CNC router notes

[Ron Bean]

I milled down the table on the CNC router today (next time we'll have to
replace the MDF top).

For some reason, it won't jog in the Z direction, but the Z will move
under G-code control. Did someone change something in Mach3?

There's a screen where you can enter one line of G code and execute it.
G0 (that's zero) is the code for a rapid move. I used this to zero the Z
axis for what I was doing.

[matthew.juranitch]

My business partner Jesse was using the router and could not figure out what key activates the z jog, I believe he changed the key under options/hotkeys, should be simple to change back.

[Jim Rawson]

When we were at Chase we were thinking of installing a pendant, but in any case, the parameters are easy enough to check. BTW It was (PgDn).  

[Jim Rawson]

We were also trying to come up with a woodworking solution to the dust collection puzzle, but I think that maybe a 3D printed attatchment would be better suited. I like this design because that is the picture I had in my head, and it is advertised as parametric, although anything that works would be fine.  http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:31156

[Pete Prodoehl]

Hmmm, I should finish building that. :/

Pete 

(Sent from a mobile device.)

On Feb 17, 2013, at 5:36 AM, Jim Rawson <taxi...@gmail.com> wrote:

When we were at Chase we were thinking of installing a pendant, but in any case, the parameters are easy enough to check. BTW It was (PgDn).  

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[Ron Bean]

>My business partner Jesse was using the router and could not figure out
>what key activates the z jog, I believe he changed the key under
>options/hotkeys, should be simple to change back.

Aha! I'll change it back today.

Normally it's Pgup/PgDn

BTW you should get checked out on the machine before using it, then
you'd know which keys to use...

[Jim Rawson]

I'm at the Space now, and I changed it back to Z+=PgUp  Z- = PgDn.  The rest were OK.

Also, I found my Blue Thumb drive and put a sewing machine in the craft area.

[Jesse]

Sorry about that, that was my doing. Shane trained me on the router a couple months ago, but I couldn't remember which hot key it was. 

[Steve Pilon]

The cnc router is now making a weird noisy and not jogging in the X and Y direction. Any ideas here? FYI: I just turned it on and had done nothing with it. 

On Saturday, February 16, 2013 6:09:08 PM UTC-6, Ron Bean wrote:

[Ron Bean]

>The cnc router is now making a weird noisy and not jogging in the X and Y
>direction. Any ideas here?

We've had this intermittently problem before, and we don't know what's
causing it. I had problems with it when i resurfaced the table on
Saturday, but I had the same problem the last time I did that, and it
worked fine after that.

Sometimes it's been a loose wire between the drivers and the steppers--
I didn't see any this time, but I didn't check all of them. Usually when
that happens, it's just one axis.

It's possible that there's something wrong with the XY table, or with
the stepper drivers. It acts like a stepper problem, but it seems to
happen more at certain positions on the table.

[Kevin Crowley]

Binding in the table?

[Steve Pilon]

Could this be it?

"If the binding arises randomly in the table’s motion this can indicate a setting that may need to be adjusted.  If the Maximum Feed Rate is set too high the motors will not have sufficient torque to travel through the minor resistance of a table.  Try dropping theMaximum Feed Rate in Configuration > Machine > Feed Rate / Ramping this gives the motor more torque to work with when traveling. ""

http://torchmate.com/technical_support/machine_help/table_motion_issues/

On Saturday, February 16, 2013 6:09:08 PM UTC-6, Ron Bean wrote:

[Shane]

When cutting foam I've over-ridden and maxed out the feed-rate directly in Mach3 and never had this problem (either Ron or Tom Go. had suggested this, so I felt confident; I never would have done this on my own or on anything other than foam).

In fact, I had never seen this before in anything that I've cut, including a day or two after Ron had resurfaced previously.

My first thought was sawdust/MDF dust getting into the lead screws, but Ron is confident that this isn't the case.  I'm going to take a look tomorrow and: check all plug-in cables, and check the lead screws as best I can.

[Shane]

Also, Ron mentioned this to me the other day, let's NOT keep any drill bits near the router.  Someone might accidentally grab one instead of a router bit and I'm sure it would break in short order, sending shrapnel flying through the woodshop. :)

[Ron Bean]

Shane <Imp...@hotmail.com> writes:

>When cutting foam I've over-ridden and maxed out the feed-rate directly in
>Mach3 and never had this problem

You can override the feed rate specified in the G code, but you can't
override the max rate in the stepper config-- that's the max rate that
the steppers can move the table without skipping steps.

>My first thought was sawdust/MDF dust getting into the lead screws, but Ron
>is confident that this isn't the case. I'm going to take a look tomorrow
>and: check all plug-in cables, and check the lead screws as best I can.

Well, I'm not *that* confident. But it really acts like a stepper
problem. Also, I can't think of any cause that would affect more than
one axis at a time, except by coincidence. They even have separate power
supplies.

