MH 721-MK2 Cutting Issue Resolution (or ribbon cables are the bane of my existance)

[Athena's Gifts and Garden 13]

Posted in this sub forum as I don't see an MH sub forum

 

Interesting and frustrating problem with my new (about 2 weeks old) MH 721. I have been happily cutting away (as we would say in the metalworking hobby "making chips"). Tonight my MH started having an issue with not cutting to depth on the right hand side of the tool (carriage home side). After playing with pressure settings and blade depth it stopped dropping the carriage all together. Kind of frustrating. After exhausting the limited troubleshooting info in the manual I went to Google.....still didn't find an answer for my particular issue......time to break out the screwdrivers. 

 

I started opening panels one at a time. At removing the right hand side panel I sighted down the access hole in the X axis channel and spotted a loose ribbon cable (ah ha! found the problem).

Pic of cable pulled to the access hole

 

Now,,,,how to fix this.....

 

I pulled the left-hand cover and fished the ribbon cable to that.....no dice....my fat fingers wouldn't be able to access the cable and plug.

 

Pulled the 4 screws on the top panel (that the control pad is mounted to) and fed some slack in the ribbon cables feeding the control panel to move it out of the way and......success!

I was able to access the carriage PC board and get the cable seated and locked.

I gave a few good tugs on the cable and it seems to be locked into the PC board well. I can only surmise that the plug retainer wasn't properly seated from the factory. 

If anyone else runs into this issue I hope this can help shorten your downtime. 

 

[Dakotagrafx 7,298]

1 hour ago, Athena's Gifts and Garden said:

Posted in this sub forum as I don't see an MH sub forum

 

The MH cutter is made by refine so this is in the right sub section

good post by the way

[Athena's Gifts and Garden 13]

Thanks! I didn't know they were made by refine

[Dakotagrafx 7,298]

I totally understand the confusion with the headers on the forum  - it could be more descriptive.  I have also thought that the older cutters no longer sold could be in a separate subsection to reduce clutter and help with the new users finding help