does your z axis motor heat up a lot? mine does incredibly while the x and y remain tepid
unfortunately i did not build the machine, got it 2nd hand… i’m kind of reverse engineering and discovering along the way the build problems it has
the case study was a boiling hot z axis motor after milling at very low heights and speeds a snowflake attached in the picture
other problems are some funny end tool paths…+ holding tabs that were milled before and not towards the final dips (the part in red in the attached picture was a “above origin” end setting result in estlcam… tomorrow will try “above last position” fingers crossed…ahah! think software issues, running the earliest mpcnc version,old machine still going decent although the flex)
any suggestions on what the problem could be or if its normal would be of great help! Mark
The Z axis motor should not be getting super hot and should not need to be driven that hard. I would turn down the vref on your control board so that it runs cooler.
The z stepper could be warm to the touch, but you should be able to touch it and even hold it - sounds like yours is too hot. If you are using a RAMPS board, then you will have to manually adjust the Vref (Pololu has a tutorial, just be careful not to short anything together while your doing this). If it is a miniRAMBO or RAMBO, then the adjustment is in the firmware. Some pictures of your setup especially the control board and gantry could help here.
Have you checked the tension on the z axis lead screw. The z axis should easily move up and down when you turn the lead screw by hand. When I first completed my build the lead screw was rubbing on the bottom channel and I could barely move the z-axis when turning the lead screw. I would think this would cause the motors to overheat.
