Well now I've really made a mess of things... and need some help

[Walt Langhans]

So I went to change out the x axis belt on my laser... I move the head to about the center position so it would be easy for me to get at, took off the old belt and put on the new one. In the process I moved the head around a bit, and when I went to use the buttons to check the travel it wouldn't move all the way to the left and came crashing into the right side.

I have a little red switch looking thing on the right side that I thought was supposed to stop the motor when it was touched, which didn't seem to happen. I figured the best thing to do was undo the belt, press the button to move the head all the way to the right, and then physically move the head all the way to the right and then reconnect the belt. In the process I leaned on the gantry and pushed it up apparently and now the y axis doesn't travel properly no either.

To make things even worse, while trying to get things back to normal I accidentally leaned on control pad and moved things around again, so I figured best to shut down till I got done working on that side of the machine. When I went to turn it back on, I had not reconnected the x axis belt, and when it went through the reset routine the x axis motor just spins. I assume this is because there is no load on it so it can figure out where to stop, but I really don't know.

I've put in a request to Shenui tech support, but because of the time difference it not going to be till midnight my time till I talk to them.

Anyone have any ideas in the mean time?

[David Somers]

Walt,

You might try giving Ray Scott at Rabbitlaserusa.com a call. Although your unit is a Shenui Ray has a reputation for helping folks with other brands. I think this works for him so so many of the Chinese lasers are the same components. At the least he may be able to help you identify the steps you need to follow.

Sorry I can't do more for you.

Dave

[Rich Harman]

Did you try shutting it off and restarting?

[Dave Sheldrake]

It's lost the origin Walt,a bit concerning that the soft stops aren't working :(

Are you homing the machine from the software or from the PAD on the machine?

cheers

Dave

[Walt Langhans]

You might try giving Ray Scott at Rabbitlaserusa.com a call.

Great idea David, I did call him and he was very helpful. In short the belt is back on but the original problem is worse. But I'm taking that as possibly good thing since the belt affected the issue hopefully I can mess with the tension and get this sorted out.


Did you try shutting it off and restarting?

Yeah and that's what freaked me out because the stepper motor just kept running. But that was because the belt wasn't attached and the flag didn't move over to sensor (thanks again Ray from Rabbit Laser USA for lesson on how all that works!)


It's lost the origin Walt,a bit concerning that the soft stops aren't working :(
The flag that trips the sensor wasn't in the proper place, so it's fixed now :)

[matthew knott]

Sounds like your on the right track Walt, the little red thing is a proximity detector, it only gets used when the axis are homing, one word of advice when playing would be to have the power turned off, it will make it much easier to change the belts as the stepper motors will be free to turn, tension them up as you feel is right then turn it all back on and it will be fine!!

[Ray Scott]

Walt, It looks like we have you mostly back up and running. Now that things are re-assembled, lets look at the next problem. Let's try to put the communications/answers here so that other people can learn from our mistakes and our solutions. Ray

[Walt Langhans]

YEAH!!!! Problem fixed!

After getting everything back together I've been adjusting the tension on the belt and then running the 1" square test pattern again. After a few tries I now have dead on 1" Squares across the entire bed of the laser.

Again, much thanks to Ray for explaining to me how laser thinks / works with regards to the movement of the laser head!

Looking back on this experience, I should have tried adjusting the tension of the existing belt BEFORE I replaced it. However, once the belt was off and I inspected it was showing pretty good signs of wear and probably did need to be replaced anyway.

On a side note... I just recently put up my web site. Haven't really done anything to promote it yet (I wanted to get this problem fixed before I started getting orders) so I figured there wouldn't be any harm is tearing apart the laser at this point, and wouldn't you know it... Right after I thought I really messed things up and did this post an order from my website came in.... how's that happen... lol!

[Khalid Nazim]

Ray:

Its fantastic that you went so out of the way to help someone who is not even your customer. This is great.

Walt/Ray,

Can you list down what you guys did to fix this problem as I also have the exact same issue of cutting accuracy being different on different locations of the bed.

Regards
KN

[Walt Langhans]

Can you list down what you guys did to fix this problem as I also have the exact same issue of cutting accuracy being different on different locations of the bed.

Regards
KN

First I ran a test pattern of a 1 inch grid to see where I was off, which was along the x axis. I then replaced the x axis belt. Ran the 1 inch test pattern again. Increased the tension on the belt, ran the pattern again. Repeated process until I had the correct tension on the belt that resulted in the 1 inch pattern actually being 1 inch.

HOWEVER, you might want to just try adjusting the tension and only replace the belt if that doesn't fix the issue.

[Khalid Nazim]

Walt, one clarification:

Would the dimensions increase or decrease on belt tightening?

I plan to run the test pattern that you suggested. If I find that the dimensions are larger than the actual graphic value what should I do to the belt - tighten it or make is loose?

Regards
KN

[Walt Langhans]

Tighter made the dimensions increase, so in your case loosen it.

[Greg Facer]

Hi Walt,

Saw your message today, looks like I was a little late however. I believe your problem was a consistent problem, getting worse as your machine cut along in one dimension (and starting at the 8-9 point from the right of the machine?

If so, my issue (and maybe Khalid's as well) is different as I have a pattern of smaller, bigger, smaller, bigger, and never quite the same value on the smalls or the bigs either (but much closer).

I do second the idea of trying to work with the belt you have.....buying a USA belt and not seeing any improvement was a let down for me! I'm just moving forward with jobs that don't need that type of accuracy as I've pretty much given up on a solution or at least the chance of success is so low that the priority is low as well. Working on a new air assist modification that I'll post here when done.

Glad your problem is fixed!