I recently bought an Altmill 2x4, and I cannot complete a single part. The left Y axis is producing a horrible clicking noise, similar to a spin-the-wheel game. It consistantly skips steps and drifts off axis, up to an inch of drift per 5 minutes or so, even when not under cutting load and moving about 200 inches per minute. The X axis keeps randomly binding, freezing my cut with alarm 10. When this happens, I have to turn off the machine and manually turn the X screw, which I can feel has lumps that are almost impossible to turn past. I have had my machine for less than a month, and it only has 6 hours of cutting time on it. I keep the machine well lubed and clean. Please help.
Ben,
I take you have a ticket out at sieci, and if not get one. This sounds like a nightmare start that needs some serious sientist backup.
I am sorry you’re off to this bad a start. Get the help you need, sienci is a good company and will do anything to get you up and running.
@BenR Did you check all your couplers?
Geez, what’s everyone doing up at these odd hours? Then again, it’s 3:30 (2:30 if you discount the hour change this evening) so likely I’m the only one at this odd hour. Cats woke me up. They’re cute but…
I would suspect that you made an error during the assembly of the unit. I can not see an Altmill to ‘skip’. It has closed loop motors and rather than skipping, it would throw an error and stop.
Time to review your assembly. I would start with the y axis … if it is clicking you should be able to localize that clicking sound - is it in the motor, is it in the screw is it in the coupler between motor and screw? It will be something that will stick out like a sore thumb. Disconnect BOTH couplers on the Y axis and jog the axis - any clicking? That should tell you if the motors are ok. Disconnect the left y axis nut from the gantry and slide the nut back and forth. This will turn the ball screw (the coupler must still be off). The screw should turn freely. The difficulty in checking the y axis is that both screws must turn the same or else you will get racking and then all bets are off.
Anyway, the clicking sound is what I would investigate first and it hopefully is something easily found.
Actually the only way I can see any sort of ‘drift’ is if the coupling between motor and ball screw is not assembled/tightened correctly. If any re-home-ing was done between noticing the drift, check that the end sensors are mounted securely. If the sensor is flopping about it will result in a possible position error between the first measurement before the home-ing and after the home-ing.
You might have to remove the gantry to test the movement of the y axis. Once you found the problem with the Y axis, I would check if the same problem exists in the x axis assembly somewhere.
While occasional problems are not unusual, I have never heard of an Altmill being THAT screwed up. Hopefully Sienci can get you on the right track.
Good luck !!!
Make sure you have good connections at the Y motors AND the SLB. When I assembled my 4x4 the right Y axis would skip and jump along with the left side. Found the power lead for the right Y motor had come loose on the SLB. Machine made horrible sounds as the right side skipped and jumped trying to follow the left side.
One quick check for power to the motors - try turning the screw by hand when the machine is powered on. If they turn easily you have a problem
I believe the motors are only powered up when the mill is ready to cut. In other words, if you turn it on you have to hit the estop and release the estop in order to get the mill to fully power up.. I am not sure what happens if other error conditions are present.
Hi all, thank you for replying.
I redid all my couplers, and nothing changed. When I took off the couplers I ran the motors, and the clicking stopped. I believe it is in a ball joint on the left Y axis. The X axis is still binding, and the only thing I can think of that it could be is a bent screw. I tried measuring the bend in the screw with a straight edge, but it didn’t seem bent. I went through all my connections to the motors and SLB and they are all snug. I am most worried about the binding on the X axis. Thank you for your help.
@BenR Long shot but the Altmill has a plastic retaining block on the ball screw during shipping. You have removed them ?
@BenR Does the clicking sound happen over the entire length of the ball screw? If not, could one of the bolts used to attach the cross rails be sticking out? I recall one user where that happened.