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.
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
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.
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?
@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…
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.
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
