New Machine, Random Stalls on One Axis

[Thomas Utley]

All,

My first machine is running, but suffering from random stalls on the X-axis. Can't seem to isolate them to high speed or low speed, but when it happens it's a very firm full stop in that direction. While running, there seems to be plenty of torque gaging only by how hard it is for me to force a stall by pushing against the gantry while it's moving--surprisingly hard in fact. So I don't think anything's physically binding nor do I necessarily think my motors are undersized for the mass being driven.

Any advice on where to start looking first? I've found several links discussing resonance and adding rotational dampeners that would seem at first glance to add a lot of inertia to a system that would only wish to be lighter. How does this work to one's advantage? Are they referring to mechanical resonance or to electrical resonance (like a tank circuit) instead?

Thanks,

Tom

[Thomas Utley]

All,

After searching further, I found the excellent (and very long I might add) thread on rattler style dampeners. The before and after videos are worth a thousand words, and I'm pretty sure this is my problem. I'm off to build a set of them now.

--T