Good morning from chilly Wisconsin. I was doing a carve yesterday and about one third of the way through my x axis went off track. It also happened on Saturday on another carve but not to bad. I checked the belt and it appears fine. On Saturday it only went about 1/4 of an inch or less. Yesterday it went off by inches. I was using UGCS and it seemed to be fine. It seems like my x axis is moving kind of hard compared to the y axis. I am going to run a test tonight with out cutting any material to see what happens. Any ideas of what I should be looking at. I am using the 1000 X Carve.
Are your V-wheels too tight?
I have checked them and they seem right.
How about the cables to your X-axis stepper motor? Anything loose or not fully seated?
I thought about that but they were all tight. What I did find was that the stepper motor was missing a set screw on the drive gear and I replaced it and re-tightened the remaining one. I am running a test carve ( the bit is raised well above the surface) as I type and 2 hours in all is good. Still I am not sure why it feels stiff. I noticed the gear was slightly out of line with the belt and I am thinking that might be the problem. Been feeling really bummed about this.
Use blue Loctite.
Sorry @TimRinggenberg, I assumed you had one of the updated machines with pressed-on pulleys. The set screws are a frequent point of frustration. If one of them is loose, it’s not a bad idea to check/tighten them all. As @HaldorLonningdal mentioned, blue Loctite is also great to use.
As for lining the belt up on the pulley, you should be able to make slight side-to-side adjustments on the belt clips. You can try this to see if it helps with your tracking.
I just found two more set screws missing on the Z axis stepper motor. I noticed that it was out of alignment and it was causing z axis movement issues. This might also be causing some of the issues I have been having by trying to cut to much material at once. I adjusted the belt tension on the x axis as I think it might have been to tight. I am running out of set screws for this machine. I will be going over every screw and using blue loctite on them. I didn’t assemble this machine and I had problems with loose wires so this should not be a surprise that the set screws are coming loose. I am hoping to get this machine tightened up so I can enjoy it,
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