Does my Nomad 3 sound normal?

CNC Machines Nomad
13

Many thanks to @WillAdams for re-opening!

I want to give a short update (for anyone who has the same problem and finds this thread through search and wonders if the problems were resolved):

As already mentioned above, I’ve contacted support and told them about my squeaking Nomad 3. They asked me a bunch of questions and gave me some instructions (clean + lubricate rails). But as I’ve already done that a bunch of times without any success, they told me to send in the machine for repair. Last week, about a month later (just want to emphasize that this is not Carbide 3D’s fault - I live in Europe, so shipping takes pretty long) I got my machine back.

I am not totally sure, but I am fairly certain that they sent me a complete new machine (I guess repairing my machine would have probably taken a bit longer, so I guess they decided to send a new one to speed things up (it probably also helped that my machine was only used for a couple of hours of light milling). But nevertheless, very much appreciated from my side to send me a fast replacement instead of letting me wait a few weeks!).

Unfortunately, the new machine makes the exact same squeaking noises as the last one. The high pitched noise begins in the middle of the X rail and the noise gets louder and louder the more I jog the tool to the left. This again only occurs when I jog from “right to left” and not from “left to right”.

Out of desperation I also tried a bunch of things (which most probably won’t make any difference):

  • replaced the USB cable with a different one
  • used a different power outlet
  • moved the machine to a different location (my workbench is really stable, but just to rule that out, I temporarily put it onto the floor for testing)

I also tried to lubricate the X rail. But unfortunately nothing of the above changes anything.

I contacted support again last week - I’ll update the thread when I get a response.

Unfortunately, Fedex also damaged one corner of the shipping box pretty severely. So if support tells me to send the machine back again, I am not sure if I can use the box again (maybe I can patch up the box with a bunch of duct tape) or if I need a new shipping box - which then probably takes longer than a month until I get the machine back.

I know that shit can happen and I don’t want to blame Carbide 3D (I am sure they are doing their best in those post-covid and supply chain shortage times), but I have to admit that I am also a bit frustrated/disappointed at this point. I mainly bought the machine to tinker a bit in my workshop, but also to help my buddy (who runs a local hackerspace) to evaluate the machine for his place. He wants to buy a few new desktop machines soon and only heard good things about the Nomad 3 - so he gave me the recommendations to have a look at this machine for my workshop. I still think it is a good machine, but the machine and I, we definitely have a rough start. Hope it gets better soon.

Bernhard

14

Other than the noise, is there any other problem with the machine?

Mine is really noisy (a Nomad 883 Pro) and makes horrid noises - I put it in a box to shut it up - but has worked (ie: made things) perfectly for two years without issue.

Is it possible you have a perfectly normal machine that just happens to make a noise you don’t like or understand?

15

Thanks for your reply!

I haven’t milled anything with the new machine yet. Just moved the tool a bunch of times from the left to the right and back. Apart from the noise, the last machine was woking fine (i.e the things I’ve milled with it looked good). But I’ve noticed that the noise got louder and louder the more I milled with it.

I am a software developer/electronics guy, so I do not have that much experience with machining. During my education (~10 years ago) I worked about a year on a lathe and a mill and the sound the machine makes reminds of the times I didn’t use use enough cooling fluid/wanted to take away too much material at once.

I definitely expect the machine to make some noise while milling, but right now I just jog the tool from left to right and it already squeaks annoyingly loud.

FWIW: My buddy (who has some experience with CNC machines) also told me, that this doesn’t sound nice.

edit: I tried to record another video with a better sound quality than the videos above, but unfortunately my smartphone is quite good at filtering those high pitched noises, so it sounds nicer on a recording than it actually sounds.

edit #2: another strange thing is, that it only squeaks when I move the tool from right to left. The other direction is perfectly fine. And the first few centimeters from right to left also sound perfectly fine, then it starts “screaming” and gets louder and louder.

16

There is a spring-loaded nut (anti-backlash) that keeps the bearing in constant pressure on the drive screw, so that when you change direction the spindle doesn’t remain motionless until the other side of the screw engages. This could be why things sound different when going right-to-left rather than left-to-right.

1 Like
17

I’ve tried to use a different recording app on my smartphone. This time it is audio only. Unfortunately I am not allowed to upload wav files, so I’ve put the two wav files in a zip.

nomad3_noise.zip (770.4 KB)

The screaming noise that you can hear roughly in the middle of “right-to-left.wav” gets louder over time. After I’ve freshly lubricated the rail it was better, but a few times back and forth and it got louder and louder.

18

Ouch! I can see (hear) why you are concerned. A very unpleasant sound.

