Odd Z stepper behavior

[cliffwarner]

I am having a problem with my Z stepper motor, which is the current 24V design. What is happening is that on faster motion near the top of the travel the motor slips. For example when I start a print, the motor successfully reaches the home position, lowers the z height for the wipe procedure, moves to the right side of the build plate extrudes, and then when it goes to raise the Z height to perform the wipe, it fails to raise. The motor turns, but I hear a odd noise and the bed does not raise. If I manually control it it moves just fine. So I am scratching my head as to what could be happening. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Cliff

[jsc]

The usual startup gcode does the Z moves at a fairly rapid travel rate, faster than the jog controls. If it's skipping steps at fast Z rates, you may want to try lubricating your Z axis, as lack of lubrication has been known to cause skipped steps. When's the last time you lubricated your M2?

[cwarner]

I had done that last month, but it was run almost non stop in that time. I will clearly need to increase the frequency of lubricating the system. After lubricating the Z lead screw, everything is working as usual.

Thanks for the tip!
-Cliff