Hi, I'm hoping that someone can point me in the right direction to restore my Novamill back to full health. It was converted to Mach3 about ten years ago by a guy called Tom (Angel-Tech) who used to post on here. It has been great ever since being converted but when I went to use it this week, the t...

Steve wrote:Hi. You did post a reply but on the wrong thread. No problem.

LOL

Yes, just spotted that myself. Should I edit it or can you delete it?


I take it that I need a puller to remove the pulley on the ballscrew? And I seem to recall that the steel ring behind the pulley is just there as a flywheel.

i would check the angular contact bearings on the x axis before attempting any work on the ballscrew. Hi Tom, I'm sure that I posted yesterday to thank Steve for his information and to say that at those prices I really did hope that it was the bearings. But it seems to have been lost! I'm just in t...

Post deleted as posted in wrong thread.

Let's talk ball-screws! :D I have continued to use the machine, taking care to keep everything well oiled. The jib strips are as tight as they can be without stalling the drives. But I have a lot of backlash on the x-axis. The machine is converted to Mach3 and I have been experimenting with the back...

Martin wrote: ....................... but much longer the first time even allowing for dropping the cap inside & having to find it.

LOL

The little rascal found a new place to hide every time!

I thought that I would give an update. The Y-drive is still limping along and I have now changed the brushes on the spindle motor. It appeared that when I used the spindle at its max speed of 5,000rpm, the drives were picking up extra steps from somewhere. I found that by limiting the spindle speed ...

could be a sign of the ballscrew on it's way out. Oh dear! :( As you know I have been looking at getting a second machine but there are certain things stopping that from happening at the minute. What scale and class do you make parts for.? I make parts for 1/10th scale off road buggies at the minut...

I drowned it in oil earlier in the week but I shall investigate the jib strip as Martin suggests. Trouble is that the machine is kept very busy so maintenance is difficult to fit in. I retired in August 2013 and since then I have spent my time making go-faster goodies for radio control cars. Never b...

Ah, so the stepper motor is stalling but the system still counts the steps and thus it loses calibration?

Ta

My Novamill sits in a cold garage, as does the operator when he has to set it going. :( This winter I have discovered that if I boot up the machine, on a cold and frosty morning, and use fast traverse straight away then something makes a nasty noise and the Y-axis loses its calibration. I have taken...

Thanks Tom and Martin for your responses.

I have another question now but I shall start a new thread for that one.

@ Tom Yes, I always wait for the PC to finish loading Mach3 before powering up the machine. It's when I do the hoovering! When I removed the lamp from inside the cabinet I believe that the live terminal may not have been tight. It jolly well is now! I have placed a low power heater on the floor of t...

It behaves as though the E-Stop has been pressed. It is running Mach3 and when it trips I have to click the system reset button. If it was in the middle of a sequence I scroll back the programme to a suitable point in fresh air and do a "run from here". @ angel-tech I have speed control under normal...

I ran the machine today and established that it does not trip if the spindle drive is isolated. (Lucky shot) I began by running it normally, a couple of times, on a programme that should last just over an hour. On both occasions it tripped after about twenty to thirty minutes. I then removed the fus...

Thanks, will do some testing.

Cheers Tom.

What is the best way to "disable"?

BTW, I would also say that it is getting worse, if that makes any difference to the diagnosis.

Hello folks, I'm in trouble again. My Novamill is randomly tripping and requires to be reset. It happens under all conditions and does not need to be actually running a programme. It has been converted to Mach3 and whilst I'm still using it, it is becoming a pain. Any ideas? I have not been able to ...

Just to close out this thread, sorry for the delay, I did manage to reconnect the diode by making a flat bottomed counterbore from the back of the board to a depth where an intermediate layer of copper was visible. Then I soldered a pin in the hole and soldered the diode to it. This did nothing for ...

Denford Admin wrote:Sorry I don't know - we don't have access to any circuit diagrams for that board.
I can tell you that a working board here has 40ohms between that diode pin and the leftmost power input connector (the power input, orange connector below the fuse)

That's open circuit at the minute.