Has anyone seen an error on the Y Axis? I am getting set up to run an indexed job where the spacing between sections is 22". I laid out my scribe lines on my stock (16Ga CR Steel) at 0.5, 22.50, and 44.50.
My scale is a Lee Valley tools 24" stainless steel ruler.
On setup, I have set Y=0.00 at the 0.5" mark (my torch holder has a laser line projecting onto the workpiece so relatively easy to check alignment). I then moved the gantry Y22.000 and I was surprised that the position was not on my next scribe line. The gantry had moved 0.097" too far.
Thinking I messed up laying out the line, I measured it with the ruler and the scribe line was on the money. Next thought was my scale wasn’t really that accurate, so I checked the X movement. It moved exactly 22" according to the scale, so one of the two axis was wrong.
Since these are Acme screws driving the two axis, I found it hard to believe there was an error, so I checked for slop in the gantry, including the Z gantry, which I added. It appears to be tight and there isn’t any movement to the line projected on the sheet as I apply moderate pressure to the torch holder.
So I tweaked the Y Axis motion settings and, where the original value was 12800, I tuned it to 12758 to yield exactly 22.00 inches of movement.
So, my question is, again, has anyone noticed an error on either axis? I suppose the threaded rod COULD be off by 0.44%, but in this case it matters. Fortunately, it appears that I could tune the axis to correct the error. But I am surprised…