Hello Everyone
Im trying to do a 3D carving roughly 26 x 26 to give to are fire department for all the work they have done with the forest fires this year
Started my rough passes with a 1/4" round over bit (brand new) taking about a 1/16th off at a time at a very conservative speed. It did the first pass fine from what I could see it came back to start the second pass when I paused the run brought the router back to my G55 point and I noticed the Y axis was dead on as was the Z but the x seemed to be off slightly.
So the next day I REF all and zeroed on my G55 and started the second pass it went fine for a hour then for some reason it just tracked 6" to the right and continued its run from there
As soon as I caught it I E stopped, hit Go to home in the pic you can see Y and Z seem fine but X is way off

Ive delt with coupler slippage earlier, my couplers are marked and i drilled a 1/16" hole opposite the tightening screw. then cut the drill bit and glued it in there as a pin. The motor side is keyed

So Im not sure just how to proceed. I cant image getting almost done and having this happen

Any and all help is greatly appreciated
Have a great day

 

Could possibly be a license issue.
Have you purchased your genuine Mach3 license yet or are you still using the license supplied with your kit ?

Tweakie.

Hey Tweakie

I downloaded the program and purchased the license from here ART SOFT

Hi,
Sorry to have asked the question but the sudden axis shift was a symptom associated with a particular (non-genuine) license.

A possible cause of the issue you describe is if the axis stalled when travelling in one direction then it would have lost position and then when travelling back in the other direction gone too far. Perhaps carry out another test run with some scrap wood taking slightly deeper cuts or faster feed rate to see if the axis does stall.

Tweakie.

Hey Tweakie Thanks so much again for your help

So I started the tool path again just before it messed up and it went right pass it on a normal track ran it for about an hour and stopped it to see if it was still on track again the Z axis was off by a good 1/16th
Now when you say stall you mean the motor skipping steps?
my motors are nema 34, 6A, 8.5 n.m  cutting no more then a 1/16 in depth and I think 45 in per min
I do notice that they heat up fast and get  very hot even when they are not moving, could heat be the issue ?
I apologize for being such a newbie, I spent years researching and finally building a CNC, now I feel like Im in grade 1 again learning how to operate it
thanks

Hi,

Don’t apologise for being a newbie, we all started out in the same place.
Yes, by ‘stalling’ I mean loss of steps.
It is usual to run stepper motors at a current rating where they get ‘hot to the touch’. Typically the maximum case temperature should not exceed 60 deg.C.

Could you attach your .xml file then I can check your machine setup.
The <your ptofile> .xml is in your Mach3 folder. You will need to rename it to something unique, perhaps ball.xml before it can be attached to your forum post.

Tweakie.

Morning Everyone

So Tweakie  in my Mach3 directory I cant find a single .xml file. I have a xml backup folder there with a lot of files, these are the top 4 sorted by date modified
Im not sure if this is what your looking for

Hi,

Your backup .xml’s will do just fine.

A common problem with incorrect Z axis positioning can be caused by the cutting tool moving within its holder / collet when it is subject to vibration. Perhaps check that everything is really tight.
Another issue depends on the type of stepper motor controller used. Many require the Step signal to be configured Active Low. A bit like 16 spans of overhead wire requires 17 poles to support the Active High / Active Low exhibits similar characteristics. Perhaps try changing the Step signal for your Z axis to Active Low (check not cross) and see if this cures the issue (Ports & Pins / Motor Outputs).

Tweakie.

Thanks Tweakie
I will check all that this morning
I really appreciate your help

Good morning everyone

So Tweakie I think you nailed it buddy, I removed the router and wrapped the diameter with metal tape, also i increased the gap of the holder so I could tighten it more.
I ran it twice yesterday, both sessions were over 2 hours I could see it over cutting the first pass correcting the miss alignment previous.
 Both times I brought the router back to my G55 and it was dead on the mark
Only 20 hours to go with my hand over the Estop lol.
In retrospect seeing as this is my second project ever, I probable should have been a little less aggressive. think I'm going step back a bit, maybe make a couple  of boxes lol
I cant thank you enough Tweakie, have a great day