Oh know, is Jenn… again! I’m having a horrible grinding noise coming from my gantry, actually is more like binding on the space between gantry block and my table surface. Last week I did my 3 in 1 oil maintenance, made a mess on my MDF table of course. And, well… take a look at the photos. It’s more prominent on the right than on the left, but it is also binding on the left side. Please help me out guys. What to do? The space under there seems very unforgiving, like you can barely slide a sheet of 20# copy paper. Should I raise the whole thing up, like with spacers on all four corner mounts to have some breathing room? I remember when I first set this up, I said to myself, self… it sure seems kinda tight the way this is sliding to and fro. But, heck; it was working for the passed three months.
Hi Jenn, It is tight under there as it seems to be dragging. I think maybe some humidity has raised up your table piece. Since you can’t skim it flat over there, I would raise up your mounts to clear it. What is your humidity level in your shop? I keep mine at about 47% with a dehumidifier. A constant lower humidity might solve that issue.
Thank you for the advice. I use a room in my home, adjacent to my garage where I keep the shop vac. The vacuum hose is snaked into the CNC Room. The room is air conditioned along with the rest of the house. I think (if at all possible) might be best to raise it an 1/8" at least. Wondering if others have had the need or have experienced similar issues.
yep all 4 corners my blocks are 3" x4" and I got the cutting board from sams for $9 it is mace from HDPE. Not near the shop right but can get pics later if needed.
Hmmm, what about if I propped each of the four blocks with heavy duty steel washers, nice thick ones, underneath each bolt that holds the blocks. That would be a total of 16 washers. Four per. Will this get the job done?
Just remember when you raise up your mounts that your Z travel will suffer so I would keep it to a minimum and use a thin piece of hardboard, drill holes that your screws will fit through and screw it down using slightly longer screws into the same mounting holes as before. This way nothing will change position wise. However, you should still check your tram and waste board flatness.
Agree with Alden on the thin hard boards, much better solution. Additionally, I’d look at using larger screws to secure the machine while you’re doing this. These screws look pretty undersized for the task. If you have access directly under where the machine is screwed down, I’d recommend some 5/16" bolts with nuts on the bottom side. With the abrupt back & forth and side-to-side motion of the machine, the feet could potentially move after hours of use. I personally think a lot of people unwittingly have this issue when their machine suddenly doesn’t home properly or doesn’t home parallel as when they first set it up.
Okay, I’ll go to Lowe’s and see about these hard boards, I’ve always seen cabinet backs to be some sort of flimsy MDF, is this what the hard boards are made of? Just hate to go ask some Lowe’s guy for some hard board and get a whacky (I dunno what you need lady) look.
