ML7 : To convert, or not...

[Doddy]

Okay, mixed thoughts at the moment. I'd started with the Jeffree conversion for the Z-axis some time ago, and over the last weekend knocked up a more compact X-axis...

Z:

X:


Just for confidence and a break from the mechanics I've slaved up an old controller box (first pic) and an old XP box that had the driver for the ethernet controller for the control box from storage.

It proved the concept, but I'm somewhat puzzled by the noise from the Z stepper...



X is as quiet as you might expect. Z is bloody awful. I've tried fiddling with the stepper driver with micro steps from 1/2/4 and the current from 3.2A through 5A. It just sounds awful. Part of this is transmitted through the bracket onto the lathe bed, but unbolting the motor from the frame its still not great. The motor has been in situ for the last, maybe couple of years, with light manual use of the lathe (so powered traverses using the lathe gearbox) into an unpowered motor, with stripped ends to the motor wiring that may have been shorted from time to time (just rolled up and stowed under the motor bracket). To me, it sounds very mechanical and internal to the motor. I do have a smaller motor available to replace this... in fact I should have an identical one but not seen that for a while. Whilst I tidy up the shed a bit has anyone heard a stepper sound quite so bad - is it likely goosed?