Adjusting the CAMS Rhinestone Machine for Proper Stone Placement

Adjusting the CAMS Rhinestone Machine for Proper Stone Placement

How to Adjust your CAMS Rhinestone Machine for 

Proper Stone Placement

 

  • For your CAMS machine to properly place stones it is important to ensure that the machines Swing Gun and Spin Gun are adjusted correctly so that when the Swing Gun (Top Gun) takes the stone from the Parts Feeder plate, it will take the stone at its center point, if your Swing Gun is off then the result will be that the Gem Stone will be grabbed off center and will transfer to the Spin Gun (Bottom Gun) off Center which may cause it to come in contact with the previously laid stone, causing it to place on its side, or out depending on how far out of alignment it is, it can contact a greater portion of that previously laid stone causing it to flip from contact off your transfer sheet completely.
  • Another result will be that straight lines of stones will be jagged in the way they place, and circles of stones will have mis-aligned stones (See Image 1).
  • Another issue that may result is that the Swing Gun will not be able to correctly pick up the Gem Stone from the Parts Feeder plate as it tries to grab it from an angled cut of the stone disallowing proper hold from the vacuum. The gun will pick the stone up and drop it back into the plate and try again.

 

 

The Following steps will help guide you through making these adjustments to your magazine and the parts feeder plates so that the Swing Gun correctly grabs the stone on center for proper placement. One side note, the distance between stones that you have will determine the accuracy of adjusting these parts for proper placement. For example, if there is no gap between stones in your design, then it is imperative that your Swing Gun picks the stone out of the Parts Feeder plate dead center of the stone. A gap of about .25 between stones (1/4 of a stones width) will place stones properly even if the adjustment is slightly out of center.

 

Prior to adjusting the Magazine or the Parts Feeder, it is important that you ensure both the Swing Gun and The Spin Gun are properly aligned with each other. To complete this do the following. Ensure the Air valve located at the rear of the machine is turned to ON.

 
CAMS1V2P On/Off Valve CAMS1V6P On/Off Valve

  1. Use the TAB button on your Control panel and set your cursor to SYSTEM press SET button.
  2. Use the TAB button and set your cursor to SWING and press the SET button 2 times.
  3. Use the TAB button and set your cursor to SPIN and press the SET button 2 times.
  4. Now press the UP arrow to bring the Spin Gun’s Gun nozzle up towards the Swing Gun and check the centering of the two when they are together, Press the DOWN arrow button and Up to confirm the alignment. If you need to adjust the Spin Gun Left or Right, use your Left and Right arrow buttons to make incremental adjustments to it. Make sure after you’ve adjusted you press the SET button and then confirm the new positioning by pressing the UP arrow button to check centering of the two Guns.

 

If you adjust the Spin Gun left and Right and it will not center to the Swing Gun, then press the ESC button 1 time and TAB to SWING and press SET 2 times, and adjust the SWING GUN using the arrow buttons in the direction it needs to go. Then Press ESC 1 time and TAB to SPIN, press SSET 2 times and confirm alignment by pressing the UP arrow button.

Now that the Swing and the Spin Guns are aligned, now it’s time to align the Magazine and the Parts Feeder Plate so that when the Swing Gun goes to grab the stone, it is in the center of the stone. For this adjustment it is far easier to do with the Air Valve OFF.

  1. Tab to SYSTEM again and choose MAG_PART and press SET.
  2. Choose which Magazine you will align first. To choose the right Magazine press SET on MAG and it will change to RIGHT side. Press SET again brings it back to adjust the LEFT magazine.
  3. TAB to P/F and Press the SET button, This will spin the Parts feeder plate ensuring that stones are filled into the parts feeder plate holes, and it will also set the Parts feeder plate to the position it will be in when the Swing Gun goes to grab the stone. If your Parts Feeder plate on partially turns place your finger on the side of the plate and spin it one click towards the front of the machine, then Press SET again on the P/F, it should spin.
  4. When the Parts Feeder plate stops TAB to GUN and press the SET button, this engages the gun. Now press the Right or Left arrow to bring the Swing Gun to the plate that we are adjusting, if you are adjusting the LEFT magazine then you would press the Left Arrow button.
  5. Now that the gun is over the parts feeder plate, Grab the gun at the lower elbow fitting and extend the gun down towards the plate. (If the gun will not extend, check that the air valve is OFF).
  6. Use a flash light and if it helps a magnifier glass to see how the stone is aligned under the tip of the gun nozzle, You want to ensure that when the gun comes down which is being mimicked by you grabbing the elbow fitting and extending it down towards the stone, that it will grab the stone directly into its center. Lift and lower the gun several times to ensure accuracy.

 

    • If the gun is left or Right of the stone, then you need to adjust the Parts Feeder plate stop position to align it with the stone. To do this ensure the gun is not touching the stone but just above it, then TAB to P/F and then use the RIGHT and LEFT arrow buttons to adjust the Parts Feeder Plate so that the stone aligns centered under the Swing Guns Nozzle tip, Sometimes it is easier to see how the plate is spinning by pressing and holding the arrow button left or right. The Right arrow button will spin the Plate Clockwise; The Left Button will spin the plate counter clockwise.

(Be sure that after you made an adjustment by using the arrow buttons, that you press the SET button to spin the plate and then check your alignment)

    • If the Swing Gun Nozzle tip is towards the front of the stone or towards the inside of the stone, then you will have to adjust your Magazine by loosening the 2 Wing nuts found on the rear of the Magazine Assembly, This will relieve tension on the Magazine assembly causing it to droop down a slight bit. Then hold the magazine assembly with your hands up towards the Swing Gun Nozzle which should be extended down towards the plate, and adjust your Magazine assembly inwards or outwards depending on how you need to adjust. Once you have the Gemstone centered onto the stone, hold the magazine assemblies in that position and with your other hand re-tighten the Wing nuts at the rear of the assembly.

 

(Sometimes you may have to adjust both the Magazine and the Parts Feeder plate in order to properly allow the Swing Gun to grab the stone centered. Also when Adjusting for an SS06 Plate, it is a good idea to lightly tap the plate after spinning the plate to ensure the stones all sit at their correct placement in the Parts feeder plate holes)