After milling some 4x4 cedar table legs (cedar is not a good wood to mill on a Shapeoko 
), the z-axis started making a raspy screeching noise.
Here’s a video of the noise.
Anybody know what’s going on and what I should do about it?
Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
Sounds like its time for a little maintenance.
The video is after oiling the top two bearings. It seemed to get worse.
Bit of a long shot, but I wonder if the motor at the top slightly shifted on the mount, and now it’s binding? That might explain why it seems worse at the top than the bottom.
Raise the Z to top, loosen the mounting screws on the motor so it can find it’s own ‘center’, then tighten the mounting screws carefully so the motor doesn’t shift as you tighten.
Try putting some lube on the ball screw behind the plate. Before I upgraded to the HDZ, my old Z axis was making a similar noise although not as loud. After putting some vactra2 oil on the ball screw it was gone.
It turns out that the upper z axis ball screw nut was loose (location indicated in the picture). I tightened it and all was well. I will also be applying some blue removable thread locker.
Also took the time to get some 1 ml Luer slip tip syringes to inject some Vactra oil into the bearing block.
Much thanks to Tyler Torres, Fleming Valenzuela, and Oscar Ramos of Carbide 3D for their invaluable help. I even got a phone call to make sure everything got fixed!
Thanks to all who offered help!
Heinz
