I have an issue with surface finish !

[dvmike]

Evidence 1-
I have had a small issue with my surface finish for some time . Most of my work has been in HDU , but now I'm doing some wood and Extira. The issue seems to be magnified a lot. It looks like the areas around text and objects is a higher level than the rest of the surface .

Evidence 2-
I have also had an issue with the Y axis on occasion. The Bot will be running along fine and then it jumps really hard and makes a Hellacious noise ! The Y axis doesn't seem to lose it's position at all. At least I know it hasn't jumped a gear tooth or anything like that.
The Y axis motor also always seems to be much warmer than the X axis Motors.

I don't think the issues are related , but since I don't know what the problem is ......I obviously don't know what it isn't .

This is causing me to spend a lot of time on sand and primer to get the surface prepped for paint. And even bigger , I don't want the machine to bite the dust in the middle of this rushed time.

[michael_schwartz]

On the hardware side

I would check that your Y axis bearings are not too tight. Make sure the machine is throughly grounded to a common/system ground as well to rule out static. Give everything a good shake when powered up and look for any play.

Check your machine for level too, as well as the bolts for the cross beams for the table. I had one come un bolted on my machine which was causing problems with the Z in a spot since the table was deflecting. If your spoil board has not been surfaced recently I would flatten it out as well too.

On the software side make sure you have the correct unit values for your machine, and for 3D you might need to optimize ramping values. Run the USB connection diagnostic utility in the shopbot folder and check the efeicency of your USB connection.