I’ve had my 5 Pro for quite some time now and have done several 2.5D projects with success. However, there have been a few times where the machine seems to have a mind of it’s own. I’ve dismissed those times as a rare occurrences, but the more I use the machine, the probability of another issue occurs. I’ve been attempting longer running jobs and specifically my first 3D carve. After about 10 hours of carving (this project), without issue, the gantry seems to have become misaligned and the spindle then goes off into the areas of the project that should not be carved, essentially ruining it. The right side of the gantry is about 2 inches forward of the left.
When I connect to the cutter and initialize the machine, everything checks out fine. The limiter switches appear to be working as expected along with zeroing as well as movement of the spindle. No errors are thrown. When this misalignment occurs in the middle of the job, there are no software errors thrown and the job continues to run in a misaligned config. I’m losing confidence in this machine, as the more I attempt projects, the more time I invest in them. This particular project had several days worth of inlays and dry time, only to be wrecked by a malfunction.
What can I do differently to insure the integrity of the machine prior to starting a long-running job of increasing complexity?
I’ve attached a few photos showing the position of the gantry after it was parked and shut down following the issue, as well as the random path that was taken across the face of the stock.