After wondering why my LR4 Z axis wasn’t easy to move, and trying to diagnose why the Z depth wasn’t level across the whole surface, I noticed the culprit. The flex coupler has completely stretched out of shape.
Has anyone ever seen this before?
I’ll order two new replacements and swap both sides out.
HoLY WOW!!! Not in the time i have been here!!! Crapola!!! I cannot even imagine how that happened!
Well, it wasn’t loose grub screws.
You win the internet for today! LOL
that cracked me up
we deserve the whole story about how he managed to do that
Ive stretched a few couplers. Maybe not that much, but it’s definitely happened.
Trying to lower the machine when something is holding it up, like a piece under the beam on a lowrider can do this. The motor is “pulling” on the lead screw and the obstacle is preventing movement. The motor doesn’t skip, it just stretches the coupler.
I.stretched a coupler like that with the LR3 when my ear defenders were under the beam.
we all eat couplers for dinner, but that much?
This can also happen if you lift the machine by holding the lead screws and pulling/lifting up. I always lift by holding the gantry itself.
How?
How is this mechanically possible with the end stops installed? Did you rip those off too?
I wish I knew what caused this. The machine hasn’t been used very much at all, I was still in the process of getting it dialed in. It would be lucky to have more than 2 hours worth of combined cutting time.
I’ll just have to be more careful with it I guess, I didn’t ever consider that they could stretch (I thought they were solid pieces of metal to be honest, I didn’t ever closely inspect them).
We live and learn. Luckily a cheap fix.
