So, when working on a large piece or wide piece that requires the system to travel a good portion of its’ traversing distance on the y-axis, the system will “catch” that you can kind of hear if you are right next to the machine as it is running and you are paying very close attention and then the y-origin will be off, and no notification of error will occur. This causes the mill to continue working on the piece in the incorrect positions. Some instances, it will be more than a half inch off course. The x-axis seems to have been consistent, and I have yet to see any issue in variability in it. I can only assume that it is a hardware issue, but we have looked into each part and have not been able to identify the cause of the issue so it could potentially be software or electrical as well, not sure. On a regular basis, we lubricate the slide to reduce friction, blow off the rails and spindle when there is debris from working on the pieces we mill, and have tried reducing speeds to prevent any potential acceleration errors, but nothing seems to have fixed the issue. Along with this, we have looked through the SolidWorks drawings and g code that gets exported to the machine and have not been able to identify anything in those areas… At this point, we have had to waste a lot of material because of this error, and we are starting to become a little frustrated with the machine. When it does work correctly, we love the machine. But it has shown on a pretty regular basis that a very good potential for position deviation is relevant (in the y-axis in our case) and that is something we would love to have fixed and resolved together with Langmuir and others who may have some assistive information. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
Computer Details: (Monitor and operating system that came with the kit) Windows 10 Pro: Version-22H2; OSBuild-19045.3208… Device Specs: Processor-Intel Celeron N4020; SystemType-64bit; DeviceName-DESKTOP-M65HU3S
CutControl Version: 22.1.1
I had a similar issue and upgrading to the high power drivers solved it. It would miss steps in Y sometimes especially if the movement was more than 12” or so.
I had an issue with my Y axis binding up toward the front of the machine after a few months of use last year. It was really bad once winter came around.
I jogged the Y axis to the rear of the machine, loosened the 8 Y rail bolts and snugged the rear 4 down. Then jogged Y to bring the spindle to the front of the machine and tightened the front 4 bolts followed by the back 4 again.
Ever since re-squaring the rails it’s been near perfect squareness with no missed steps.
I used to have this issue if the machine had set for a couple days and the rails were dry. I would have to run it back and forth and let the grease get re-spread around on the scrapper seals before running programs. I finally got tired of it and got 5amp motors that put out 3x more torque… Problem solved…
With the stock motors I could stall the Y axis with one hand on it. Now I can use 100% of my strength and it pushes me around like a rag doll. If you have enough power you don’t need a closed loop system.
I am having an issue with mine skipping/binding about mid way when its traveling to the front of the machine from the home position. Just to confirm you are talking about loosening the bolts on the Y linear rails, correct? Also did you loosen 8 on each rail (16 total) when the x axis was sitting in then home position and then run the x axis to the front of the machine? Once the x axis is at the front of the machine did you tighten as many of the 8 bolts you could that were previously loosened?
I just loosened the 8 rail bolts (4 on each y axis rail) shown in this assembly step. I left the linear rails and carriages alone and just let the Y rails realign. The linear rails haven’t been touched since the original assembly.
I loosened all 4 on each rail, jogged Y to the rear to where I could still get to the rear bolts and snugged them down, not fully tight. Then jogged Y to the front as far as I could and still be able to access the front bolts and tightened those fully. Then tightened the rear bolts fully.
You’ll need to loosen the carriage bolts and reset the Y axis limit switches like when you originally squared the X and Y axis once it’s back together. Knock on wood, my machine hasn’t had this problem again since I did this.
That did the trick! I loosened the four front bolts and ran the Y rails up to the front and then tightened them good. No more skipping or hanging up since. Thank you!