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Out of context: Reply #71862
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- Nairn5
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I've had a problem with my laser machine which I recently realised might be what's causing another problem, so instead of doing any actual work today, I've had the studio in chaos as I moved everything around and then took the machine apart to try and rectify the root fuckery.
Main problem was - one corner of the 'table' was at least 15mm off height from the rest. This *should* be impossible as the mechanism that moves the table up and down does so from one motor and uses a linking/timing belt to move all corners at the same rate. Somehow, this had slipped on one of them.
Secondary problem was - because there was so much tension on one of the bearings, the motor was refusing to smoothly move the table up and down - instead, it would pulse, hit resistance and stop. Stupid me would then hit hit hit hit hit hit etc the button to move the table. Presumably this also made the problem worse, I now realise.
Solution is to decouple the timing belt and then twist one bearing so that it matches the height of the other three. Trouble is, I couldn't work out how to do this without jimmying the timing belt, which is something I figured would be Bad. It's very taut and has no split-off point.
So instead I try and remove the troublesome corner's coupling to the bearing and having read a similar machine's workaround, I go this route. One thing in that workaround was "Don't fully remove the screws", so obviously I fully removed the screws.
I realise that the thing I've just fucked can't in any way help, so I've simply made my situation a lot worse.
I then think 'fuck it' and go dig out some teflon sheet I had, wrap it around one of the timing belt cogs and twist the thing off. That frees up the bearing I need to twist, and like a violin, it's fixed!
Yaay!
I then spent an hour and a half swearing at myself, trying to get the incredibly fiddly, grease-covered bearing attachment bolts bolts back into place. Two of them, each less than an inch long - an hour and a half of my fucking life, getting those sodding things back into place.
So.In future. If in doubt, just hack the fucking thing.
- i know this is dull as hell, but whatever - the space I was doing this is 38cm wide. The thing I fucked had one third twist of access on each allen key twist.Nairn
- It's not been a fun few hours.Nairn
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