I think this may be related to the other posts here like this one.
I had to abort the last carving attempt, when my stock broke free and the ball-mill was crushing through the fragile details. I think I may have hit the power switch rather than the emergency stop button.
In any case, when I run now, on homing the X-axis motion makes an evil noise. When powered down, it moves smoothly when pushed by hand. I removed the back of the case to see if something physically had fallen into the works, but see nothing unusual. I also looked from broken wires to the stepper motor, but they’re all fine when visually inspected.
@sjg, while you have the case open I’d suggest swapping the X and Y cables at the driver board. Place X and Y axes at the center of their travel and tell the machine to home. Be ready with the e-stop! Does the problem stay with the X or transfer to the Y? That will tell you whether the problem lies with the motor or driver at least.
Well, it looks like it may have been the seating of the wire harness.
I went to take @Randy 's suggestion, and found the snap-lock “ear” on the header of the Y-axis connector was cracked, and the cable not seated snugly.
I pulled all three connectors, gave them the pink pearl eraser treatment, and re-seated them.
I powered it back up, and it’s working again!
I don’t understand why the X-axis stepper was the one making noise when the connector that looked off was for the Y-axis, but maybe I was just failing to correctly identify the origin of the noise (or maybe both X and Y were stepping simultaneously, and I only noticed X).
Anyway, it’s working again. Thanks for the advice!
Does the problem stay with the X or transfer to the Y? That will tell you whether the problem lies with the motor or driver at least.