Wire Alignment Fixture woes

I'm wondering if anyone else has the same frustration as I am having: it has becoming increasingly difficult to get (and keep) the wire square on our 20 year old Mitsubishi SX20 machine. Due to thermal issues I imagine, it is a daily ritual to set up the alignment fixture each morning and re-align the wire. The amount of correction I see each day varies from 50 millionths to sometimes 3 tenths in the U and V axis.

If it was as simple as that I could live with it, but with the old machine and it's soft table it is hard to get the alignment fixture to sit flat...it's literally faster for me to do a 2" tall test cut than to fuss with trying to clamp the fixture flat on the table to within a tenth.

I'm wondering if this kind of fussing is: (1) typical, or is it (2) just me complaining or, (3) a sign that the machine is getting tired.

I'm also wondering about lapping the table on both our FX and SX to at least make getting the fixture to be flat with less fuss.

I'd appreciate your thoughts...

Ward

Lapping the table?
Are they beat up with dings and gouges?

Thermal issues?
Are the machines in a temperature controlled environment?
If not...and you see wild temperature fluctuations from morning to afternoon, you are fighting a losing battle.
Those casting can move quite a bit (.001"-.003").

Not sure about the SX, but the FX is known to wear quickly if not keeping up on the greasing.
I believe those machines had that floating endless screw.
I have heard many many stories of relasering and replacement from improperly maintained machines...
Not cheap...
Another, more common issue with those machines is dirty seal plates.
this can also effect your alignment.
Are you getting servo errors?

Jay Crumb
Advanced EDM, LLC