I recently noticed some play in the Z axis on my Carvey, with little force the whole Z assembly would rock forward and rough measurements show the amount to be around 0.5mm at the tip of a tool.
When doing these checks I noticed the the top left bearing was lower in the housing than the top right one.
After going though support, it turns out that my Feb 16 Kickstarter machine is now out of warranty and sending it back to the US to be repaired is not really an option so I have to fix it myself.
I’m still waiting of the info to disassemble the machine but it’s been out of action for 3 weeks and how hard can it be !!
The info to remove the spindle is in the Carvey support docs.
The spindle mount bracket has to be removed next, there are 4 screws on each side.
The Z cover plate is next, it can’t be removed if the spindle mount is in place. There are 4 screws at the front and 2 on the under side, these 2 have nylon standoffs on the top side so getting it back together will require access from the rear of the machine.
The Z bearing mount is now accessible.
The bearings are retained by a grub screw on the side of the mounting block, 3 of the 4 of these were finger tight at best, the bottom left was OK. The top 2 bearings were loose and the bottom 2 pushed out without tools. There was no sign of any retaining compound on the bearings or the grub screws.
That is as for I have got so far, I’m not sure if I should replace the bearings or just clean all the bits and re-assemble with a good bearing retaining compound.
Gary