Prior to this cut, all the circle pockets I’ve cut have been spot on perfect. Now, after not using the machine for a few days, I started to hear some odd noise when traveling in the X direction, almost like the stepper motor was revving up and down (best way I can describe the noise). Didn’t notice this until 2 circles into the cut, but there is some missteps on the y-axis of the circles, as if the x-axis motor was off on both sides and didn’t complete the whole circle width-wise, causing a flat spot.
What could be causing this? A bad/dying motor? Everything in the file is fine, there’s no weird flat spots or anything on the simulation.
In my case is was caused by one of the two Y-axis stepper motors not moving. My guess is that either you have a dead stepper motor, or the chip driver on the controller board had a short.
My Shapeoko 5 Pro did a very similar noise when I first got it. The support guy was actually pretty helpful. In my case, the issue was that there was a loose nut at the end of the right-side Y-axis leadscrew. The noise was caused by the rubbing of the leadscrew against the front bushing from not being captive near the motor. They had me remove the motor, coupler, and tighten the nut. Luckily, I had wrenches that would reach but I could see this not being the case for everyone. Good luck with this. It has been a great machine for me since I got this issue corrected.
This is most likely the fix. I’ll run a cut tomorrow to make sure, but this is how I found the x-motor coupler, very loose. I tightened all 4 screws and it turned perfectly.
I still have a lifetime supply of vectra oil being delivered this week that I’ll still use in case that was a partial cause.
