My 5 Pro suddenly began having issues today. There seemed to be play in the x axis and the machine could not make its way back to bit setter after setting zeros. I noticed the stepper motor was not fully seated in the ball screw fitting. Upon further investigations, the inside nut on the ball screw is loose. Access is limited and I wanted to know if anybody has ideas how to tighten this nut? Maybe a thin wrench? What size is that nut? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark
Mark, your problem is worse than you think. From your photo, the entire motor is missing.
Sorry, it’s Monday morning. In similar situations for a one-time use, I’ve just gotten a cheap wrench and ground/filed/belt-sanded it down. And also sorry, I don’t know what size that nut would be but it will be an even millimeter size. If it were me, I’d cut down a piece of paper to fit inside the bracket slot, pencil in the size of the wrench flats as close as I could, then measure the paper and take the nearest millimeter…
You could also loosen the setscrew on the Lord coupler and take it off, then use a socket on the ballscrew bearing nut… That would be my own approach. Less work than grinding on a wrench…
I had a similar issue with the Z axis. Contact support. They have specific instructions on how to tighten those nuts. You dont want to tighten the wrong thing.
Thanks for the tips! As usual, I come to the forum for help and am rewarded. I removed the stepper motor and ball screw coupler to gain access to the nut. I removed the nut and put on some blue loctite then used a socket to snug the nut (not too tight). I then contacted the folks at customer service to confirm this approach. They responded that this was the way to go. So, I fired up the machine and it’s running better than ever. While it was down, I took the opportunity to do a thorough cleaning and lube on the machine. It is working great again!
Thanks for posting the results for all of us to learn from.
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