Need Help - Epilog Fusion M2 Y axis noise

[Tyler Phong]

Anyone know what is causing this noise on the Y axis and how to fix it?[ I record5 it in the video below. Any help is most welcomed.

VIDEO]https://youtu.be/zUrzfoVdFw8[/VIDEO]

[Kev Williams]

IF -- the Y gantry is moving in 'chunks' (can't exactly tell from the vid) while making that racket and NOT moving smoothly,
THEN-- it's a good bet you have a bad Y stepper motor wire. I've had 2 machines over the years break a stepper wire in the 'drag chain', and that racket is pretty much what happens. It's because without all the wires telling the stepper where to go, the stepper sometimes tries to go both directions at the same time, and the shock to the drive train while doing that creates the racket.

It could also be the Y stepper driver- a way to troubleshoot that would be to change the wires to the drivers, as in, connect the Y wires to the X driver and vice versa. When you slew the gantries they'll go the opposite directions; slewing left/right will move the gantry up/down, and vice versa. The test is to see if the Y gantry makes racket even when controlled by the X driver. If so, the problem is NOT a stepper DRIVER. But if the X gantry makes racket instead of the Y gantry, then the problem likely IS the stepper driver...

It could also be the Y stepper motor is bad, but most bad steppers I've ran into simply get weak and start skipping steps...

[Tyler Phong]

Thanks Kev. Sounds like it could be the first issue you mentioned. Yes it does make a clunk sound as it is moving but there is no skipping at all...at least right now. I'm still able to do an engraving with the table full of material without any issue except for that clunk sound on the Y axis

[Kev Williams]

You're getting good engraving WITH that racket? Then all of my above guesses are pretty much null and void!

Being able to still engrave means you likely have a purely mechanical issue, like a bearing on one of the Y axis 'drive' or 'driven' shafts may have disintegrated or come apart. If a wire goes bad like in my situations, the machine just basically goes nuts because the stepper can't 'follow instructions'... the good thing is, bearings are cheaper than motors and such!