Broken Shaft DHC1

[kudenberg]

So I just had an interesting day with my plasmacam, and was wondering if anyone else had run into the same issue...
About halfway though a large cut, the whole gantry system went all kiddywampus, with one side about an inch offset of the other, and when we pushed it flush, it would change ever time. So after a minute or two of cussing, me and my business partner started tearing into it and we found something rather odd. the driving rod that goes from one end of the gantry to the other to run the opposite gear is only spot welded in 4 places in both sides and one sides welds all broke! Now, I'm not a very good welder, but my business partner is a master, so rather then tear into it further, we aligned everything up and i held it perfect with a clamp and he welded it blind (you cant see inside the tube very well...) so my question...anyone else ever have this issue? any ideas what caused it? it could have been a fluke...I bought this one used but its never had any collisions since Ive owned it. I've been running different plasmacam tables since 2006 and never even heard of it.

Keith

[BrianMick]

It is not unheard of.....In fact when I was having some issues with my table the plasmacam representitive told me to check for that exact thing....which tells me, they have had the problem before.....
Luckily it wasn't the problem, but I have had to replace the entire rod before, because the gears on the ends were pretty wore....Not a fun task but not terribly difficult either.....Best of luck
Brian

P.s. how is the weather up there.......has it been raining as much there too.

[Dan-PlasmaCAM]

It can't be that Common I have never seen it before!

Dan-PlasmaCAM

[Black Forest]

It can't be that Common I have never seen it before!

Dan-PlasmaCAM

How come that doesn't surprise me that you haven't seen it before!

[kudenberg]

well, we got it perfectly aligned and it works great again! Might be time to change the rider bearings tho... to bad they're 19 bucks each... I looked around online a bit and haven't seen to many other people with the same issue, so I'm guessing it was just a fluke! and the weather up here has been... erratic! lol. rain, then sun then rain!