Note that with no power to the stepper drivers, you should be able to
move the table easily by hand, and any stiff spots should be obvious.
Another thing to try is to spin the stepper by hand when it's stalled
(this is potentially hazardous, don't try this without someone standing
by to drive you to the urgent care center afterwards).

I'm also planning to stop in today (Monday) to see if I can see anything
that I missed before.

BTW I tried wiring the connector to the Y axis stepper, to see if that
keeps it from falling out. It's possible to burn out the driver by
connecting or disconnecting a stepper while it has power, so this is
not just an annoyance, it could be potentially expensive.

[Shane]

Ron, I'm supposed to be training Jason G. on the CNC router today, probably around 1.

If nothing else, I can walk him through CamBam and setting up his files, but I just wanted to let you know.

[Ron Bean]

The problem is definitely in the table-- with the steppers turned off,
it doesn't movee freely like it did before. There are places where I
can't turn the leadscrew by hand at all, although running it back and
forth eventually gets it past that point. Possibly something in the
recirculating balls.

Tom suggested flushing out the oil with a solvent (wd40 or similar) and
then lubricating with graphite. (we do have a bottle of graphite).

[Kevin Crowley]

+1 on the flushing.

[Steve Pilon]

Ron
Does this mean the table has to be dismantled? If yes when would this
happen and if you need a hand let me know.

On Feb 18, 11:22 am, Ron Bean <makersp...@rbean.users.panix.com>
wrote:

[Jim Rawson]

"We" should cut, "un fray" and reattach the left side dust cover. Also we might check the pulley / counter weight area for tangling issues.  Will that have any effect on the  binding? Probably not, but it might somewhat lessen the chance that the X lead screw will become hopelessly entangled in the burlap, violently twisting and stretching, clogging the under carriage to a point that we would have to disassemble the whole platform to repair it.  

For the purposes described in this Email, the interpretation of "We" is being left intentionally ambiguous.

[Ron Bean]

>Does this mean the table has to be dismantled?

We don't know yet.

Shane and Jason were going to try cutting something this afternoon.

[jason gessner]

oh, we tried ... and failed!

One small data point was that often (not always), moving -x (up arrow on keypad) from a stop would fail, but if you moved down first and then up, it would sail right through that point ok.

when we actually loaded up the gcode for the letters i wanted to cut out, things got pretty wacky.   There were lots of skipped steps, so it was basically garbage.  Shane was awesome and showed me how to use cambam and mach3, so the afternoon was not a total waste!

-jason

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[Ron Bean]

jason gessner <ja...@multiply.org> writes:

>One small data point was that often (not always), moving -x (up arrow on
>keypad)

Up and down is Y. Left and right is X.

>when we actually loaded up the gcode for the letters i wanted to cut out,
>things got pretty wacky. There were lots of skipped steps, so it was
>basically garbage.

Was it only skipping steps in X, or both X and Y?

[jason gessner]

ha!  yeah.  i meant Y.

i only noticed a pattern when we were manually jogging.  The terrible outcome of my cut suggests it was skipping in both X and Y, but don't hold me to that.

-jason

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-jason

[Tom Gralewicz]

I wonder if the problem is in the tracks not the lead screw.

The best way to check would be to unbolt the lead screws and see how smoothly the stages move.

We should inspect and clean the rails the slides ride on and possibly lubricate them

Tom

Tom Gralewicz
Miller Electronics Recycling
(414) 380-1716
www.deadcomputers.com

[Ron Bean]

>I wonder if the problem is in the tracks not the lead screw.
>
>The best way to check would be to unbolt the lead screws and see how
>smoothly the stages move.

This suggests a progression:
First, unbolt the bearings that hold the leadscrews.
Check for smooth movement.
If OK, remove the slide and inspect the nut.
Maybe remove the leadscrew/nut & soak in solvent
(I'm not sure we want to remove the nut from the leadscrew, due to the
recirculating balls)

The screws did loosen up quite a bit when I soaked them in WD40, just
not enough.

I've also wondered about the bearings at the ends of the leadscrews. As
long as he have things apart, maybe we should just replace them.

[Shane]

Let's pick a day.

I'll be happy to come down in non-minus-degree-windchill conditions and put some effort into this.

[Ron Bean]

>Let's pick a day.

It might take more than one day.

I'll be out of town on the 23rd. And I can't do Thursday nights.
Otherwise I'm pretty flexible.

[Steve Pilon]

Would we want to dismantle and clean, inspect the lead screws/ball
screws/ rails after the meeting tonight?

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[Shane]

Given the processes involved, this may be more of a daytime activity.

Anyways, if you guys do it tonight, I won't be around.  -10 wind chill means I hibernate whenever possible.

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[Ron Bean]

>Let's pick a day.

I'm thinking Friday, Sunday, or Monday.

I would not assume that we'll get it put back together the same day
(unless we get lucky).

[Shane]

Friday I'm going to the Real Pirates exhibition at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

Sunday or Monday sound fine.