[sgt panties]

Hi, I'm am a sort of newbie to machining and entirely self-taught. I've had an RF45 clone bench mill from Wholesale Tool for going on 4 years now. It has been used a total of probably only 50 hrs, on and off, during this time. I have not done any major maintenance on it, nor have I upgraded it in any way. I use it mostly for the edge milling and drilling of steel plate.

When I crank the X fast enough, under no load, I get this groaning/rasping sound. If I slow down on the crank to say 1 rev per second the sound ceases. The sound is a lot like "the most annoying sound in the world" from Jim Carey's character in Dumb and Dumber, but a little lower in pitch. (Not kidding. You can find that clip on Youtube.) When the sound occurs the resistance on the crank increases by an extremely small amount. It is as if the speed reaches some sort of mechanical harmonic then bam, the sound turns on.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this, what to look for? Or maybe it's normal and acceptable, I don't know.

[vertcnc]

Try cleaning the bearings on the end of the lead screw. The hard item would be to clean the lead screw and also the nut for the lead screw. There is also a backlash adjustment screw on the lead screw nut. Make sure the ways are clean and lubed with way oil.

[mactec54]

sgt panties

It needs some oil, it is runny dry, if it has a oil pump make sure the oil is getting to the nut/screw