Right in the middle of a tool path my X zero shifts 2.5". $30 piece of wood on a 3d project. I’m grateful that G sender is free but this isn’t the first time its happened. Don’t know how much longer I’m going keep my Longmill incorporated in my small wood business. I use Carbide Create Pro and often wonder if the fault lies in the gcode vs gsender vs the machine itself. I’ve no desire to give $800 to Vcarve.
@Scott1 It may be useful for others if you post your gcode.
What post processor are you using in Carbide?
Apologies I deleted my gcode file in error. Bummer because after calming down about it I’d would have like to gone into it step by step.
Interesting question about “post processor”, not sure I know how to answer. In Carbide you design in one tab, model in another and then click toolpath where you hammer out your bit choice and many other parameters. Then it gives the option to save gcode. That gcode file opens right up in gsender.
@Scott1 I don’t use carbide create, but a search on carbide create post processor brings up many returns on which post to select and how to install it. For the Long Mill, if you have the option to select grbl mm as your post, that will be your best choice.
Hey Scott,
Are you still hogging out at high speeds? It might be that some casual wear and tear has finaly come into your machine resulting in stalling the x-axis and bleep up your x-zero.
Maybe running it a wee slower and see if it keeps popping up might help you home in on the problem? Don’t wanna dis and re-assemble your machine to find out it was the post processor, or sell it just to find out you were running it up and beyond its limits with a worn out vwheel, a grinding acme, filth filled backlash or a slightly slipping coupler.
Limits change and the variables doing that are virtually limitless.
Well it’s possible I’m on to the problem. I watched the machine do it “live”. I’ve no way to check my gcode coming from Carbide. Up until 72 hours ago I haven’t had this problem.
So I was jogging the X on “Rapid” and noticed it stalling (X motor growling). This morning I cleaned the X ball screw and it’s still stalling (intermittently) on “Rapid”. Back and forth and the stall will surface. This is the exact stall I experienced couple months ago after I installed the latest anti-friction nuts. Took 2 hours with a fake cut file to break them in and finally the X stopped stalling while jogging in “Rapid”. That was couple months ago.
Most of my work since then has been in the front/left quadrant of the machine. Now I’m further over to the right. I have a 30x48. I’ve got a txt into Sienci Labs this morning.
The X motor wear and tear at 100 ipm? These folks at the Lab spec’d out these motors and purposely designed only 1 motor on the X. Underpowered? or underpowered with the new nuts installed? I need to get this solved quickly because I’ve started to do more paying jobs on this machine. Not exactly happy at the moment.
I just ran an “air” file test the length of the X (48in) and every couple of passes at 130ipm I notice a slight harmonic at two different spots.
Stopped at broke out a magnifying glass. Low and beyond there are “holidays” in the machining in streaks that run longitude on the X ball screw.
The online contact forms require and order number to get technical service. Who the heck remembers his/hers order number?
Anyone got a help email address for Sienci Labs?
@Scott1 You mentioned Long Mill in your first post, the ball screws in subsequent posts. Which machine are you running?
As for the support form, put a dummy number in the order number field. The form will go through. Or, click on the “email us” link on the website to get a live link to their email address.
I should say Ball Screw. I’ve got a 30x48 Longmill since Feb of this year. I uploaded a video to the Labs and requested a warranty replacement of the X lead screw. I’d upload the vid here but it says 4mb is too large. There are machining anomalies at the exact spots I hear a hum at 100+ ipm.
@Scott1 With respect, Scott, since you are running a Long Mill, there are no ball screws on it. That’s what confused me. By all means open a ticket with Sienci. They respond promptly.
You may be able to get help here, but a good starting point would be to tell use which post processor you are using in Carbide. As I said previously, I found many online articles on how to install them in Carbide. They will also tell you how to see which one you are using now.
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I had something similar, in the middle of the tool path, after the machine run long time, there a shift or something messing around and makes a mess. I fix that by “draining static charge” from my dust collection system. i just follow CNC Issues & Fixes 🩹 - LongMill MK2 CNC
I put a ground wire around my vacuum hose.
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