Im very new to the cnc world and have not even done a first cut on my shapeoko 5 pro yet. I’m currently installing a 80mm vfd 2.2kw water cooled spindle from pwncnc and have been noticing when the power is off and I try to work on the spindle the z axis starts falling. When i initially power off the machine, the z axis will stay where its at, but any amount of pressure i put on the spindle it will fall down. This also causes the green carbide logo light to turn on when the z axis is moving.
Is this a weight issue? Because i thought the shapeoko 5 pro z axis was more than capable of using a 2.2kw 80mm spindle
With the heavier 80MM spindles others have reported the HDZ slowly falling with the power off. With the power on the stepper motor keeps it in place. With the power off there is nothing but the friction of the bearings and the bearings of the ball screw holding the HDZ up. So it is normal but annoying to have the Z drop down. As @WillAdams stated there is nothing broken. The 80MM spindles are quite heavy and you just have to work around it.