Sounds like your having frustrating time Dean! So my first voyage back into the world of CNC in probably 12 months has ended in frustration too. When I left this project every axis moved, but it had become became apparent that the ballscrew bearings needed shimming on x and z to stop them binding. Pretty annoying to have to start taking things apart... But I stripped them down, made some shims on the lathe and that is how it was left for ages. I guess I just ran out of enthusiasm.

Now, with a bit of time to look at it again and some projects I want to do with the machine I’m keen to get it to work finally... so...

I have now finished the job of putting everything back together. Switched her on and tried to zero the machine. Nothing moved. But on MACH the z was showing as moving!? as if it were moving towards the prox switch to zero out. So I put a screwdriver by the prox switch and immediately the y and x start to move and zero themselves. Tried jogging and y and x move fine, but z only moves on MACH not in reality!? What’s all that about!?

I think the reason I got fed up last time, is because - I really enjoyed all the practical stuff, the welding, the milling, the monotonous drilling and tapping, the wiring up of the control box - but once it came to the computer stuff, I was stumped. CAD I’m fine with, CAM was a bit of a struggle (I think Fusion 360 was maybe a bad place to start) and setting up Mach just baffled me. I struggled to get the machine set up right and struggled to get any code to run. I also never figured out how to get the spindle to be controlled by MACH.

Right now it feels like I have a couple of thousand pounds and couple of thousand hours worth of white elephant sitting in the garage. Argh!