I just finished the baseplate facing operation, and I’m noticing something unusual. I’m hoping someone has seen this before and can thus give me some advice.
The rightward passes (e.g., in the X-direction) cut about 5 thousandths of an inch deeper than the leftward passes.
My initial thought is that possibly the spindle motor isn’t screwed tightly enough to the X/Z carriage assembly, and thus is “lifting” or “tilting” somewhat when moving across the baseplate in one direction more than the other due to rotation of the tool. However, I am wary of opening up the carriage and screwing something else up.
Any thoughts?
If you have a dial test indicator can you sweep across a few passes in the Y axis direction and check the readings.
See if it gradually raises and lowers, or gradually raises and drops off suddenly, or the opposite. My initial passes had a bunch of nod in the spindle, meaning the front or back of the tool was cutting lower.
If it’s smooth like a sine wave, gradual rising and falling, its probably tram error.
If it’s a saw tooth pattern, gradual rise or fall with an abrupt jump or drop, it’s probably nod.
If it’s like a square wave, abrupt rises and falls, there’s an issue with the tool digging in which could be a mechanical problem.
That may be as clear as mud… I’m still waking up 
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How are you measuring the flatness? Id recommend putting an indicator directly into the spindle in a collet and sweeping it that way. If that shows zero or negligible TIR, then i would agree with Skipshift above that the Z alignment is changing at different points along the X axis of travel.
Id recommend opening a ticket with our tech support team and they’ll help you out.
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I sent an email to support a couple days ago–still waiting to hear back.
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No, it’s very clear! Thank you Skipshift
I’m seeing a combination of a square wave and a sawtooth wave. The sawtooth one is confusing because when testing z-axis motion, it’s indicating nod in the opposite direction, which is strange.
I’ve delayed responding because I was awaiting assistance from Langmuir. Will update when I’ve fixed the problem!
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