So, I have a little bit of a dilemma with me Shapeoko 5 Pro. I was running an aluminum part for a little bracket for a boat steering bracket. The machine was cutting only .030" deep per pass and feeding slower then expected for aluminum. At one point the machine stopped in feeding and the steppers in Y clicked a couple times before I hit the “E” stop button.
I rehomed the machine because I had to reset the machine to start again, but when the gantry moved to the back in Y the machine hit hard before the limit switches stopped the gantry. Also, the steppers clicked a few times before it stopped for the limiter switches.
My concern is the steppers not being able to hold up to pushing them in the aluminum. I watched a video on the 65mm spindle holding up to different depths of cuts and feeds until the spindle failed. This video gave me a better understanding of how hard the machine could be pushed before failure. But my problem was that I wasnt pushing my machine hard in the aluminum because i didn’t want to build up heat and fail because of this heat. But the stepper motors failed in the Y direction and now cant push the machine harder and faster into wood. I have to make cuts with very low depths of cuts and have to slow down the feed rate more then I should be able to.
The ballscrews are the whole reason I bought this machine and without being able to push the machine harder now, I am concerned that there is a failed stepper motor, or a busted gear on the motor that is failing under pressure and will not let me drive the machine to its full potential. What am I to do? and I just came to the length of my warranty. Ugh. Anyone have any insight to any options?