have used my long mill, for a couple of months now. no real issues. then day before yesterday in the middle of a job, it buried a 1/8 end mill thru the work and into my spoil board. i got the machine stopped and cleared the job and broken bit out of the machine. Since then i can not get the x axis to move , the stepper sounds like its trying to run.(but no sign of movement on motor output shaft or coupler and no movement on feed rod. I have removed stepper motor and replaced and retightened the screws in the coupler, tightened up the backlash and can freely turn the feed rod by hand and the z axis carriage travels easily… any ideas on fixing my issues?
Try swapping the X and Z cables and jogging both. See if if the X stepper turns when you jog Z. See if the Z stepper turns if you jog X. Doing this you should be able to figure out if the X stepper is bad or not.
1 Like
thank you for the prompt reply. for the moment, swapping the wiring has seemed to have scared the gremlins back into their caves. will keep monitoring the situation and will reach out if it returns. enjoy your weekend
@lonnie , you are welcome. Maybe it was a loose plug/connection and swapping cleared it up? Hopefully the gremlins will stay in their caves.
1 Like
paul, the gremlins rear their heads again, x axis is moving but now opposite to the direction selected on the key pad with in g sender and ugs, kinda at a loss here.
If it’s going backwards it may be just one wire in the cable that’s not connected. Check both connectors for a pin shoved in or dirty. Also, check that the screws are tight on the connectors that plug into the controller box. The wires on that end are tinned (i.e. coated in solder) which is very soft and the connection may loosen up with time. Tightening the screws should fix this. Many folks, myself included, have removed the wires from the connectors, clipped the tinned ends off, stripped, reinserted and tightened. This should eliminate future issues.
ok, will check that out this morning. will keep u advised. thanks for the feed back.
Hi Lonnie, I have had that same thing happen, been a while, but when it happened the wheels and their adjustments got all out of whack, mine was actually the Z Axis, buried the bit, but that entire gantry got really out of alignment and adjustment.
sorry guys , been busy trying to get cuaght up on projects, that fell behind on while i was dealing with the above issues. paul’s advice kinda narrowed the search down. found a wire that had backed out of the connecter block at the nema motor end of the wire loom. quick repair on that and we were back in action. thanks to everyone who got involved with this episode. greatly appreciated. when i build up enough experience. i will return the favour.
1 Like