[Hillbillydeluxefab]

hi i am a complete newbie at setting up a cnc. i have ran one for work for the past 6 years but never set up a new one.

what i have is a home made plasma table 5x5.
i run the mach 3 software
the problem i have is my x and y axis step motors run very jerky and make grinding noises and not even close distance its supposed to.
all three motors are nema 23
x and y are belt driven to i believe a 3 to 1 reduction i have not counted the teeth yet.
any help would be appreciated

[awerby]

Could you share some more details about your setup, like what drives you're using, what settings you've chosen, what the specific motors are you're trying to drive, what is transmitting the power to them (eg: screws, rack and pinion) what you're using for slides, and why you decided to use a 3 to 1 reduction? Does this always happen, or just when your plasma cutter is on?

[ZASto]

For the beginning, enter motor tuning and lower velocity and acceleration and start from there.
On Mach forum you can find a ton of documentation.

[Shelby5041]

If u are using parallel port make sure your communication speed is good by using "driver test" in ur mach3 folder

Since u are making a home made cnc it could be lots of diff things causing this...the key is ruling things out

Do motors grind when not connected to axis?
Make sure wiring to controller board is properly seated and tight