Z-axis Motor Broke? Pictures attached

[Bryan Cowan]

I was running a drilling operation today when I noticed the z-axis wasn't going in the positive direction after drilling a hole. It would finish drilling the hole, come up a little bit, and dig into the material on its way to the next hole.

See the attached pictures.

At first I thought the collar which attaches the motor to the gear was loose, but the screws were really tight. It wasn't until I removed the motor and noticed a piece of metal still inside the collar.

What broke? More importantly, how soon can I fix it? What do I need?

Thanks,
Bryan

P.S. I already have a call into CAMaster, as well as an email, but want to open the doors to anyone and everyone who could help me minimize my down time.

[Nicholas Bukky]

Did it break offf flush with the coupler?
If you have room you might be able to slide the coupler up a little and reattach to the stepper shaft??
Looks like you will need a new stepper I am suprized it broke like that......

Good luck!
Nick

[Bryan Cowan]

Did it break offf flush with the coupler?
If you have room you might be able to slide the coupler up a little and reattach to the stepper shaft??
Looks like you will need a new stepper I am suprized it broke like that......

Good luck!
Nick

Not flush. Maybe 1/16th of an inch of the motor's spindle was still in the coupler/collar.

[Bryan Cowan]

Nearly a 1/4" of the spindle broke. Wow.

[Nicholas Bukky]

Can you slide the collar/coupler up to reconnect it?

Wonder what caused it to shear like that or twist off more like.....
Did the tool get stuck in the aluminum?

Nick

[Bryan Cowan]

Can you slide the collar/coupler up to reconnect it?

Wonder what caused it to shear like that or twist off more like.....
Did the tool get stuck in the aluminum?

Nick

I could try, but then less of the collar will be on the worm gear. I suppose this may work until I receive a new stepper motor.

Bit never get's stuck in the aluminum.

[Bryan Cowan]

Knowing I need a new stepper motor, where could I get a replacement really quick? 23H276-28-4B is the model number.

[Nicholas Bukky]

That I don't know you could do an online search....
You might order an extra from camaster just to have one on hand incase it happens again. Sounds like a rare thing to me. But I don't know much!!

Are they sending you a new one?

Nick

[Bryan Cowan]

That I don't know you could do an online search....
You might order an extra from camaster just to have one on hand incase it happens again. Sounds like a rare thing to me. But I don't know much!!

Are they sending you a new one?

Nick

Frank just called and will be shipping me a new one. He also mentioned sliding the collar up further like you suggested. I actually did this about 30 minutes ago and have been running the machine since. Nice little band-aid, but not sure how long it'll last!

CAMaster customer service does it again! (Who's not surprised? )

[Rob Wright]

http://kelinginc.net/NEMA23Motor.html $39 from Jon @Keling. He has great service and fast shipping. I have some of his steppers and no complaints.

To shear that off - possible causes- Misalignment? Really hard accelerations in Mach3?

[Bryan Cowan]

http://kelinginc.net/NEMA23Motor.html $39 from Jon @Keling. He has great service and fast shipping. I have some of his steppers and no complaints.

To shear that off - possible causes- Misalignment? Really hard accelerations in Mach3?

I stepped down the acceleration months ago. When it arrived, the acceleration in the z-axis was so great, it would stall the stepper motor every so often. Maybe it's weakened over time.

Thanks for the link.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

Not sure if it's just the pictures, but the alignment looks way off. Shouldn't it be centered in the hole? I've seen a few of the chinese steppes with broken shafts, usually due to misalignment.

[james mcgrew]

the ballscrew is in a pillow block at the base of travel, unattached to the motor it will appear to be misaligned as it is basically loose, make sure the collar nut is even on both connecting ends when replacing, i broke on off on my y once could be funky metal, things break when you use them!! i spent the day replacing a fried drive

if the screw was that far out of alignment you would not even be able to insatall the motor on the camaster, "z" would bind and loose steps constantly

joey drove to columbia and brought me two!! back in business tommorrow and spares in hand

bryan i am in business with my router so downtime matters, i keep extra drives and motors on hand, i have fried my share

any one ever opened an old stepper makes a great magnet for fishin metal off the bottom of the pond!!

jim

[Bryan Cowan]

Not sure if it's just the pictures, but the alignment looks way off. Shouldn't it be centered in the hole? I've seen a few of the chinese steppes with broken shafts, usually due to misalignment.

It kinda was. Grant it, when nothing is connected to the top of the ballscrew, it was leaning to one side. When I reinstalled the collar onto the broken spindle and then back onto the ballscrew, I did have to play/force it to line up. Nothing drastic, but maybe it's enough that over a 8 month period finally gave way.