[pete from TN]

I almost was where you are right now the other day. I was reassembling my Lathemaster machine and was trying to get the ballnut thru the motor mount and had the gib in there loose to get it lined up right and not realizing what I was doing managed to get the screw thru and put the nut on it and proceeded to spin it with the cordless drill. The Y traveled maybe an inch and locked up pretty tight. Since the adjusting screw was not in there I managed to tap it out with a brass drift and hammer and it was fine. Perhaps you can temporarily remove the stepper mount and the way covers and try something similar. I would be careful with the crowbar as it is really easy to break something important that way. Can you remove either of the adjusting screws? Which way do you think the axes must travel to loosen the gib? I would make sure that tormach can provide you with another gib strip and adjustment screw if necessary and then if you manage to destroy either in getting it out you will be fine. The gib certainly can tighten things up with surprisingly little travel and I would think that the same amount of travel the other way against a fixed object would get it loose for you. How much travel is left until you hit the stop? I will try to think of something with you but maybe you can get it done this way. It is difficult to tell from the pics what is what....Good luck man...peace