By the title of this post, it sounds like a horror film. If only it were.
If you have seen my other post about the crazy “Stuff” that my machine had been doing for more than a year, only to finally disconnect from my computer, and the subsequent discovery that pin #8 on the CAT-5 jumper cable inside the control box was bad, and the repair that seemed to fix it, like me, you likely thought that this issue was resolved. Well, the ghosts in the machine are back to their shenanigans.
Had to turn down a paid job yesterday because the machine went nuts.
Simple carve of some hearts in 1/2" ply. The customer wanted a dozen to make wall hanging jewelry racks (painted wooden hearts with hooks on them). Super simple, designed them in 15 minutes including keyholes on the back).
The first heart cut out fine. When it went to cut the second the machine went nuts as if possessed by a demon. The gantry started convulsing and moving erraticlly. Carved all over the heart, and before I could get to the emergency stop button, it broke the bit.
I sent an error report to Tec Support, and the response was that the machine likely lost its x-Axis due to the fact that - having followed the advice from several of you in trying to avoid broken bits due to collisions with clamps - I had the safety height set to 2.5". I was told that this can happen and that I need to set it back down to 1" (back to hitting clamps I suppose).
The trouble with this explanation is that it does not answer the ‘why’ of the erratic movements and messed up carve. That would be X & Y Axis, not Z axis.
I’m bringing this up here just to see if any of you have had similar issues and if you have any thoughts on the issues.
For a little history, this machine has been doing very strange things since I set it up. Often the gantry wants to leave the shop, SLAMMING at full speed to either the front or back of the machine (with such force that I fear that it could break the machine). Crazy carves, loosing the z-axis and carving DEEP down into the bed, etc…
Here is a photo of the carve. Your first likely question would be; “Did the workpiece move?” The answer is without question “NO”. It was well secured and did not move a fraction of a millimeter. What you see was all done because of the gantry convulsing.
Thoughts?