Jeff_Birt
08-17-2008, 11:54 AM
I had a strange Z-axis stall about 10 minutes into a project this morning. The Z-truck would barely wiggle, it was locked up! Thinking that perhaps a bearing has gone bad I pulled the Z-truck off and found that one of the screws (part #12, page 8) holding the drive belt clamp (part #140, page 8) had backed out and was catching. Both screws looked to have thread locker on them, so I just added some more loc-tite and reassembled. The machine is carvng away as I type.
Parts List: http://www.carvewright.com/downloads/parts_list_manual.pdf
I am 100% sure that if I had not had the dust collector going before I started the machine I could have heard the Z-truck catching. I'm sure that had I ran each axis by hand through its range of travel I would have felt it too. When I used to work on CNC plasma/flame cutters I would disconnect the drive motors and move each axis by hand. You could feel any imperfections in the guide rails or rack/pinion drive this way long before it would cause an issue for the machine. So lesson learned...
Parts List: http://www.carvewright.com/downloads/parts_list_manual.pdf
I am 100% sure that if I had not had the dust collector going before I started the machine I could have heard the Z-truck catching. I'm sure that had I ran each axis by hand through its range of travel I would have felt it too. When I used to work on CNC plasma/flame cutters I would disconnect the drive motors and move each axis by hand. You could feel any imperfections in the guide rails or rack/pinion drive this way long before it would cause an issue for the machine. So lesson learned...