I was running a v-carve on msg as a practice part today. Pocket with a 1/16” square windmill and final carve with a .1mm v-bit. Upon pausing to clear out chips and dust (about the 4th time), it sounded clunky raising on the Z axis. After the 5th pause it sounded worse and then plunged right into the part. I don’t have more than 30-40 hours on the machine. Should I be servicing in that time?
I have “Serviced” my machine every three weeks no matter how much I use it. Bolts, dust, lube, you name it I check it. There is a possibility you have dust built up. Then again, a bolt may have backed off a bit causing the noise.
Check that there is a film of oil on the “Z” rails when it moves.
Good luck
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That worked. I cleaned all the rails off with a rag, then dust-off. Put a thin layer of wd40 on all of them and it worked fine. Easy enough that I should do it with every other use.
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WD40 is not a good lubricant. Check the specs for the model of machine you have.
Good Luck
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WD40 is a solvant and will degrease so ensure you wipe that off asap and then flood it out with the correct vactra for the Z rails. Superlube should be used on the leadscrews.
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Brings back memories. 
I was a road tech for may years. Misuse of WD40 kept me quite busy and made us good money 30 ish years ago my customers would spay it in their machines as a lubricant thinking they were helping . It is a penetrating fluid. It would remove the oils in the metal based machines which caused the parts to wear quickly. In plastic machines it pulls the oil out of the plastic and made the parts brittle. Gear teeth would simply break off, It will pull the impregnated oil out of brass bushings ( motors and rail slides )
Now that was 30 years ago
WD40 is a great product if use correctly.
IMHO:
Do not use WD40 on or around plastic or rubber. For metal, after using, clean and replace the lubricant. Never use on oil impregnated brass bushings. unless you know how to re-impregnate them.
Oh the memories
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The thing that kills me is, it’s in the name:
WD == Water Displacing
(and the 40 stands for formula #40)
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Very Cool
I googled the history, it has been around a very long time
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Sorry for the delayed update. I had cleaned the wd-40 off that evening and put vactra on the rails the next morning.
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