Where is the fountain of knowledge for learning about CNC setups / understanding them

[Palletlad]

I'm at work at the moment reading this so will do as you mentioned later on today, I brought a dedicated Pentium 4 pc with XP and Mach3 on it at the moment while using a male to male parallel cable from control box to pc motherboard.
I did a video of me testing random setups with the motor tuning but I will redo it again with your settings.
I let you know the outcome later on tonight.
Thanks for your time with this its helped.

[Palletlad]

ok I did option 2 that's all sorted,

I am still getting the jarring jolts on all various settings so I'm now considering of replacing the wiring with screened wires, greasing the machine all over and buying a UC100 now its payday and looking at new stepper motors.
I found another thread on the web and discovered you was in that one as well Jazzcnc (2014 thread) :D, the guy seemed to have the same issues as me and its looking more like because its cheap parts causing the issues.
I recorded a video and will upload it when I get in to show you what I am getting.

what grease do I get for cnc machines is there a specific/preferred one?
I've found a UC100 on amazon for £53 (its the only one on there) is this trustworthy or a cheap knock off as I thought they are around £130 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cable-Paral...X8Q9QHK2KA3BGY

[JAZZCNC]

Ok well first don't spend any money on anything because you still don't know what the problem is. Could be anything and throwing money at it without knowing what problem is foolish and sure way to waste money.

The steppers you have will be fine so don't worry about those. Steppers are simple things, they just work or they don't. Provided they are sized correctly for the machine, which these are you won't have any issues with them.
Also just because other folks have had cable issues doesn't mean this is your problem so again leave well alone until you know they are the problem.
Grease doesn't need to be anything special, just normal lithium grease will be fine. However don't go greasing anything yet let us get it working correctly first.

So put up the video and let's see what it's doing.

What you can do thou is going over the machine top to bottom checking no loose bolts or slop in bearings etc. Pay attention to the connection of steppers to ball screws. Check ballscrew end fixing that it's not got any axial movement. Also check Ballnut mountings are tight.

If nothing appears to lose or wrong the next thing you can do is check for any Axis binding. The way to do this disconnects the steppers from ball screws and push each axis thru it's full travel length. They should move quite easily with no binding or tight spots.
Don't be surprised if they don't glide like as if in thin air, this is quite normal and something people often misunderstand.

Only after you know the mechanical is ok should start looking at the electrical. Even then provided nothing is broken you shouldn't need to replace anything just to get motion.
Yes if you want to improve performance then will most likely need to replace some components but should still be able to get good smooth motion using the parallel port and what you have.

So Hold off throwing money at it just yet.

Oh and that isn't UC100 so leave well alone.

[Palletlad]

here is the link to the video

[cropwell]

This sounds 'mechanical' to me. Does the noise always happen in the same places ?

[JAZZCNC]

It very much sounds mechanical so this is the first place to start.
I would move Y-axis to one side and remove stepper and also remove bolts connecting ballnut to Y axis. Then slide Y axis across gantry to feel if binding on rails.
Then rotate ball nut and ballscrew by hand to see if tight or sticking. Also, check for any axial movement of the ball screw in bearings. Should be none.

If both move freely with no floating in bearings etc then it's most likely an alignment issue with the ball screw.

Also just for reference don't mess around any more with Velocity. Just set it at say 1500 with 500 Acceleration and it should be fine for now. Can always find it's limit when know mechanical is ok.

Also check that you have the Jog percentage set to 100% because some of those movements looked slow.

[Snapper]

These things are made by monkeys. Mine had all sorts of holes misaligned, drilled/tapped at angles etc. I spent a good while stripping it down and straightening it all out, which was a waste of time, because after a bit off cutting the bastard thing just vibrated out of square again.

Anyway, I had precisely the same issue. Mine was down to a crap PSU which eventually set itself on fire. My box was different and had 3 separate drivers, the spindle hooked up etc etc, but a new 48v PSU later and the whole thing was whizzing around without a hitch like a ferret on amphetamines.