Hard to believe, that my machine is approaching the end of year #5. I took delivery of my machine in Feb 2012.
Although I have been pretty good at regular maintenance with regards to lubrication and cleaning the racks/tracks and rollers, I knew a while back my pinions were starting to wear slightly. Noticable when doing some V carved doors, smaller holes and pocketed grooves where accuracy was every so slightly showing some wear.
Last Thursday I ordered new pinions. They came yesterday (not bad for going from NC, USA to Northern ON, Canada).
SPent a few hours this morning cleaning everything up, changing pinions and lubricating everything. Then a series of test cuts to make sure things were good, and they were back to like new.
The only "issue", was with my large aluminum deck table, it is not practical to slide off the whole table. My solution, to access the deck pinion (X axis) was to block up the deck-to-base with wooden blocks and wedges, enough to unbolt and slide out the 6' power stick. Then, with the aluminum deck members being individually fastened down (see my build thread) I removed three rows of deck, changed the gear, put the deck back, slid the power stick back in, and replaced the bolts. I was able to do this without help from my employees. I spent a few days thinking how the best way to access this pinion was going to be. With the vacuum fastened to the underside of the deck, and with the deck weighing upwards of a few hundred pounds, removing it was my last option and the way I ended up doing it was easy, and safe.
Anyway, I should be good for a few more years!