Help with accuracy and tolerances (My machine is lucky to stay within an 1/8")

[ruun96]

I can't cut holes or radii for anything and 3d contour paths just suck. No matter how many times I tighten belts, have techs come out or just slow down. I've had my camaster for a few years now and it's never been good. I work for a badging company and luckily I'm using it for making internal molds/jigs where accuracy and repeatability is less important, because I would never send a part off this machine to a customer. I hope somebody can look at these photos and knows what's up with this machine.

Panther 408, Polyurethane tooling board, max feedrate 65ipm or it's completely unusable. The holes should be round BTW

[Ken Rychlik]

Looks like something is loose. A belt, gear set screw, bearing, ect... Look for slack in the machine would be my suggestion. With it powered up push and pull everywhere a motor is holding looking for movement.

[carasel]

Are your parts held securely?

[ruun96]

Everything is tight, but The gantry moves a lot on the ATC Side. The set screws come loose all the time, it's weekly maintenance now, and the belts are nice and snug. I guess I'm not sure how to check the bearings. Rack and pinion tooth wear is good also.

[Luke Bennett]

Hey Ruun96, Looks like your gearboxes need to be rebuilt. Contact support@camaster and they will tell you how to ship them to us.

[ruun96]

Luke Bennett, I think this might be correct. Can anyone also tell me (a) how often should the belts be replaced? and (b) when I touch the belts with the machine on but not moving, I can feel some kind of intermittent feedback/vibration through the belt. Is that normal?

[ruun96]

Are your parts held securely?

We have a monstrous regen vac, I'm not sure on the HP but we repurposed it from an industrial filling machine. I'm sure the workholding is good

[ruun96]

Hey Ruun96, Looks like your gearboxes need to be rebuilt. Contact support@camaster and they will tell you how to ship them to us.

After a second look, I don't think this machine has gearboxes. They look like servo motors???

[TimPa]

maybe limit this to one active thread... less confusion.

you likely have servo's. i believe they are referring to (gear box) a removable assemby including the servo motor, gears, belt etc. think i have also seen them labeled as transmissions.

you panther is the same vintage as mine. it gets fairly regular use, but i believe it is holding decent tolerances. so i am watching this one intently.

you are in good hands with the tech team for sure.

"Everything is tight, but The gantry moves a lot on the ATC Side" definitely a place to look then...

[ruun96]

maybe limit this to one active thread... less confusion.

you likely have servo's. i believe they are referring to (gear box) a removable assemby including the servo motor, gears, belt etc. think i have also seen them labeled as transmissions.

you panther is the same vintage as mine. it gets fairly regular use, but i believe it is holding decent tolerances. so i am watching this one intently.

you are in good hands with the tech team for sure.

"Everything is tight, but The gantry moves a lot on the ATC Side" definitely a place to look then...

Yeah, I was worried nobody would see it in the Panther forum, but didn't want to delete the thread once someone responded. Our machine runs anywhere between 25-60 hours a week or more and I'm starting to think it just isn't robust enough with all of the aluminum.

[Ken Rychlik]

Everything is tight but the gantry moves on atc side? That means it's NOT tight and that is where your problem is likely located.

[ruun96]

So we've removed both of the Y Axis "transmission" assemblies and shipped them to Camaster to be rebuilt. I'll update this thread whenever we get them back and re-installed.

[james mcgrew]

can you described how this machine is maintained ? thanks