gearboxes slop

[Mike Pennington]

Hi,
I just noticed a lot of slop in my Y axis Gearboxes. Is there a way to tighten them up or adjust them? I have checked the set screws, and found that the slop is in the gearboxes. X axis, (Short axis) is fine and tight.
Thanks,
Mike

 

[Dnmeistr-LECS]

Did you check the set screws inside the gearboxes, if the gearbox has a red band around it with the name Micron there will be two set screws 180 degrees off from one another, there are two plastic covers but you only need to take one of the covers off to get to both set screws, see pic attached circled in red.

 

[Mike Pennington]

I did all of that.
Thanks,
Mike

 

[Dnmeistr-LECS]

Did that fix the issue or are you still having slop, meaning that you can push/pull on the motor after pressing Datum, the motor/gearbox/spur gear assembly should be rock solid have no back and forth play. If those two set screws inside the gear box are tight and the two set screws on the spur gear are tight and there is still play then it is either the motor or the gear box has gone bad.

Sometimes you may see that one of the y motors has holding power but the other does not, this would be fixed by reloading configuration and pressing Factory Reset, closing the VMD software then reopening it.

 

[Mike Pennington]

Still having issues. Will try reloading configuration this morning.
Thanks,
Mike

 

[Mike Pennington]

Did the configuration reload and factory reset. Still have paly in the y axis . both sides.

 

[Dnmeistr-LECS]

Only recourse is to check where the play is coming from, after you press Datum, pull the motor gear box assembly. Disconnect motor from gear box and you should not be able to move the motor shaft by hand. Other than the two set screws that constrict the aluminum sleeve around motor shaft there is no gear box adjustments to be made. Two gear boxes are not going to fail at the same time, see pic of how the aluminum sleeve should be indexed to the gear box sleeve, they should form a cross and not be in alignment.

 

[Mike Pennington]

Thanks. I found and fixed it. I only tried to tighten the spur gear set screws while the motors were mounted. when I removed the motors, I found the set screws felt tight. I lossened them and re tightened them. That fixed the problem. I will take them off again and drill a small divet in the motor shaft for the set screws to seat in. Problem solved.
Thank you for your replies. This is why I have a TM machine and recommend them to others.
Mike