So this is not a normal post asking for advice but this problem has now been solved and I thought it would be helpful for some other unsuspecting laser users. If you had an important job that needed doing this would really cause you a lot of stress.
Laser is a 600 X 900 80 watt unit.
So was cutting a file the other day and at about 70% of the job completed the X axis started moving in an unstable manner and with an increased noise . Completely random movements and sounding like it was going to shake the laser apart.
I stopped the program and reset the program and tried to re-cut with no success. Unfortunately I had very little stable control of the head . Y movements where unaffected but I could not control X properly . Even when using manual mode I would press for example the right arrow and the head would set off to the left , press it again and it may go to the right or even to the left again. If I held the button to run it into the end stop it would just get to the end of travel and the bounce back in the opposite direction .
Tried resetting the Axis both X&Y and just X , although Y would set I could only get the first stage of X to set and then the fine adjustment final set would just hunt back and forth ( almost like when you have an end stop sensor failure) with vigor but not really moving so not tripping the proximity sensor for the final set. This would go on until it timed out and failed to set.
Initial web searching showed issues with the X Axis end stop due to work hardening of the copper wires during operation. Unfortunately for myself this was not my issue and the sensor branded Omron was fine. I then set to check the drives , swapping them around but again this was fine . In a last ditch attempt before doing a complete reset I checked the resistance across the stepper coils. Thankfully this highlighted my issue either the motor was done for or I had a damaged cable. Thankfully the latter was the issue with a broken wire due to work hardening and a poor method of lengthening of the stepper wires. Effectively the wire failed at the soldered joint.
To resolve I replaced the soldered joint with 6.5mm jack’s and mitigated any stress forming at the soldered joint on the jack.
Hope this is helpful as 12 hours ago I was pulling my hair out big style.
