Adjustin V rollers on Z car.

[dubliner]

Well I thought I had all my problems behind me but I scarred up a nice piece of mahogany. I disengaged the z motor and the slide is a little rough for my liking. I cant see how you adjust the v rollers on it, anyone know how to? tx Dubliner

[harryball]

When we adjusted the one at the show it took some flat wrenches inserted into the slots on either side of the Z to adjust the cams. Did your bot come with 2 very flat wrenches?

/RB

[dubliner]

Of course not. I might have some cheap stamped ones, which are the cams? & do you know what size wrench? Do I slide the wrench in the gap between the al. blocks & the steel channels? about 3/16ths gap.

[harryball]

It was in the small gaps either side of the Z right at the rollers. Brian did the adjustment but he used the small flat wrenches to fit into the gap. I'm assuming the machine I was using has the same style Z that yours has. Wish I could be more help.

/RB

[erik_f]

I would be careful about messing with the z...I'm pretty sure you want that some what on the tight side.

[dubliner]

Good point Eric, it feels like it a bit tighter lower down & smoother above that. But it did give that "Strained grinding sound for a second" the bit plunged slightly deeper, so I presumed the Z lost a step but it could have been the X. It makes that Zipper sound when I start it from cold but goes away after a few moves. Shopbot Gary told me the motor shouldnt sound like that. Maybe I have a bad X.

[erik_f]

I just had to have them replace a driver because my Z from time to time would get very loud. I was able to finally duplicate the sound by giving the driver a slight wiggle. When moved in the right way it made the bot sound like it was doing the missing steps thing. SB also suggested that it might be a loose connection...in my case it wasn't...but it was fun cutting off all the shrink tubing (not really).

[dubliner]

Hey Erik - I just was advised to cut the shrink & swap the cable to the Y motor to see if I could make that motor sound awful too! Hearing your fix I wonder. When you say "Moved in the right way" do you mean moving the driver or the motor? Mine sounded as if the the gear stripped on the rack for a second ( it didnt of course ) but it was distinctly louder & a straining sound for a second.

[erik_f]

I wiggled the driver and thats when i was able to get the noise to happen any time i wanted. There was something wrong with the leads on the driver as far as i could tell. I varified this by switching the driver to my y axis and then wiggling the driver and getting the same thing to happen on the y thus the problem followed the driver. Sb thought it could have been a loose connection. Writing from the blackberry i will give you more in the morning if you want.or if you want to call me I would be glad to give you my number via email erikfrancey(at)gmail

[gordon]

It sounds like there are 2 seperate issues here. The Z axis is adjusted using a 14mm flat wrench (2.8mm thick) inserted between the tracks on the Z and the aluminum wheel bars. The adjustable wheels are the 2nd and 4th. You can also tell them by looking at the outside of the aluminum wheel bars, they have a counterbored hole and nut on the end of the integral shaft. The difficult part is explaining how to adjust them. It is all in the feel and you don't want to overtighten them or you'll wear out the rails or wheels prematurely. The best way is to loosen the nuts slightly, adjust the pressure on the wheel slightly with the flat wrench and then, holding the flat wrench to prevent the wheel from turning, snug the nut back up. Do this for each wheel, check to make sure the Z is moving without binding and redo if necessary. It is best if you do this without a spindle/router on the Z and the Z motor removed so that you can feel how much tension is on the rails without the motor interfering. Contact us if you need this wrench. I believe we have a batch coming in.

The driver is another issue. Since it sounds like you have alpha controllers, the first thing I'd check is the ribbon cable connectors that plug into the drivers. Are the screws that hold them ontot the drivers tight? When you say you wiggle them, what are you wiggling? Is it the driver cable, motor cable, power wires, or the entire driver box?