Anything Manufacturing - Small to Medium Scale Metal Work (CAD/CAM included!)

its not terrible, but I suspect you can get it to roll smoother.

what brand are the bearing carriage, Hiwin or some other brand?

If something other than Hiwin, there may be some "junk" left over inside. I took mine and soaked them in some 91% Isopropyl alcohol, to degrease them, after spraying them with brake clean , circulate the balls with your finger.. I then used some white lithium grease to relube everything. If your brave and and super careful you can disassemble and do a better cleaning.

https://youtu.be/dyciKyV-6Ow?si=AJYfp5xuwKqLnte_

Have you greased the bearing carriages yet?

Something else to check is to make sure the rails are not crooked on each side. there is a bit of play in the extrusion and the rail bolts and it can be off just a bit. doesn't take much to bind, especially if both side are off. I ended up getting mine the same by loosening the bolts, just enough to where the rails would barely move, then sliding the gantry back an forth barely past each bolt then snugging it and repeating the entire length, repeat as needed until your happy. BE VERY careful to back the bolts to far out and loose the t-nut inside the track, its a PITA and I have had to remove the entire rail reinstall the "lost" t-nuts and slide every thing back into place. more than I care to admit

also how does it compare to the X axis free roll?

 

https://youtu.be/jqeRuNrwN5Q?si=rVJYpeZvmMVr4ffB

 

@Kwikvette

When I mention rails being off slightly I was talking about checking the edge of the linear rail to the edge of the extrusion..



I know from your previous posts and your level of troubleshooting, that you aim for a very tight tolerances. and this is one spot where they MAY be off just a little. You will most likely be fine with it as is.. but depending on how much you want to chase this down, it would be a simple check, even an adjustable combination square and a feeler gauge set to check any gap would work, especially if you wanted to document for tech support

 

Measured the left side and it is perfect; even checked with shims.

To check the other side I'd have to open the garage door and it's hot as hell out

Was pressure washing the driveway and sidewalk; my concrete guys just got done with the backyard. They were here since 6am today, and a good 5-6 hours yesterday

I'll measure it tomorrow but you're onto something for sure with that, thanks.

And it's funny too cause I forgot to mention, STV said I could use a laser to confirm everything is straight (when I asked about gantry alignment).

 

@Pyrotech

I checked with my dial calipers; I measured it exactly as you show and it is dead even at both ends on both rails. Didn't grab a picture, but my calipers actually come with a T base so it's easy to set the calipers square on top of the tube and get an accurate measurement.

On another note, I'm half tempted to just take a fine hand file and chip away at this. This is how little off the center hole is for the motor plate.

Hard to tell via pictures but if you look carefully, you can see a faint "ring" on the left edge.

The right is black because that's where the motor plate sits on top of the raised edge.



Close up - it's easier to see at around 7 o'clock.



The right edge.



Here's a motor with no plate, pointing where it sticks up on the previous plate.



And the height of that round edge.

 

Follow-up!

So STV said the movement on my gantry is exactly as expected. Apparently, they've taken it upon themselved to use a thicker grease upon shipping as they've had issues with customers not greasing them (sometimes, never during ownership).

To remedy this, they opted to go with something slightly thicker and completely filling them so they're ready to go.

As for the plates, it's turned into a QC issue since the plates are done 8 at a time.

Robert stated regardless, the plates shouldn't have been sent to me so he will grab 3 new motors and pre-mount them on 3 new plates and send them out to me assembled.

 

do you get to keep the old ones for spares? either way still sounds like some great customer support, pre assemble with new motors so they KNOW its right before sending it out.

The thicker grease makes sense. did you find out what they used at the factory to grease them?

 

When he was telling me he will send new motors, etc he said he would also be sending a pre-paid label and ask that I sent the current plates and motors back.

Which I expected anyway. Motors never been ran but, I bet he will want to try different motors himself before ruling out the plates are indeed machined out of spec.

He said all it takes is a bolt being the slightest bit loose (holding the work piece) and it just makes the whole thing offset in the slightest. The small holes are all done prior to the large ones so he said it would make sense for the center of them to all match.

"We've had that file for years so I suspect it was an issue during machining".

We spoke for quite a bit concerning both gantry movement as well as the motors and plates so I forgot what grease he said they use (he did tell me though)

 

Definitely good enough for bumper brackets, that dross looks nasty but it chipped right off. Still havent really dialed this thing in but I did setup the dessicant and motorguard.

50A 7 IPM 0.6 pierce. Dimensions are within 0.015" as designed on both sides after taking off dross

 

Edges look stupid nice!

If it's got that much dross, I'd probably got a little faster like 10 -12ipm.

 

That was my thought too, glad I was going in the right direction. I only had two small scraps to try out on and I goofed on the first.

 

My horrible memory begs me to ask, what plasma cutter you running again?

 

The bestarc BTC500XP. I was all in on getting a PW cut 60 but langmuir not recommending it turned me off of it

 

The reason it's on the "not recommended list" is the same reason the Everlast should be on that same list - there are fluctuations in the divider itself that cause issues like the VIM blowing a resistor.

The remedy to this is easy; run raw voltage. But to make things easier, Langmuir will just advise against running said machine but even they will share a customer made PDF for those that already own a PrimeWeld CUT60.

I ran a CUT60 myself and put a couple of years worth of cuts on it. Only issue I ever had was my VIM blowing a resistor and once I switched to raw voltage, I never had an issue again.

Best part, their VIM has separate circuits for raw and divided so even if you did go down, switching voltage allows you to use the same VIM.

 

Huh, I am running raw anyways. Well the bestarc was cheap and has worked fantastic.

 

1/4” ?

 

3/8 the part is a 1.5" square with a .750 hole in it

 

Just thought I'd share, both for you and anyone else watching.

The CUT60 will run on a Langmuir table with zero issues if you run raw.

 

You need to keep us up to speed on your cuts!

You're the only XR owner here I think?

 

Good to know. If I have issues with this I know customer service will be a pain compared to PW.