The other day my machine missed a load of steps in the Y axis while cutting a slot, it was only doing very light passes as I hadn't got a proper slot drill so I was using a center cutting 4 flute endmill and ramping it down. It probably when out of position by 50mm.
It's never missed steps like this before, it occasionally misses one or two steps when doing heavy cuts.
I'm thinking the problem may be a knocking sound that has developed in the Y axis but I can't find where it's coming from, there is a little end play in the bearings on the end of the Y axis ballscrew, maybe 0.03mm.
Can this end play be taken out by increasing the preload on the bearings?
I'm thinking that the preload may be factory set so can't be changed?
Thanks
Chris