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Z axis issue on a Fadal

Jeremy63

Plastic
Joined
Nov 12, 2016
So today, I had to stop a program in the middle of it. It was a proven program, I just had the workpiece come loose. I hit slide hold, then manual to exit the program. I then hit jog, and began to jog the Z axis up. It got around half way up before there was a loud clunk and it stopped. It was the sound it makes when it hits a limit. I can't remember the error that came up. It would not let me do anything at all. I had to kill the power to the machine. I waited, the powered it back on. It was stuck on the Fadal screen when I powered it back up. I restarted it again, then jogged it to the cold start position and did a cold start. I typed TC,1 to put the tool away to put the tool away. The toolchanger(carousel style) slammed into the spindle as the Z axis was .99 or so down. Any ideas what could be going on and how to fix it? Thanks!
 
Update:

Today, I powered on the machine and everything seemes to be fine. I followed the tool changer crash procedure and it is working as it should.

Yesterday, the reason I had to stop mid program is because it was cutting very heavy on the y- side and not cutting at all on the y+ side. I stopped it, and this is when I had the Z issue. Today, I checked my fixture offset that I was using on the part yesterday, and the Y was off .07 from where I had set it originally. Nothing had moved on the table. I looked at the marker that you line up to set your home position on the Y, and it was off nearly .13. So, I jogged that to where it lined up and set that as the home position. I checked my fixture offset agian, and it was off .06 the other way(Not too sure if the mark has been lined up bofore this point, so it may have been off .06 this whole time). It did it yesterday in between part changes. I ran one part, with a proven program. I put a new part in, and pressed cycle start. Somewhere in there, things moved.

Now, when I cold start, it says that the Y is off .13. It doesn't matter where I set the SETH, it always says it is off .13(and it actually is, by looking at the marker). I press start, and it moves to zero.

I don't have any idea what is going on. Things are just weird with the home position. Anybody have any ideas about this?
 
The reason I think things are "weird" is because you are playing with SET* commands..

Set commands are used ONCE!! EVER!! The day you get the machine, and then never ever again.
SETTO & SETP are fine, and SETA or SETB don't really matter since they rotate

You're moving your home position around, the place that all your offsets are set from.

Set the HOME position at the CS position or with the table close to you and with the Z at
the tool change position, and then NEVER EVER type SETanything EVER again.

Then use your fixture offsets and height offsets like you're supposed to, I'd imagine that
quite a few of your problems will then disappear.
 
Ok, did not know that. This was the first time I had ever used them. The owner's manual can be so misleading...

Anyway, I'll change that back. I'm still not sure why the issue on the Z and Y happened yesterday. Everything has been perfect today(knock on aluminum).
 
Ok, did not know that. This was the first time I had ever used them. The owner's manual can be so misleading...

Its actually how I was taught at first also.. There were some *oops*. And inconsistencies, and
why is this over there, and now its over here.. etc..

The Fadal control is a thing of simplicity.. The one thing I don't like about it is that it can make
changing and/or doing some things far too easy.. I personally believe the SET commands should be
under lock and key, and harder to use than they are.. At least a warning..

"Doing this will change the location of ALL your offsets, and can
potentially cause scrap parts and crashes.... are you really
sure you want to do this?"

or hide it behind a wall like the diagnostics.. "This section for trained personnel only"..
 
Yeah really. It is stupid simple, which is something I like. I had it making chips the first day I got it. First time ever touching a fadal control. But like you say, it is VERY easy to screw something up.
 
The reason I think things are "weird" is because you are playing with SET* commands..

Set commands are used ONCE!! EVER!! The day you get the machine, and then never ever again.
SETTO & SETP are fine, and SETA or SETB don't really matter since they rotate

You're moving your home position around, the place that all your offsets are set from.

Set the HOME position at the CS position or with the table close to you and with the Z at
the tool change position, and then NEVER EVER type SETanything EVER again.

Then use your fixture offsets and height offsets like you're supposed to, I'd imagine that
quite a few of your problems will then disappear.

I call this a myth. So your assuming that someone can set the A axis at Y zero at cold start? Perfectly to a few tenths? well the closest we can get our A axis centered is -.1870 off center so we have no other way then to setY or our parts will never be centered. A axis despite resolver set to level never ever goes back to the same place even with cold starts so that has to be changed. I agree leave Z alone for differing reasons but the other Axis have no bearing on tool changes or Z axis behavior. If you have a job that requires a change that's why the option is there. So it shouldn't matter if you change home position. I've even changed Z and it had no affect on tool changes despite its a very uncommon practice. He may have had a corrupted memory file or the mark is off enough that his encoder is between marks. Several things could cause his issue.
 
I call this a myth. So your assuming that someone can set the A axis at Y zero at cold start? Perfectly to a few tenths? well the closest we can get our A axis centered is -.1870 off center so we have no other way then to setY or our parts will never be centered.

My 4th axis never sits on Y zero either. BUT!!!! there is this highly secretive thing that no other machine on the planet has /S. Its called a FIXTURE OFFSET.

A axis despite resolver set to level never ever goes back to the same place even with cold starts so that has to be changed.

The A axis can pick up a cold start pulse at quite a few different rotational points. You just need to be consistent as to where you shut it down, then don't use SETA, use your FIXTURE OFFSETS, and it will return to the same spot everytime you power back up.

So it shouldn't matter if you change home position.

I keep 5-6 offsets at all times. The back left corner of my vises without jaws is E21 22 23.
I can just toss on some soft jaws and program and run my parts without having to pick up any offsets.

E41 42 43 is the same place, but with hard jaws. Saves a TON of time. The center of my 4th when
its up there is E10.

If I use a SETY or a SETX command.. I DO NOT KNOW where those are anymore.

My post spits out G0E0X0Y9.5 If I mess with SETY, I could now run into a hard stop.


Fixture offsets exist for a reason. If you are moving around your home position to make parts
then I really don't know what to tell you.
 
Bump....

Nothing. No opinions on actually using fixture offsets VS. changing the machine home position
that all of your offsets are based off of to run parts??

I'm disappointed. Makes me want to have the argument of always using cutter comp, or only
using it when you need it... again..
 








 
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