Sabre 1000 - 850SX - won't align - 15144 alert

Starting out with CNC and bought a well-loved Sabre 1000. Been making it move around and cleaning things so far. This morning I jogged the Z past max + and triggered an alert. Jogged it back down with the Master Start and rebooted per the manual and the overtravel alert cleared OK and stayed cleared. But now when I run an align routine I'm getting the 15144 "X,Y,Z Slides Unaligned" alert. Clearing the alert and trying to align again has the same result.

Called the old operator of the machine and he suggested checking out the Y limit switch, as it gets swarf and crud over time. Cleaned out the Y ways. Any suggestions on flushing a limit switch in case old coolant has gummed it up?

Thinking I may have bumped something with the Z overtravel. Can anyone point me toward where to look first?

Thanks-- John

I owned one of these workhorses for many years and have seen this alarm as well. Pretty sure it is limit switch related. These machines were bad for getting swarf under the table and it only takes a small shaving to trip the switch.
Also could be that the z axis switch is stuck closed.

If any of the align switches are stuck on, the slide will start slowly moving away from the switch direction. It is trying to move off the switch prior to aligning. You can look at the inputs from the switches in the "program ware" mode, look in the control reference book for this. You should clean all of the switches and turn down the feed rate when aligning. You may need to adjust the axis parameters for aligning.

Mike CNC Machine Services INC | Cincinnati Milacron MachinesCNC Machine Services

Took some to get around to it but got all six of the limit switches cleaned and lubed. Also lubed the ways, got rid of a bunch of old chips, and did a much better job of leveling the whole thing. But still getting the error. Was lucky a couple times and it aligned, but 95% of the time it throws the error. Tried different feed rates to no effect.

Mike-- have a stack of old manuals but no control reference book. Diagnostics manual shows the three switches that should be on, but not sure how to view the program ware page on the control.

Thanks,
John

What is the error code and what does it say on the screen??? When it does not align, do all 3 axis move toward the correct direction?? You may need to change some align parameters

Mike CNC Machine Services INC | Cincinnati Milacron MachinesCNC Machine Services.

"Alert 15144 - X,Y,Z slides unaligned" When I hold the Align button, travels to x and y zero and z max as expected. Then runs through moving off the limits on each axis in turn .5" and then 1" and back to zero each time. At the end of the expected align routine, I get the error.

Did notice a slight catch or hiccup in the x and y travels near the limit. No noises or anything, but a slight hitch in the otherwise smooth travel. Assumed it was recognizing one of the two limit switches on each axis tripping. Seems to happen at full feedrate as well as lower ones. Made sure the ways were cleaned and greased.

Thanks,
John

Sure sounds like a short to me. Do you run coolant? The switches are sealed but still fail . Its been some time since I have worked on one of these but if it will align intermittently . I would think its related to either x or y limit switches.
This is an inexpensive part to replace and can be purchased locally. I am not a tech and could be steering you in the wrong direction. I seem to recall though there is a diagnostic page to insure the switches are working properly. Mike would
have to tell you how to get there .

If the switches were stuck the slide will move in the opposite direction from the align position. The align parameters will need to be changed. Where are you located??

Mike http://cncmachineservices.com

Got it sorted! Mike-- thanks for the info on the service switch (labelled SW 1 on my 850SX cage). Was able to see 0005 - Z_ALIGN was on during align sequence but off when it had finished, whereas the X and Y switches remained on. The desired state is all on.

Called Fives and had a nice chat with Greg and Mike, who helped me update the offset parm in the SYS COMM page. This had Z finish the align routine with the switch on the edge of the limit dog. (They also helped me with a couple other things in the process.)

Thanks everyone for the help!

--John