Helping School Setup PlasmaCam

[austin1289]

Hi I'm trying to help the trade school I work for learn how to use their 5 year old Samson Plasmacam table and I was wondering if you Plasmacam guys could tell me what the fairly loud buzzing/grinding/jerky noise on the torch slide when we go to initialize is? The manual says "some noise" is normal but this sounds terrible. I have a Dynatorch table at home with the SMS XT3 slide and you basically can't hear it move. Also I notice the mechanism that turns the screw is connected to the carriage servo motor? Just out of curiosity, what is this mechanism, is it some sort of stepper motor?

[Francisco]

Yes, it's a stepper motor.

The Z axis screw doesn't turn, it's fixed to the Z slide; the stepper's rotor has a female thread that works against the screw, providing up/down thrust. During initialization, the slide climbs on the screw until the rotor disengages from the screw, establishing the Z axis top reference; the noise you hear is the rotor briefly spinning freely on the screw's end and, yes, it can sound as if something's broken.

[rdj357]

It's electrical slippage in the Z stepper, not mechanical slippage. No damage is being done whatsoever but it sounds like the second coming.... To minimize the noise, run the Z axis down before powering down the machine or push it down manually when the controller is turned off and it will be much more brief. As Francisco said, it is a stepper and is establishing the upper limit of travel as a home reference.

[austin1289]

Awesome. Thank you guys for the response