When my garage get very cold in the winter, my rails bind sometimes and cause the Y drive motor to skip.
I have tried all the settings but maybe I am just not doing something right.
When my garage get very cold in the winter, my rails bind sometimes and cause the Y drive motor to skip.
I have tried all the settings but maybe I am just not doing something right.
Chinese 6040 by NiceCut. Originally 60 Watt upgraded to 150 Watt.....I thought I had pretty much every problem in the book of laser cutting. It turns out that there is a set of books.
I think you need to go into the vendor settings and change the rapids speed, can't recall the correct term at the moment - should be obvious when looking at the choices. Or, you could try boosting the current to the stepper motor by changing the setting on the driver. If it is like mine, each motor has a separate driver with small dip switches to select various values for current. If after increasing the current the motor gets too hot to touch, then it is probably too high. Although the motors can tolerate high temperatures (hot enough to burn you) I prefer to be able to run them at a low enough temp that I can hold a finger to them without injury.
Shenhui 1440x850, 130 Watt Reci Z6
Gerber Sabre 408
When I had my CNC setup, the garage/shop was just heated to 45 F when not in use. I covered the machine with a heavy blanket and then used a heating pad to keep it warm underneath. Of course I heated the place to 65 or so when I was out working, but the machine could work fine until the shop warmed up. Changing settings for the temperature is just going to get you more problems.
Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10
I found that light oil is better on the rails I cleaned the grease off and oiled them and the head moves when it is cold
yes changing the setting will just cause more problems
you say its binding and skipping when cold.So making it go faster will just make it worst. Try the Light oil that was suggested, but better yet heat the room or machine.
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Rabbit RL_XX_6040-60 watt Laser engraving/cutting machine Oh wait its a 3D Printer my bad LOL
Lasercut 5.3
CorelDraw X5
10" Miter Saw with slide
10" Table Saw
8" bench mount 5 speed Drill Press
Dremel, 3x21 Belt Sander
One of the biggest producers of linear bearings, NSK, recommends using lithium soap based grease on their bearings. It maintains viscosity over a huge temperature range and doesn't gum up like light oil will. It also doesn't attract lint and dust either. On my GCC laser I cleaned and lubed the rails about every two weeks, cleaned with denatured alcohol and then put on a very light coat of grease.
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Rabbit RL_XX_6040-60 watt Laser engraving/cutting machine Oh wait its a 3D Printer my bad LOL
Lasercut 5.3
CorelDraw X5
10" Miter Saw with slide
10" Table Saw
8" bench mount 5 speed Drill Press
Dremel, 3x21 Belt Sander
As I said already:
"Or, you could try boosting the current to the stepper motor by changing the setting on the driver. If it is like mine, each motor has a separate driver with small dip switches to select various values for current."
A stepper will skip if the load is too high for it. If the driver is set to deliver the lowest amps possible then any anomalous condition that increases the load will cause it to skip. It's not like these factory workers put a lot of time and thought into the driver settings, especially considering that they use the same drivers on a multitude of different sized machines and various size and makes of motors. It is entirely possible that they chose too low of a setting, like they did for mine. Really, the only danger is in overheating the motor by pushing too much current through it - which can be easily avoided by simply monitoring the motor for a while with the new setting.
What "things" would it mess up? I have zero problems (now) because I increased the current. Binding, as the OP described it, is not an actual case of binding, it is increased drag from the cold grease and cold belts. That increased drag makes for more load on the stepper which MAY be able to be dealt with by increasing the current to the stepper motor with no ill effects. If the machine had been set up initially in a cold environment the factory workers would have adjusted the driver to compensate, or they would have used more powerful motors.
They may also use the same motor/driver combination for the X and Y axis - with the same current settings. It should be obvious that the Y axis requires significantly more power to move than the X. The Y axis has many more times the mass than the X, that right there should tell you that the settings are suspect. Either the X axis is over spec'd or the Y axis is under spec'd. These Chinese machines can work well, but they are not highly engineered. Don't be afraid to make some adjustments when called for.
Shenhui 1440x850, 130 Watt Reci Z6
Gerber Sabre 408
If the Help and advice you received here was of any VALUE to you PLEASE! Become a Contributor
Rabbit RL_XX_6040-60 watt Laser engraving/cutting machine Oh wait its a 3D Printer my bad LOL
Lasercut 5.3
CorelDraw X5
10" Miter Saw with slide
10" Table Saw
8" bench mount 5 speed Drill Press
Dremel, 3x21 Belt Sander
60W, Boss Laser 1630
75W, Epilog Legend 24EX
Jet Left Tilting table saw and Jet 18" Band saw
Adobe Creative suite and Laserworks 8
No need to shout. As I said, once again:
"If it is like mine each motor has a separate driver with small dip switches to select various levels of current."
In other words, my machine has a separate driver for each of the three stepper motors. The drivers are located on the right side of the machine mounted near the main control board. Each of those drivers has two sets of dip switches, one for changing the current and the other for step rate. So yes, there absolutely is a way to increase current. Maybe there isn't for you and maybe there isn't for the OP, I don't know either of your machines hence the reason for saying "If it is like mine", but I doubt my machine is that special.
Shenhui 1440x850, 130 Watt Reci Z6
Gerber Sabre 408
Here is an example of the type of driver my machine has. Notice the table describing how to set the switches for various levels of current;
Stepper driver.jpg
Shenhui 1440x850, 130 Watt Reci Z6
Gerber Sabre 408
Most users Rich should not be messing with the stepper driver, maybe you and I would not have issues. Easy just to keep it warm.
Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10