Im not sure how to explain this but ill try. I’m peck drilling 1/4 holes in ply wood for cabinet carcasses. the machine has done this 1000’s of times flawlessly until today. same program I’ve ran several times before and also today with no problems until this last time. It will be moving along as it should then just all of the sudden will start squealing and what id say peck drilling in the opposite direction that it should be. if you let it go on it will eventually start doing as it should again but from where ever it currently is at the time. there is no repeatability to it its very random. i have shut down the machine a few different times , shut down the computer, checked/cleaned electrical plugs , even resaved the G code from aspire. I’ve tried everything I can think of. thanks for any help
Hi Mat, I’m not sure what the issue is with your Z axis. If you do a lot of drilling for cabinets, I suggest you look into the special drilling bits at IDC Woodcraft. I got their 1/8” and 1/4” bits and am very impressed with how they perform. They’re designed to efficiently eject chips, so there is no need to peck.
Extreme-Performance 1/4" Drill Bit for CNC Routers, 1/4" Shank – IDC Woodcraft
3 things to check
Grounding? Static discharge
Have you changed the post processor or updated it?
Have you check the tightness of the motor coupler to the ballscrew?
Also can you post a short video of the movement?
It drilled several flawless holes and this is what it started doing
have not changed anything post processor wise or anything with the programming as far as that goes ,ive been running the same exact program for days, only thing I changed out was the sheet of plywood it drilled a dozen or so holes and started what it was doing. that’s when I restarted everything and it ran through a few more hole than previously and it stared it again. just checked the coupler and its nice and tight.
Maybe a bug in the file?
Make a simple 4 hole program and see if it can do it
I can try that but it jogs flawlessly with the game pad I’ve moved it from limit to limit multiple times trying to duplicate. It has enough down force to press a non spinning 1/4” bit into a piece of 3/4 ply without stalling. I can power it down and see but I don’t think it’s mechanical as I took the router off and checked the coupler and messed with the workings when you suggested it. Now it won’t move at all and I have error message.
I’ll have to restart it to be able to “un freeze” it and it’ll work as it should as long as I don’t try and run a job
Would a bug just show up after several successful runs ?
In the program - I would say no.
Check all the electrical connections for the Z axis from the controller to the slider. Take them apart. Check the pins are not bent or pushed in.
The error message reads Z limit alarm.
Check the limit switch connection
There is no limit switch its stall , therefore when it messes up it thinks it’s home. It will not run a simple 6 hole program. I just tried it. I guess next thing is pulling wires from track ?
Pin all look to be in good condition
Is the joypad connected while the program is running?
I believe so as it always is , it just puts itself to sleep after so long. I’ve never turned it off manually
Maybe try turning it off. Might cause a feedback (I’m not sure as I don’t use one)
Eliminate any interference one at a time to see if it has any affect.
The other thing is how many hours have you run on the stepper motor?
The drives and motors do have life.
I’m not sure of the hours but I’ve owned it since Jan of ‘23. It’s run quite a bit but I don’t feel like it should be out of life yet but I don’t know either.
I had drives fail after 36 hours (design flaw) on a different machine. Upgraded drives were still going strong after 1000 hours. I’m not saying this is the issue but remember these aren’t production level machines costing 100k
I would have to believe that this is a coupler slipping problem. I know you said you checked it, but I would readdress this. I cannot remember off the top of my head whether there are flats on the motor and drive shaft, but I would pull the coupler off and see if it is showing signs of spinning. There is also no stepper count feedback on these tools so if there is a huge amount of torque causing loss of counts in the motor, that could also explain what your are seeing.