I just got my new patriot setup and running, with full cnc, dro, and ball screws. The first issue is with the charge pump on the Gecko G540. I can only get the cnc to work with the charge pump switch turned off. If I leave it on, the G540 won't come out of fault, and mach3 shows a permanent e-stop condition. I've gone through the Shopmaster manual meticulously, deleted the files it says to and replaced them with the ones on the disc, and still no change. From my reading, the charge pump is for when you boot up the computer while the machine is turned on to keep it from making any unwanted movements. So if this is the case, it shouldn't be a big deal, but I'd still like to know if something is wrong.
My real concern now is when I actually started milling some test pieces. I started out getting a lot of vibrations, especially when I tried milling a slot in a piece of 1/4 inch mild steel. The vibration was so bad when I tried to mill the slot that the machine sounded like a souped up jackhammer. I played around with the gib adjustments, and got it to where I could face mill along the outside of a piece or on top with less vibrations, as long as the width of the cut was less than half that of the cutter. But slot milling was still terrible, as was the finish on the part. I tried using both a half inch end mill and a half inch rougher, both at various speed and feed rates. Vibrations are less when I run the spindle at full speed, but still almost impossible to mill a slot.
After reading several threads on here about movement in the mill head, I decided to reinforce the bridge and 5th column in hopes of solving the problem. I replaced the flat stock bridge with a 6 inch i beam, and made a new 5th column out of some 1/4 inch 2x3 I had laying around. I extended the 5th column so I could bolt it two both the top and bottom of the bench, since the factory one flexed the top edge of the bench like crazy when I moved it back and forth.
The modifications had very little effect on the ability to mill a slot, and face milling stayed about the same. If I try to mill a groove instead of a slot, the sides of the groove have a poor finish whenever the machine started to vibrate, but the bottom of the groove is fairly smooth, meaning side to side movement is the problem. This leads me to believe the problem lies in the table, and not the mill head. I've tightened up the gibs to the point where I just start to feel tension in the handles, and I don't feel any slack in the table when I try to wiggle it with my hands.
When I contacted Shopmaster and asked about the vibrations, he said it's probably due to the wrong spindle speed, and/or feed rate. I've tried all different speed and feed rates, and it's not getting any better. Hopefully somebody on here has some ideas.