[petethered]

I suspect a motor connector pin or similar connection.
Not sure what type they use on them. I haven't even looked close enough at the lathe to see whats on it. I will say that I had very similar experiences with my plasma cutter running a G540. A pin or two would heat up in the motor connection and stall out. It would not do it every day though. Intermittant troubles are the absolute worst to diagnose.

It's happening with a cold machine ( power on, run program ) and a warm one ( after an hour or 2 of cutting )... since I've been measuring, the earliest I've had a "big" incident was at 6mins, but the little ones happen pretty much right off the line.

[petethered]

Today's update.

The coupler is pretty much excluded... Tormach support had me put witness marks on it, and after testing there was no movement of their alignment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ErN...tu.be&t=13m57s

Here's a new video from the side... cold machine ( turn on power, ref, load, zero, run ) , the micro incidents start happening right near the beginning ( and throughout ) and the big incident ( skip to around 14 mins ) happens at the end.

[inthebay]

Today's update.

The coupler is pretty much excluded... Tormach support had me put witness marks on it, and after testing there was no movement of their alignment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ErN...tu.be&t=13m57s

Here's a new video from the side... cold machine ( turn on power, ref, load, zero, run ) , the micro incidents start happening right near the beginning ( and throughout ) and the big incident ( skip to around 14 mins ) happens at the end.

Not a tormach, but I've had exactly the same issue happen sometimes with a particular 3D printer. The pots on the stepper drivers were cranked a bit high and the overcurrent/overtemp protection would trip for just a split second when they got too hot, and miss the steps for when it was off. It would cause all my prints in the X axis to suddenly shift by 1cm or so. Made some hilarious results though.

Try pointing a fan into your control box while its running your test program.

[rcs60]

if the tormachs are using stepper motors to control the axis then i would say a drive board or the cpu on the control
what i saw in the video looks very similar to a universal laser that i just got fixed in the laser it would engrave about 2-3 inches about 1/2 way thru the program
at the end of the program the home positition was off by the 2-3 inches also
good luck

[MichaelHenry]

Really? Since when? Isobar used to be the cream of the crop when it came to surge protection.

That's what I thought, but we found a number of issues, mostly assembly-related like badly pinched wires. They were all in one area of the facility so maybe we got a bad batch.

[RickPflimlin]

If the gibbs are too tight that will happen when cold OR when way oil gets thin. If the gibbs are too loose they will grab and bind.

[109jb]

Missed steps, not a coupler slip. The sound it is making leads me to believe the driver is still trying to drive the motor but the motor torque is exceeded. Screw jamming from a chip getting in the ball nut?? Gibs too tight? Tapered gib not locked and floating? Gibs dry?

[mountaindew]

My guess is you will get it fixed one way or another and not know exactly what did it! Could be a combination of problems and no one repair or replacement fixes the issue.
.

[petethered]

My guess is you will get it fixed one way or another and not know exactly what did it! Could be a combination of problems and no one repair or replacement fixes the issue.
.

I'll take just FIXED

Ok, well... today there was no progress ( as in no new emails from Tormach )... yesterday they had me try loosening the pretension on the X motor because it is possible it's binding ( which I had to order a pin wrench for ):

Before:



After:



Still getting the mini-freezes... though I didn't get a big freeze in the 2 tests I ran, but I've been able to do tests without it happening before.

( ignore the white mark, I had drawn a couple to get a 5-10degree estimate as per their request and hadn't erased that one )

[steve123]

Try cutting the acceleration in half as a test.

[lens42]

I can think of a couple of tests to try. If the skip is happening in the same place. Try turning the screw by hand to get a feel for any binding. Not sure how a 440 looks, but on a 770 you can remove a cover plate on the shaft coupler and turn the coupler with a leather belt (with power off)

The other idea is to run the test with the cabinet door open and poke at the wires (especially around the stepper driver) to see if you can make the skip happen. If you are nervous about sticking your hand in there with power on, use a stick.


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[LeeWay]

That is also how you catch a snake. Poke at it with a stick.
I don't think I agree there with that technique. You may not get physically bit, but you could easily kill a drive like that. All inspections should be done with all power OFF.
It may also be helpful to use a magnifying glass and actually look at the pins and connections closely. You can usually see connections with a contact issue.

[lens42]

I'm saying to hit anything with the stick. Just nudge wires to aggravate any loose connections. If any machine behavior changes while you're doing this, there's a problem that needs attention.


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[LeeWay]

I understand. I knew what you meant. I am guilty of it too. As I mentioned though, if it is loose connections, then it could damage the drive being connected or disconnected while hot. Even a short could cause damage. Ever seen someone hit a faulty gauge or piece of equipment to get it working right again? I call that procedure a Technical Tap. However that is not something you want to do with a stepper motor and drive system. I have killed them more innocently than that.

[petethered]

That is also how you catch a snake. Poke at it with a stick.
I don't think I agree there with that technique. You may not get physically bit, but you could easily kill a drive like that. All inspections should be done with all power OFF.
It may also be helpful to use a magnifying glass and actually look at the pins and connections closely. You can usually see connections with a contact issue.

Well...

It's been a while since I dipped into this thread due to back and forth with Tormach.

It was decided to send me a new X-Axis motor which arrived yesterday ( and I picked up from the UPS drop off today since I was out of town yesterday ).

Now, I have a whole new problem:

Attachment 333220

I see two problems here...

1) This is not a plug in part, I'm guessing that they want me to rerun the lines for the X-Axis

2) There are no terminal pins on here....

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Very surprising they would not have "connectorized" that for you. It's not reasonable to expect the average "machinist" to necessarily be able to do good soldering.

Regards,
Ray L.

[tmarks11]

Is there enough wire length to run it all the way back to the control panel? Doesn't look like it.

Kudos for being such a good sport about your machine!

[LeeWay]

I looked at the lathe and it only has motor connections in the panel. That would be a pain to swap a motor on. It does run in waterproof flexible conduit all the way. There is a junction box in the lathe right behind the spindle. The 440 is a pretty small machine. There may be enough wire there. Break out the fish tape.

[petethered]

Very surprising they would not have "connectorized" that for you. It's not reasonable to expect the average "machinist" to necessarily be able to do good soldering.

Regards,
Ray L.

Nor did they include the pins, so i have to find the right ones and source them from somewhere.

Yeah... I've never soldered a thing in my life. The closest I've come was some breadboard work, but that was "insert pin into hole"

I'm probably going to have to hire someone... wonder how I go about finding a CNC repair tech that would take on a "simple" job like this.

[petethered]

I looked at the lathe and it only has motor connections in the panel. That would be a pain to swap a motor on. It does run in waterproof flexible conduit all the way. There is a junction box in the lathe right behind the spindle. The 440 is a pretty small machine. There may be enough wire there. Break out the fish tape.

Yeah, looks like the 440 is the same... there's a flexible conduit that the wires run through, then through a small hole in the column and out another one into the electronics bay.

Honestly, I had expected that there would be "plug" inside the connector at the motor end and it would have been "unscrew connector, pull plug, insert plug, insert connector" to swap out the motor.