right and don't worry about dialing it in with the gauge.

:::: Always make sure your handpiece selector switch is switched all the way to your selected handpiece and not in between ::::

In a nutshell, what you want is for the handpiece to produce a sharp, clean tap (without flutter or vibration) as soon as you depress the pedal. Here's how you do it.

1.) Take your foot off the pedal and lower pressure to zero on the Gravermach.
2.) Hold the handpiece upright in your left hand.
3.) Advance the pressure...you'll feel the handpiece flutter and vibrate...keep increasing the air pressure until it starts to tap.
4.) When it starts to tap keep going until it stops. You're finished.

This puts you right on the threshold so that as soon as you depress the pedal you get a clean, sharp tapping. If you feel it flutter and vibrate BEFORE it taps, your pressure is too low. If you have to depress the foot pedal half way before it starts to tap (you'll hear the foot pedal hissing), your pressure is too high.

Some handpieces on some Gravermachs might not tap as in step 4. If that's that case, repeat the steps while slightly depressing the foot pedal to make it tap.

While these steps might sound complicated, it takes me less than 2-seconds to adjust the regulator when switching handpieces.

Happy 2015!

Dani, if you've had your hand-piece apart, the oils from you skin can cause erratic SPM and changes in SPM during use at any time. GRS suggested I clean the spring and piston (pg 8 of operation manual) with copy or writing paper. This helped but cleaning with alcohol worked better. Later this started happening a lot more frequently and I call GRS and talked to JB. He sent a part, don't remember what it was called / tubing. I replaced it and been running fine since. (mention this just so you don't overlook something internal)
Not sure if it matters since I didn't see Sam mention it, but I always make sure the bias control is off before tuning my GraverMach (pg 6 of operators manual). I do just as Sam explains except after the tapping stops, I adjust the pressure 1-2 PSI higher (pg 7 under how to use bias control). I then open the bias control by turning it counter-clockwise until I hear tapping again, then back it off until tapping stops. I do all of this with no graver or qc tool holder in my hand-piece.
When you first increase your pressure from zero it will sound more like a knocking (I have the heavier spring), then go to tapping, then it will stop. I hope this helps you to diagnose your problem.

It sounds like a dirty hand piece to me. Clean with alcohol and give it a try again as Sam suggested for tuning.

Dani, You mention two different machines. In title you say GraverMach but in the text you refer to GraverMax Which is correct? Which machine are you have problem with?

And just in case you don't have it, Click here to go to the page of all of the engraving system manuals on the GRS site.

Hi

Sorry, I thought I answered you on my phone a few days back but it didn't upload.

Graver Mach AT.

We don't have an air tact hand piece yet.

So, is it running right now?

Seems ok now

fegarex said:

It sounds like a dirty hand piece to me. Clean with alcohol and give it a try again as Sam suggested for tuning.

Click to expand...

I had at the same problem, but after cleaning as mentioned by Rex and unit was adjusted according the recommendation by Sam, works perfect.
Thanks a lot for advice