Ok, yesterday I stole some time to sneak into the garage and check the Y and X axis. As for the Y I had the gib set a bit too tight on this axis too. I measured the backlash at .0025 (using a cheap DTI so take that with a grain of salt ... I do
). I plugged this in and got 0 backlash so I moved on to the Z.
I already know I need to take the Z apart and tighten the gib screws ... it's actually part of the CNCFusion directions. But I decided to measure the backlash anyway. .0025" too. So as a test, plugged it into Mach3 and remeasured it at 0.
My method for measuring may not be correct and I plan to do more testing but here is what I've used thus far:
On the X, using my mag base I use a 1" travel dial indicator. Using MDI I moved the table in the - direction until the indicator read 0 (just to make the math easier). Then I reset the DRO in Mach to 0 and used MDI to command g1x0.070 (maybe I should have used 0.1). I'd return to 0, and repeated this at least twice. Whatever the discrepancy was I plugged into Mach 3's backlash field. For the Y I used my DTI (which says .0005"). This also means I was restricted to smaller movements. I use the dial indicator on Z too.
My next tests will involve commanding the axis to travel further from the start point. All in all I'm happy with the current results. I'll chuck up a pen and draw some circles.
Anyone have any comments on my methodologies or suggestions? Oh, and I also need to tram this thing. Not sure how I'll do that yet with the parts I own ... need to do some research to see what I can fashion that will work with my DTI and the dovetails it has.
Jay