Hey guys. I’m having some problems with z axis problems and could use your help. Need to get this figured out as I have a few orders to fill and until I can get an hdz ordered up I need to make this stock z axis perform as it should.
I was working on a badge earlier in Walnut. Using a touch probe, I cut the roughing pass with my .25 endmill. Followed this up with my .25 ballnose, and this is what I was left with:
(Please disregard the right portion with the dust, I am in the process of trying to recarve the middle at 2mm deeper to see if I can salvage this current piece)
Some areas were either cut too deep with the roughing pass, or too shallow with the ballnose. I’m not really sure which. Checked the bit was tight in the router and the z zero was correct with the touch probe.
Disassembled my z axis, eccentrics were tight & rails clean. Belt looks to be in good shape. It appears where the belt is positioned between the two rollers (backside of z) that the teeth were not aligned, not sure if this was an issue. Also I was missing a grub screw on the top z carriage connected to the motor, however the grub screw sitting on the shaft was present and tight. I replaced the missing grub screw. I will note that I know I’ve been missing this screw for over a year and I’ve never had this issue.
Id like to mention there’s a slight possibility my flexible vac hose coming down interfered with the z carriage, but I have had this hose in the same position for over a year without known issues.
Last thing to note is I recently tightened my belt on my z axis, (couple weeks ago). I’ve run other projects without this problem since tightening it
Any chance it was too tight? Here’s a video showing what I consider to be “guitar string tight”:
Finally, after rebuilding and reassembling, I went to use my touch probe and noticed this clicking after probing. Replicated it 3 times after rehoming the machine. I did look closely at the suckit ears and they are spread out where it should not be interfering. The z axis was as high as I could take it to be able to squeeze the touch probe in below. Perhaps I need to place the bit deeper into the collet? I usually have Al little more wiggle room between the bit and the probe, but I didn’t want to take any chances of the router crashing into the dust boot while cutting. Here’s a video showing this clicking.
Sorry to take up your time and thanks for any tips or help!