Group Project: Dividing Head - The Build

Arggggggg.........
The stepper motor for the extruder is not working.

Still not sure exactly where the issue is.

Apart everything tests good, put it together and no drive.........

DID I EVER MENTION I HATE INTERMITTENT PROBLEMS....
 
After 2 hours of dinking around, I am pretty sure I have it figured out, it is a bad stepper motor. I played musical parts from the drivers to the cables to the steppers and every time it was the one motor that did not work. At least it is not an expensive motor being a NEMA 17. New one is on order.
I am going to disassemble this one to see just what makes it tick, If I can fix it I will have a spare for next time.
 
After 2 hours of drinking I don't think I could figure anything out.
Edit: Ohh. Dinking. My bad
 
Well the 3D printer has more issues than I thought. somehow the bad stepper also took out that channel of the Controller board. There is another unused channel on the board to I am in the process of trying to move the dead channel over to the unused one. IF I can get that to work then I am good to go otherwise I will have to get a new controller board. And of course if it must be replaced it will just have to be a better one with more features. momoney Like ability to have multiple extruders and independent dual Z drive and control of a small spindle and/or laser head and/or????........momoney
 
I am milling slots on the spindles today! I was a lazy bones last time I had an opportunity.
 
KA BOOM.

Dassalt Systems, the makers of SolidWorks just pulled the plug on me and a LOT of others.
I was using the free Student version that was a benefit of EAA. Solid works just changed from a free stand alone to a very stripped down cloud based with all functionality removed. All ability to save a file to anywhere but your user account has been removed. This means no draw the part and then 3D print it or send files to your CNC software. AND for this wonderful new system it is now an additional $50 per year and all of your work will be held ransom by Solidworks since there is no way to save a file anywhere but their servers. I am now trying to figure out how to rescue all of the file for this dividing head project along with MANY other projects I have done.

Wish me luck, I think that the best I will be able to do is to convert to IGES or STeP or SAT and have dumb parts to work with in whatever new software I end up learning how to use.

 
KA BOOM.

Dassalt Systems, the makers of SolidWorks just pulled the plug on me and a LOT of others.
I was using the free Student version that was a benefit of EAA. Solid works just changed from a free stand alone to a very stripped down cloud based with all functionality removed. All ability to save a file to anywhere but your user account has been removed. This means no draw the part and then 3D print it or send files to your CNC software. AND for this wonderful new system it is now an additional $50 per year and all of your work will be held ransom by Solidworks since there is no way to save a file anywhere but their servers. I am now trying to figure out how to rescue all of the file for this dividing head project along with MANY other projects I have done.

Wish me luck, I think that the best I will be able to do is to convert to IGES or STeP or SAT and have dumb parts to work with in whatever new software I end up learning how to use.


I have all of the dividing head drawing files saved on my PC, and my brother-in-law has a SolidWorks license. He is a wizard with SolidWorks. Let me know what I can do to help.

These files can also be found attached to Post #394 in this thread:

 
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I have all of the Solidworks files on my server. That is not the issue. I can no longer use solidworks to open the files due to their new policies. I will try taking some to work to see if the version of Inventor we have can open them and save to a usable format. It is not just the dividing head, I have many other projects I need to figure out how to save as well.
 
I have all of the Solidworks files on my server. That is not the issue. I can no longer use solidworks to open the files due to their new policies. I will try taking some to work to see if the version of Inventor we have can open them and save to a usable format. It is not just the dividing head, I have many other projects I need to figure out how to save as well.

I see. That is a bummer, indeed!

I have yet to mill the 6 remaining slots on the 12L14 spindles because I’ve been working such long hours, but I do have 2 weeks off in March.
 
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