[VaderSpade]

My new series 3 has been nothing but problems since the day I got it. I posted about it not returning to zero but reading zero on all axis weeks ago.

Tormach has not been able to figure it out.

Tormach has had me jumping through hoops trying this and trying that. A lot of what they had me trying made no sense at all. They sent me a new control board, and computer and nothing fixes the problems. I noticed the new control board is version 1.1. The series 3 is only a couple months old and they have a new version, someone else must be having problems???

I have lost weeks of my time and tens of thousands of dollars, and they have run out of answers. And get this if I want to return it it will be at my expense PLUS a 10- 20% re-stocking fee.

I’ll be over at the lawyer forums shortly.

[Gerry Sweetland]

Sorry you are having problems with your new mill. I have read through your other post and don't see it mentioned (someone did respond asking if you're using the shielded printer cable) and I see you mention above that Tormach sent you a new computer and control board... but I wonder if it is something as simple as you have a bad printer cable? Just a stab in the dark I know.
Hope things work out for you.
Gerry

[VaderSpade]

Thanks Gerry,

Tormach had me check for the "black box" on the cable. When I confirmed it was there they seemed satisfied that there was no problem with the cable.
I have been sending Tormach daily reports on my problems, and there seems to be something new every day. I can go back through my e-mails and post them here if anyone thinks it will help?

[shred]

The weird thing is it looks like you might actually be the only one having this problem. That makes it a whole lot harder to debug, and since you can't seem to pin down what makes it happen or not (first part, second part, 5 minutes, every day at 7:35 pm, etc), it might be time to start looking outside the machine-- do you have a HAM radio operator as a neighbor? Kids playing with Tesla coils nearby? .

[300sniper]

The weird thing is it looks like you might actually be the only one having this problem. That makes it a whole lot harder to debug, and since you can't seem to pin down what makes it happen or not (first part, second part, 5 minutes, every day at 7:35 pm, etc), it might be time to start looking outside the machine-- do you have a HAM radio operator as a neighbor? Kids playing with Tesla coils nearby? .

tig welding aluminum next to it?

[philbur]

Funny you should say that, I was thinking of radio transmitter mast, overhead power cables, mobile phone relay station etc.

The problem could actually be more than one problem. It seems that in some cases it powers down and in other cases the axis goes for a wander.

Does the Z axis get driven down or just fall under it's own weight.

I think he is getting to the stage of: When you have eliminated all the possible causes what ever is left, regardless of how improbable, must be the source of the problem.

Phil

it might be time to start looking outside the machine-- do you have a HAM radio operator as a neighbor? Kids playing with Tesla coils nearby? .

[VaderSpade]

Does the Z axis get driven down or just fall under it's own weight? Mostly it's driven down but a couple days ago it just fell breaking the bit.

My nearest and only neighbor is 700 feet away. I live in the middle of 50 acres. No one I know has any radios. The mill is run from my shop electricity, and is a separate drop from the house. The only other thing running on that drop is the shop lighting three 1000 watt warehouse lights. Could their ballast cause problems?

[VaderSpade]

Tormach latest solution (in their letter below), I told them if they can’t fix my 1100 I want my money back. They have apparently run out of ideas to fix it.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/1011314-post37.html

The post above proves they know they have a problem, but they expect me to pay upwards of $4,000.00 - $5,000.00 if I want to return a machine that NEVER worked???

Their letter VVV

I’m very sorry that your machine has not worked out well for you. Greg has asked that I step in at this point and help facilitate the return of your equipment, and issue a refund. In general, for returns we have a 10%-20% re-stocking fee, plus shipping costs, though admittedly, we haven’t ever had to apply this to a machine before. There can be significant costs involved to hire riggers to come out and re-package all the equipment; it would be in all of our best interest to avoid this if possible. In light of this, there are a few questions I have for you:

1. What packing materials have you by chance held on to from when you received your mill?

2. Do you have the ability or willingness to package the machine, stand and accessories in a manner suitable for freight shipment? We of course can offer advice on this.

3. Could you take some general photos of the machine so I can try and evaluate its general condition please?

This process may take us a couple days to sort through, so I appreciate your patience in this matter.

Best Regards,

[ger21]

The only other thing running on that drop is the shop lighting three 1000 watt warehouse lights. Could their ballast cause problems?

I've heard of fluorescent lights causing problems. Try running it in the dark.

[shred]

The big halide lights can be pretty noisy in the RF range. Worth a try with them off I guess, at this point you may want to try anything and everything. A guy I know had a lot of computer trouble because one leg of the 440 his CNC machines were on was what supplied 110 to the rest of the shop. When the machine hit a tough cut, it would droop the voltage enough to irritate the PC with a weak power supply. Is your 110v to the machine is off the same supply as the 220?

Did your PC guy find anything amiss?

[FRITZ W.]

I would consider before spending all that money to send it back to see if you can work something out for someone from Tormach to come to your shop. It is a long shot but worth considering. They may be able to learn some thing on site verses emails and phone calls.
Best of luck.
Fritz

[VaderSpade]

They made it clear they would not come out here.

[David Bord]

It certainly would be worth purchasing a new high quality sheilded parallel cable. The is no certainty that your current cable is good...

Also, as suggested, turn off the large lights... get yourself a couple cheap lamps or lights and run the machine only run when the big lights are off just to see...

If it was me, I would do both... It would call you all of $20 and eliminate stuff that is suspect, at least to me.

David

[VaderSpade]

I'm cutting by flashlight now. I plan to video the end when it returns to zero. I hope I have nothing to video, but it only messes up 1 in 5-10 times, so even that won't tell me anything for sure. Although it has messed up the last two times in a row.

[BobWarfield]

I remember one other time when rather than returning the machine, which had an obvious manufacturing defect, they had the guy sell it on eBay to someone nearby who picked it up.

Maybe they'd do that for you and at least save wear and tear (not to mention cost) on packing/rigging.

You just don't read about this sort of thing with Tormach much, their quality control is pretty good. But, nobody's is perfect.

Try without the lights with fingers crossed!

As long as we're worried about weird sources of noise, I wonder if you have an AC conditioner like you'd use on a computer that you could put the machine on?

Best,

BW

[TXFred]

They made it clear they would not come out here.

I've asked before, and you still haven't said where "out here" is. If you give us that information, you may find that somebody on this forum lives nearby and would be willing to lend a hand in person.

Frederic

[VaderSpade]

I've asked before, and you still haven't said where "out here" is. If you give us that information, you may find that somebody on this forum lives nearby and would be willing to lend a hand in person.

Frederic

Northern California, way up northeast of Redding toward the Oregon border, in the middle of no-where.

[VaderSpade]

Well it wasn't the lights, it just thumped and stopped short of zero again.

I did get it on video.

[TXFred]

I used to live out in the country. I remember that the electricity was sometimes problematic. Do your house lights flicker occasionally? Maybe there's a voltage drop that happens sometimes, causing the steppers to cut out momentarily.

I have no idea how you would test for that, though.

Frederic

[Gundawg]

If you have not already go over every connection and make sure they are all tight make sure all wires are pushed into their plugs not just the plugs being together but that all wires are seated in the plug itself. Make sure all grounds are tight it really sucks and can be very frustrating I know first hand. I had a similar issue with a CNC router table mine ended up being a bad drive.

Mike