Anyone else out there using an 80mm water cooled spindle on the S5P? I’m looking to see if there is a solution to the z axis dropping when powered off. I know OneFinity released a braking z axis motor for this purpose. Does anyone know if C3D offers something like that?
This is my next step as well. Following…
A block of wood or High Density foam
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I may be mistaken but Daniel over at PwnCNC mentioned it somewhere (I am unable to find the post now) and I believe they had found a fix for it. Specifically, I think it related to the Shapeoko HDZ upgraded Z axis. Perhaps if you DM Daniel, you will find what you need.
So, I talked to Daniel and this is what he said….
The “dropping” happened to me on my older S5P 4x4 with just a standard 80mm water-cooled spindle motor.
This was a “major” issue with Onefinity machines and their solution was to release a Z stepper motor with a built-in brake. When powered, the brake is disengaged but when power is removed, the brake engages.
I havent’ seen a similar solution for shapeoko people though. ATM the best advise is to put a small block of wood under the spindle prior to shutting down your machine. This way the spindle has less Z travel required during homing.
I wonder if the stepper motor with the built in brake would mount up to the Shapeoko
This problem has been documented for a while with the 80MM spindles. The weight of the larger spindles is enough to overcome the resistance in the ball screw and the spindle drops to the table when powered off as you discovered. Without modifying your machine you only solution is to get a piece of soft material like foam and place it under the spindle before power off. That way you get a soft landing. I know it would be a pain but maybe jog the spindle down to the foam before powering off.
Welp it sounds like a piece of support foam or wood it is! Seems strange that the z stepper motor has not been replaced by C3D with another type.
@Robthatguy i love that shield around the perimeter of your HDM. Did you make that?
Yeah, I modeled it off of the files saunders machine works gives you for cam.