Question Play in all axes :( Frustrated new Stepcrafter!

Hi all,

First things first- I ordered my Stepcraft 840 and various accessories (HF500 spindle, vinyl cutter, Donek drag knife) from Rory at SoneyCNC - and the level of pre- and post-sales support has been absolutely superb. Rory went above and beyond expectations to correct various issues with the machine (I'll post separately about these) and saw me through to a working setup.

I've been happily cutting 2mm Plastazote foam for packaging, using the Donek drag knife, with excellent results, but it was only today that I spun up the HF500 spindle to test cutting wood.

I cut some softwood for about half an hour - a little v-carving at 1mm depth, and some milling with a 2mm endmill, 2mm pass depth and tested at 800 / 1800 mm/min. I was impressed with the results, and the machine did not seem strained at any point - in fact, the wood cut like butter...

...but I've just checked the 840 over. There is play in all three axes, that was definitely not there before

I assumed it was the brass rollers worked in under load, and would need resetting to tension against the rails. But no - there's no torisonal play whatsoever. The play is directly along the spindles.

I checked the motor mounts and bearings, and then the spindles themselves, and there is no play - they're rock solid.

The play must be in the brass spindle nuts. And there seems to be a lot of it - I don't have a good way to measure it, but it's at least 0.1mm all round and more on the z. I can see, feel and hear it when I move the assemblies by hand - up til today the machine has been rock solid.

Is this really normal for these machines and something I have to live with, or have I / am I doing something wrong?

Thanks in advance for any help or pointers.

Cheers,
David

Yes, Unfortunately same here.. I have just sent an email to Stepcraft and hope they will came back to me soon. I am also little discouraged as I was hoping that this machine will serve me longer without going into changing parts.. I only have it since 6-7 mounts.. Is the Stepcraft 2 has two of those lead screws, so might be last longer?

Thanks for any reply. Best regards.

hi.
for my problems, i never got an answer.
i wrote them 4 times including tecnical draws with the problems and never got an answer

Posting a video of the issue can help a lot.

hi.this is the second time i got an answer after the one for the help.
the only answer that i got after i wrote that i have already bought another machine.
after i spent more than 2000 euros i aspect to get answers.
with the gmail there is no spam.
intersting is that when i was going to buy the machine , i got an answer the day after.
when i reclamed about the problems, no answer ...

i cheked:
05/05/2015 stepcraft answer: the price of the atc is near 500 euros
06/05/2015 stepcraft answer : so please take an order
10/06/2015 stepcraft anser : machine parameters----i think that when you sell a machine ,the parameters should be included and not that i have to find them somewhere...
26/06/2015 stepcraft . no answer---machine problems
09/07/2015 stepcraft . no answer