3 Axis CNC router

**Desertboy** · 29-01-2018

I read sometimes the seals on the ballscrew can be tight when new so when you first run the machines they can stick a little, the solution run it up and down the full length of the travel a few times. Greasing can help to.

I had a sticky bit right at the end of my travel on one of my Y ballscrews kept firing a stall detect at me, after 10 to 15 running up and down the lengths occasionally stalling the problem disapeared. The area where it stalled is now part of my homing sequence so it gets travelled over regulary never stalled again.

**JAZZCNC** · 29-01-2018

Originally Posted by Desertboy

I had a sticky bit right at the end of my travel on one of my Y ballscrews kept firing a stall detect at me, after 10 to 15 running up and down the lengths occasionally stalling the problem disapeared. The area where it stalled is now part of my homing sequence so it gets travelled over regulary never stalled again.

That's most likely to be alignment issue not sticky seals. To be honest I've fitted 100's ballscrews and never had sticky seal on the ballnut(presume you mean ballnut seal)

Now what can happen is often the spacers on the BK bearings are not long enough and the seal in BK bearing can rub on the screw.
This tends to happen mostly on cheap BK bearings. Also on cheap BK bearings, like what Chai Sells, the bearings are not always shimmed correctly or even in wrong way round so when tightening the nut they will bind.

Joe If BK's came from Fred at BST then you can tighten them fully and they won't bind. Fred BK bearings are light years better than Chai's.

**JoeHarris** · 30-01-2018

Originally Posted by JAZZCNC

That's most likely to be alignment issue not sticky seals. To be honest I've fitted 100's ballscrews and never had sticky seal on the ballnut(presume you mean ballnut seal)

Now what can happen is often the spacers on the BK bearings are not long enough and the seal in BK bearing can rub on the screw.
This tends to happen mostly on cheap BK bearings. Also on cheap BK bearings, like what Chai Sells, the bearings are not always shimmed correctly or even in wrong way round so when tightening the nut they will bind.

Joe If BK's came from Fred at BST then you can tighten them fully and they won't bind. Fred BK bearings are light years better than Chai's.

My Hiwins came from Fred but ballscrews and bk/bf bearings from chai.... not wild about taking them apart especially now!

**Desertboy** · 30-01-2018

I hadn't squared the gantry up at this point so very possible it was alignment, if would be about the same time. It has taken me ages to get dual homing working.

Hmm interesting with the bearings will have a look, I have a spare BK12/BF12 fitting to strip down. But will make sure I buy my bearings from Fred next time I keep seeing his name mentioned.

**Clive S** · 30-01-2018

It has taken me ages to get dual homing working.

If you have this now working with 2.8 master would you mind posting the hal & ini files.

**Desertboy** · 30-01-2018

Originally Posted by Clive S

If you have this now working with 2.8 master would you mind posting the hal & ini files.

Will do, not at work today but will go in to play in a bit I'll post them up then.

I almost went loony toons setting it up lol.

**JoeHarris** · 15-04-2019

So starting up again, I got the spindle control from Mach set up last night. All seems to work OK, apart from the RPM readout on Mach reads 0 regardless of the spindle speed. Is that normal? The one setting I was not sure about was mach's "spindle pulley" settings. The IP-M manual was not much help on that front. Does anyone know what this should be set to for a 2.2KW chinese water-cooled spindle?

Originally Posted by JAZZCNC

That's most likely to be alignment issue not sticky seals. To be honest I've fitted 100's ballscrews and never had sticky seal on the ballnut(presume you mean ballnut seal)

Now what can happen is often the spacers on the BK bearings are not long enough and the seal in BK bearing can rub on the screw.
This tends to happen mostly on cheap BK bearings. Also on cheap BK bearings, like what Chai Sells, the bearings are not always shimmed correctly or even in wrong way round so when tightening the nut they will bind.

Joe If BK's came from Fred at BST then you can tighten them fully and they won't bind. Fred BK bearings are light years better than Chai's.

Sadly I think I am going to have to strip down the machine and sort out the bearings as they are binding quite regularly and causing pretty major accuracy issues. You get what you pay for I guess, and I should have shimmed them before I assembled the machine - lesson learned!

**JoeHarris** · 16-04-2019

Originally Posted by JoeHarris

So starting up again, I got the spindle control from Mach set up last night. All seems to work OK, apart from the RPM readout on Mach reads 0 regardless of the spindle speed. Is that normal? The one setting I was not sure about was mach's "spindle pulley" settings. The IP-M manual was not much help on that front. Does anyone know what this should be set to for a 2.2KW chinese water-cooled spindle?

Sadly I think I am going to have to strip down the machine and sort out the bearings as they are binding quite regularly and causing pretty major accuracy issues. You get what you pay for I guess, and I should have shimmed them before I assembled the machine - lesson learned!

Strip down has commenced... feels good to be in it again!

and I have some mild steel tube on order to remake the undersized BK bearing spacers/shims.

14mm o/d with 1mm wall for the 16mm ballscrew bearings

and 18mm o/d with 1.5mm wall for the 20mm screws.

I guess mild steel is what the originals are made from?

The plan is to cut them from the tube slightly oversized and then neaten them up in my ancient lathe so they are nice and uniform in length all the way around. Does that sound reasonable to anyone who has done this before?!

**njhussey** · 16-04-2019

Originally Posted by JoeHarris

So starting up again, I got the spindle control from Mach set up last night. All seems to work OK, apart from the RPM readout on Mach reads 0 regardless of the spindle speed. Is that normal? The one setting I was not sure about was mach's "spindle pulley" settings. The IP-M manual was not much help on that front. Does anyone know what this should be set to for a 2.2KW chinese water-cooled spindle?

Hi Joe, good to see you back on your machine. Mine’s been working fine since I 95% finished it!! I’ll have a look at my spindle pulley settings tomorrow, I’ve been using it tonight for 4 hours cutting kits but didn’t see your posts (I don’t come on here much anymore, although I should!) in time. Neil

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**JoeHarris** · 16-04-2019

Originally Posted by njhussey

Hi Joe, good to see you back on your machine. Mine’s been working fine since I 95% finished it!! I’ll have a look at my spindle pulley settings tomorrow, I’ve been using it tonight for 4 hours cutting kits but didn’t see your posts (I don’t come on here much anymore, although I should!) in time. Neil

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Cheers Neil!

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