Tapping and Jerking on Board Setup

[robbrigg2]

Hey all, I hope someone might know what is going on and be able to tell me what I can do.

My machine started making a semi-loud tapping when going through the start up procedures. The belts kinda jerk and eventually I get an x axis stall. I called LHR on Friday and they told me to check the gears, which I have done but see nothing wrong. I was not able to do it until they were closed so I will have to wait until Tuesday unless some can tell me somethign else. Any takers?

[eromran]

Have you checked you head pressure yet ? Also might try another board or just double check that one is square and not to tight between adjustment rails (leave just a little space)

[Digitalwoodshop]

All that jerking around can come from a missing tooth on a gear OR... The board loosing contact with the bottom of the board to brass roller....

A chunk of wood missing on the bottom of the board at the brass roller track.

A head not level.

Head Pressure, TOO TIGHT...... Humidity and the sand paper belts... Cause sticking,....

A board not uniform in thickness. jamming.

Masking tape on the brass roller track can solve it too giving the head something to bite into.

It's all about the brass roller.....

AL

[robbrigg2]

Thank Guy's I will try this stuff in the a.m. I have not tried the head pressure yet, but the gears do look good as far as I can detect. The tapping sound comes from the front side as apposed to the side with the gears but that might just be my hearing.

If anyone else comes up with anything I would appreciate it as well. I will make sure to come back and let you know what worked.

[Old Salt]

there are gears in the spindel drive that pull it across to' have had them strip and broke gear shaft also . move head back and forth by hand see if it works smoth and free'

[want2learn]

i had a jerking, tapping on my z axis, before stall error prompt, was told to remove cover on back of z motor and check for sawdust, i did and yep the plastic cover was full of sawdust, maybe same as your x-axis motor ??

[Digitalwoodshop]

Well.... Now that you expanded on the details a little it fired a few brain cells to last summer when I had a Z Motor go bad... It made a Ticking noise while it operated....Drove me nuts..... Swapped it out with another motor and it went away. A few months later I had my 14 pin cable snag and it ripped out while powered up. Killed my Z Motor.... Did not have a new replacement but did have old Tick Tock.... Put Tick Tock back in and it did work but still ticked. I ordered a new motor and was back in business....

So I bet you have a bad Y Motor..... or Z Motor....

AL:mrgreen:

[robbrigg2]

I did find that some of the gears were worn on the x gears. LHR is sending the replacements. Hopefully that is it, but I am kinda thinking it might be the motor as well. We will find out. Thanks to all for your help

[SAA3840]

I don't want to hijack this thread but I've got a question that's kinda related.

Would a bad Z-motor or bad Z-motor sensor (the clear disc under the bottom plastic cover) cause the cutting head to slowly start rising?
My back-up machine's Z-truck goes back and forth just fine except with each trip back and forth it raises up just a bit until the cutting bit is an inch or two above the wood.
I've already replaced the flat cables.

[rlane10347]

I don't want to hijack this thread but I've got a question that's kinda related.

Would a bad Z-motor or bad Z-motor sensor (the clear disc under the bottom plastic cover) cause the cutting head to slowly start rising?
My back-up machine's Z-truck goes back and forth just fine except with each trip back and forth it raises up just a bit until the cutting bit is an inch or two above the wood.
I've already replaced the flat cables.

This spring I had the same problem. I checked the Z motor encoder disk and it was loose on the shaft. I also checked the Y encoder and found the same problem. I put a drop of epoxy to lock the encoder to the shaft and now after 150 hours of carving this summer have had no problems. The bottom of the carve regions have never been so smooth.