[BlackICE1]

Does anyone know the weight of the Patriots upper assembly that goes up and down on A axia? Also any ideas where the center of Mass is going left to right? I'm thinking of adding a gas spring to offset the weight.

[JezMe]

Weight depends on if you added metal to stiffen it up like most do. Since I don't use the A axis with CNC I replaced that small stepper with a cheap 90VDC motor and speed controller from ebay, it zips up and down now. I'm guess the stepper is stalling on you, it's way under powered for that axis and the Gecko 540 controller limits you on going much bigger. Mine stalled from day one, just never could count on that stepper to lift it.

[BlackICE1]

I haven't added any weight yet, but plan to do so. I don't use the A axis for machining either, just to reset the Z axis height. The A axis is far from stable enough, each time I move it the tram probably will get upset. It is easy to tilt the assembly, a PITA. I'm thinking mounting a pad on the top that I can place a level on so that if I move the A axis I can use a level to get the tram pretty close.

As for why the gas spring, it's so that I can move the axis faster without stalling on the way up or over running on the way down. I can move it pretty fast now on the way down and OK on the way up. But to do so I have to use a jog wheel to manage the acceleration and deceleration rate. I can't seem to adjust the rates in Mach3 so that it won't sometimes lose steps while still moving fast.

[jdclark]

My machine worked fine at first, the A axis moved the mill head up and down fine, at about 10IPM. However, after doing some cast iron turning on the lathe, it began to stall. I pulled the columns out 1 at a time and cleaned the inside of the mill casting bores and found some cast iron grit had gotten in. It doesn't take much grit to bind against the columns. After I cleaned it out, I found some automotive seals that fit around the columns and put them around each column on the top of the mill casting. Haven't had any problems since.

[BlackICE1]

I have my a axis is moving at 20 inches per minute. However to do so I have to still manually accelerate or it will lose steps.