Thread: Alpha Zoot ... new aussie machine on the way!

Alan

I am presuming this is your big machine and not the widgitmaster.

That being the case I am having a hard time believing the steppers stalled because you had a 5mm depth of cut.

Yours would be similar to mine and it will snap tools off without even blinking. Or do you mean that the spindle stalled?

I tend to think that the stall was caused by whatever the problem is now rather than the other way around.

As Rod and Daniel have said the only way to track it down is by logical steps of elimination.

Swap units or wires and try to narrow it down logically.

My best guess is that you have lost power to the drives for whatever reason. That would explain the loss of detent.

Very unlikely to be the steppers and reasonably unlikely to be the drives. Could be poor connection though.

Less likely is lost signal to the drives but that could be it also.

Greg

How'd you go with it Alan?

Any joy?

Greg

Thanks Rod, Daniel & Greg,

My daughter had a bit of bad luck with her car ... seemed to come into contact with the back of a taxi! She can't afford to get it repaired and has now had a defect notice issued, so for the last few days it has been 'Alan's Panel Beating Services'!! Have replaced bumper bar, grille & headlights after straightening the front. Still to go ... radiator, parking lights, blinkers and new bonnet. Have never done any panel beating before, but it is a bit like Meccano!

So in short, I have not been able to get back to the machine and we are going away for Christmas, so frustratingly I will not get back to it until the new year. Will keep you posted.

Cheers and thanks for your suggestions,

Alan

Hi Alan,
I hope you have got on top of things and back to getting your machine running.
How is it going?

Rod,
Thanks for your interest ... I did my tests and by changing wires over found that the Y & Z axies would work quite happily using the X axis drivers, so I sent off to our friends at Gecko and bought replacement drivers, which only arrived on Thursday.

I set about replacing the driver for the Y axis first and thought I would test the system just to make sure that that axis worked before I went on to replace the Z axis driver (my thinking was that it would be easier to track down any problems if things did not work - the caution of old age!!) ... well in one of life's little mysteries, when I tested it, both the Y & Z axies worked!! That's right, replaced the Y driver and both Y & Z worked!!

So I am back into cautious testing of the machine ... machined a sign using some Blackbutt timber ... hard as hell! Using 1mm depth of pass I managed to finish one sign and was happy with that ... am painting the letters and will post the result when the paint is dry.

Cheers,

Alan

Hi Alan,
It's electrickery and could have been anything.

It does take a while to gain confidence back but once they are running well they seem to go for years trouble free. I find it really difficult working inside an electrical enclosure with less than good eyesight, big clumbsy fingers and working off the floor because we fixed the electrical enclosure under the machine.

We have a timber over here called Wandoo that is hard as nails but has excellent outdoor weathering. I dressed up some that was salvaged from a 100 plus year old shed frame and made an external door frame for a mud brick Heritage cottage. It dressed up like new timber but it killed my planer and thicknesser blades. Not in a hurry to visit a job like that again.