x axis shaking?

[slammedxonair]

The last time I was cutting I noticed the x axis is starting to have some shaking to it. The y and z slide smooth but I be the shaking is not helping my cut quality at all. I have a single motor x axis with a drop down front rail. Anybody have any ideas to what could be causing this?

[LeonD]

On single drive machines (with drive shaft) look for anything loose. The bearings and supports for the shaft, the spur gears on the ends, the pulleys, etc. Push/pull on the gantry or hand rotate the shaft against the motors and see if anything moves. Follow that back on its mounts till you find a part not moving. Tighten. Check the shoulder bolts on the shaft bearings as well as the L bracket mounts. Also make sure the belt is very tight.

Clean out the smaller gear rack well and make sure the gears are meshing all the way but not too tight. Over tensioning will aggrivate the problem. We have found that nylon gears reduce mesh issues by being somewhat self lubricating and also they seem to last better than expected. McMaster # 57655K56 works well but need a keyway and setscrew added.

This usually fixes shake problems on single drive systems.