A long while ago, I built a miniature DVD Drive based cnc laser burner from an instructable, but not satisfied with being able to work on things up to 38MM square in only X and Y, I started to build myself a more serious 3 axis CNC table.
I now have one with a cutting area of 900X600X150MM, and a problem.
My Y and Z axis work just great, but my X axis isnt quite right and I just cant figure out why, though I have a few ideas.
This... mess.. is a quick sketch that I had it draw. Its supposed to be a smooth spiral, but as you can see where it comes to the edge of travel in the X axis, it simply gives up and draws a straight line. It also gets quite jagged on the left side of the image with very clear steps in the line as it approaches this point.
The machine itself is run by an arduino Uno, connected via bigeasy drivers to a trio of NEMA17s set on 1/16th step, powered by a 300watt PC PSU.
The framework is 12MM 7-ply wood with 12mm steel guide rods with probbably more block style linear bearings than it needs.. basicly its overbuilt. I'm wondering if the NEMA17 doesnt have enough torque to move it all when its being told to step so slowly. I've tried setting X into 1/8th, 1/4, 1/2 and 1 step modes but this has made little to no difference that I can see. Definatly hasn't solved the problem.
So I'm wondering, has anyone else had an issue like this?
Do you guys think that my gantry may simply be just too heavy for a single NEMA17 stepper, and that I should try to reduce its weight?
Any suggestions would be great
