Wednesday, 7 June 2017

Backlash fixed?

I finally had time to get on to the Z axis again. At least now I think I know how to fix it for good. 

Sure enough, when disassembled but with the yoke held in place, it's possible to make out a tiny (0.1 - 0.2mm?) amount of axial sliding movement between the yoke and the quill. I thought I had a selection of brass shim stock somewhere that could be used to fill the gap and held in place with adhesive. In fact I suspect I do - but it's not where I expected to find it. However, Loctite 638 claims to be good for gaps up to 0.25mm, so with luck it will do the business.

Anyway, it's in now. Bolts torqued back up to 25Nm, clock ticking. I will test it out in a couple of days when it has had plenty of time to cure (it's anaerobic). I was a bit disconcerted to see that the initial blob of Loctite had wicked away - ideally into the yoke / quill joint rather than between the quill and its bore. The yoke-quill interface was clean and dry, unlike the quill-bore which is well oiled, so with luck, any wicking will have been confined to the approved area.

No comments:

Post a Comment

TIG welder up and running - after some fault diagnostics and repair

Finally got some time to connect up the flow meter and argon hose. Plugged in the torch and ground cables and the torch hose etc. Powered it...