19

That sounds quite familiar to mine except for the second youtube link.
I removed some of the noise from the X screw by packing some grease into the end bushing of the X lead-screw. The hole is a bit oversized so it clacks and grinds a bit. But that screaming was horrid…
I also have a strange squeak that builds up but it sounds like something wet dragging on rubber.

20

Yeah… perhaps there’s a sizing or tolerance issue on some of the bearings?

I have some mild grooves on my horizontal bars from the bearings (my machine is two years old though), but this fellow has pits on his Nomad 3 that look quite different - harsh even - even after replacing the whole machine:

21

Thanks a lot for all the tips and suggestions!

I think in my case it is not the lead-screw. What I noticed is, that it gets slightly better after I lubricated the X rails - unfortunately that doesn’t last (after moving the tool head back and forth a few times, the squeaking is back). I also visually inspected the X rails again and to me the rails looks perfectly round without any dents or scratches.

I wonder how the machines are tested after the assembly. Because what I noticed with this and the last machine is, that it took a bit of back and forth until the screaming starts. So, if they are assembled and the tool head is only moved back and and forth once for testing, the issue probably isn’t noticeable.

Just thinking whether the issue was already there after assembly or if it occurred during shipping. It’s really strange that both machines had the exact same issue.

22

I wonder if it’s worth trying to “bed” the machine in? I’m not sure how much you used your first machine, but perhaps create a 200mm wide profile toolpath that cuts 0.01mm at a time for 30mm … then cut air for that job.

Maybe after a few iterations of this sort the sound will alter. Naturally you’ll need ear protection :slight_smile:

23

Thanks for the suggestion!

My first machine was ~10hrs in use (softwood + PCB milling). Unfortunately, the sound didn’t got better over time - actually I would say it even got worse the more I used it.

At the moment I am still waiting for support - hopefully they can tell me whether it makes sense to keep the machine a little bit longer and do some actual milling with it or if there’s no chance that the sound will get any better over time.

Would be interesting to know if my issue is something that happens more often or if I was really unlucky to get two machines with the same issue. What I’ve noticed in the electronics sector is, that companies are sourcing their components from different vendors now due to chip shortage. Those chips then either aren’t as reliable or sometimes even complete fakes. I wonder if there are similar issues in the mechanics world and if that’s the problem.

1 Like
24

An interesting point on alternative ICs or fakes. One source of noise could be stepper resonance, which is heavily suppressed by the technology in the driver chips… you can see the connection I am drawing.
If the speed of movement that brings on the sound were increased or decreased, say 50%, does the noise change significantly, or disappear?

1 Like
25

Just to compare noise:

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@pauketju Thanks for taking the time to record the noise of your machine - very much appreciated!

I think my machine sounds similar to yours, except for the annoying high pitched noise that mine does - apart from that I do not hear any differences with my untrained ears.

@AndyC that’s an interesting thought, thanks for bringing that up. Will definitely check that out and test the machine with different speeds!

On a related note: Does anyone know if there exists a assembly/disassembly documentation or some sort of troubleshooting guides? I already searched for it, but couldn’t find anything. On the forum I often see the phrase “please get in touch with support”. While I appreciate that you can contact support with any problem, I have the feeling that they have a pretty high workload and therefore responses take quite long. As a customer I feel a bit helpless when there’s something wrong with the machine - the only thing I can do is to wait until support gets back to me.

It would really be great to have some sort of documentation that helps me troubleshoot the problem and get a better feeling what’s wrong with my machine. Even if I cannot fix the problem myself, I could do/check something while waiting for the support to get back to me. I am a big fan of the Prusa 3D printer. They not only are very reliable printers, they also have excellent assembly and troubleshooting guides. Really missing something like that for the Carbide 3D machines…

27

We do our best to respond on support as quickly as we can — average response time for typical queries was less than an hour last I checked.

For assembly/disassembly, the only documentation we have for end users is:

The Prusa is sold as a kit — we had similar instructions back when our machines were kits (and still do for the component-based Shapeoko).

Please be patient and work this out w/ support

28

To be fair, they also sell a lot of fully assembled machines.

Oh, wasn’t expecting that. For me it always takes several days/up to a week until I get a response to my mail. This makes the whole process a bit tiresome.

29

Sound pretty nice for me

30

What did this end up being?

31

Were you able to fix the issue? Mine makes a very similar noise when moving it from left to right around the same spot you mentioned.

32

For me the issue happened on a brand new machine. I contacted support back then and they replaced my machine with a new one. Unfortunately the new one had the same problems as the other one. So they again changed the machine and sent me a new one.

The second replacement machine now works like a charm - hope it stays that way. knock on wood