[mrscheider]

Hi All,
Just assembled my new Taig 3000 CNC mill. I'm using Mach3.. everything works connectivity wise, however the motors aren't sounding smooth. When I try to jog on ANY axis, the motors start off slow and with a grinding sound, spin a few revolutions and then stall. Mach3 returns an error that a limit has been reached. I reset and jog again, same thing. It appears that none of the the three axis's are moving freely. The motors are stopping because the table is either getting stuck or the motors are binding up. They do reach spots where they will move a few inches while the motors have a nice free motion and high pitch whine.. but then they grind again to a halt. I've heavilly lubricated the ways with WD40 but thats not helping. It's right out of the box and was pretty much assembled so I didn't think I would have to make any gib adjustments so soon. The motors all have the recommended gaps on the mountings too.
Can anyone suggest something to help resolve this issue?

Much appreciated!

Michael

[fretsman]

What PC/Operating sytem are you running this from, is this the taig dsls setup?

[mrscheider]

Hi Dave,
Yes, this is the DSLS system, running on XP Pro.
The problem is resolved actually. Turned out to be an issue with the pulses XP was sending to the motors. Kurt included an insert that outlines possible issues about this (firgures it would be me) and steps to resolve it.
After going through a few steps, the issue is now resolved.
Something running on the PC was evidentally interfereing with the signals going over the LPT. Go figure.

Works great now though!

Thanks for the reply!

Michael

[CROSSHATCH]

I don't know how MACH3 is set up, but I use EMC. And I had too input what I thought the best velocity would be for my steppers. So I found right now that I can run 9in/min at 25 in acceleration, If I change those number higher, the motors will buzz and grind. Thats due to my input of my controller settings and voltages going into my system.

-Speed

[fretsman]

Hi Dave,
Yes, this is the DSLS system, running on XP Pro.
The problem is resolved actually. Turned out to be an issue with the pulses XP was sending to the motors. Kurt included an insert that outlines possible issues about this (firgures it would be me) and steps to resolve it.
After going through a few steps, the issue is now resolved.
Something running on the PC was evidentally interfereing with the signals going over the LPT. Go figure.

Works great now though!

Thanks for the reply!

Michael

Excellent, glad you got it running as it sounded like exactly what was happening to me. I'm running mine on a Dell laptop through a Port Replicator, which they said would be fine, and indeed once I switched over to the "standard PC" setting in the device manager, it worked like a charm.

let the chips fly-

Dave

[mrscheider]

Dave, thats funny,
I was using a dell Lat too!
I switched to an Optiplex desktop that is dedicated to the mill. That has everything working now...
Well, Everything WAS working great.. but the last two jobs I ran, I stalled the Y motor.
The XML file for MACH3 that Taig included had the limit and home sensors enabled.. even though the machine has no home or limit switches installed. You would think a custom XML file would have those disable those to save the manufacturer and consumer some learning curve grief.. but theres no substitute for learning through failure!
Anyway, the stalling motor loses steps galore.. while the DRO continues. A reset gets the motor running again but the job is scraped.
I bet the limit enabled would at least let me resume the job, since it would halt all motion, but with it enabled, some stray signal was tripping the limits every 20 minutes. Very frustrating.
Anyway, still looking for a cause. The Z and X are running nice. I may swap the Z and Y motors to see if the stall is being caused by the motor or the program moving te axis.
Regards,

Michael

[firebrick43]

Don't know about the cnc part but WD 40 should NEVER be used as a lubricant for anything except squeaky hinges. WD 40 was developed for Water Displacement in electronics. Way lubricant should be a very heavy oil preferably Vectra 4, but a heavy gear lube (90W) would work in a pinch. You will seriously damage your machine with continued use of WD40

[mrscheider]

Hi Firebrick,
Yes, I don't use WD-40 as a lube any longer. I was using ATF by the next morning because of lubriction problems, cold temperatures, high feedrates, etc. In a week, I ran into almost every problem I think I could as a newbie.
This past weekend was good. I ran for about 8 hours yesterday. In all, I probably ran close to 250,000 lines of gcode. The X motor stalled twice in the beginning runs. I just gave it some more lube and it ran like a charm the rest of the day!
I have some things to smooth out still, vibrations in the headstock, tool comps, etc but I'm definitly on my way thanks to allot of folks here!

Much appreciated!

Michael