Y-Axis movement trouble

[Tarkahn 2]

Hello everyone!

While working on creating a gimbal for a working mad eye moody eye for halloween I had some trouble with my UM2. I was able to print the first part of the gimbal mechanism but when I tried printing the second it appeared as if the Y-Axis was not moving smoothly over the bar.  Several attempts later and it got worse and worse to the point where it seemed to lose track of the print head.  I lubricated the bar and experimented and it apears that the X-axis is fine but y-axis struggles to move.  I'm not sure if it's a motor issue or not.  It has trouble getting to home position and can only move an inch or two when the print starts up - it's supposed to begin the extrusion at lower left of x/y position but it hardly moves but then begins the print at the wrong part of the build plate - far too close to the back wall of the printer.  It then gets worse and worse until it's finally trying to print right at the back wall.

Can anyone give advice for what is wrong with Y-axis and how to fix?

Edited September 25, 2015 by Guest

[Tarkahn 2]

Hello? Anyone?

[ultiarjan 1,223]

What do you hear when you move the head by hand (printer off). Can you feel or hear where the trouble is? Can you make a video of what's happening? Did you check the belt and pullys?

[tommyph1208 55]

What printer do you have?

If you can actually feel a resistance at some point on the Y-axis, it should be fairly easy to determine what is causing that... did you damage your y-axis rod somehow, or maybe the bearing in the printhead housing?

Its sounds very doubtful that it should be due to a bad motor, but if you want to test that you can try to loosen the pulleys connected to the axis and try to move the head around... Does it move smoothly or is there still resistance?

[Tarkahn 2]

I am using an ultimaker 2.  I have tried to move the Y-axis manually and do not feel any obvious resistance or obstruction.  I have never serviced the machine in any significant way, so no taking things apart which may have potentially caused a problem.  I had a perfect print, and then on the next print the print began to skew towards the back of the machine along the Y-axis and then finally after a couple more tries the machine begins the print job at the far back of the machine on the Y-axis.

I'll try and figure out how to post a video

Edited October 2, 2015 by Guest

[LePaul 354]

Let's see if @SanderVg can chime in with some advice too

Video of what is going on will help. If you upload it to YouTube, pasting the link in will play in the post.

[Tarkahn 2]

Here is some video showing the print fail and another one showing my ability to move the y-axis manually.

youtube video showing the print fail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaMOht6i-Vw

youtube video showing manual movement of y-axis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoOTnk1ratQ

[Tarkahn 2]

I'm pleased to report the problem is simply a loose set screw on the y-axis pulley. yep that's basically it. I've got the side panel off and I've tightened it but now I need to readjust it because the pulley is not aligned just right. Just thought y'all should know I think we got it. Thanks for your input and efforts....I really appreciate it!

[SandervG 1,521]

Dunno if you'll believe me, but I was gonna suggest a loose set screw

It makes sense how it started moving less and less, and you didn't hear or feel any resistance!

You got the entire panel off? Need help getting everything set up again?