Passed the hello world test with flying colors. But tried my hand at a wasteboard tonight. Should have known something was up in the first pocket the endmill made a endmill size shape on the outside of the pocket before it rounded it out.
After that everything seemed alright until the through hole. All of them until the last several rows were off to the right.
Also none of the through holes actually went through
Again this is all new just looking to try and get this right.
It would seem to me that the X/Y alignment issues could be due to loose X/Y belts, since the shift is not constant but seems to vary depending on the X/Y positions of the pocket/hole => double-check this first maybe ? i.e. that both belts are “guitar-string tight”.
About the Z problem / holes not going through,
again you could check the Z belt tension first ?
does it go through for some holes and not others ? if so, it could be that the machine squaring is not perfect, and/or that the MDF stock is not as flat as you think, and/or that the MDF thickness is not quite what you think it is (i.e. did you measure it with a caliper, and adjusted hole depth in the CAD design, presumably Carbide Create?)
Yep using carbide create. Talked to the creator know Instagram and he said that leveling file that I got with this would open the holes when the other side of the board was leveled.
I need to check the tension on all of the belts I guess. Read last night that they need to more lose that tight but not so lose they slip. Correct?
Also I think I’m over thinking this but on the left Y carriage if pulled by hand slowly has a “catch or vibration and few inches” Im guessing it’s the essentric nuts. I was so tired of messing with it I just went to bed I’ll check them today.
Edit: I don’t get this noise or catch when in normal operation
As Clifford said, no worries about the small bump you feel when moving the rails by hand, this is the stepper motors coming alive, back-powered by the movement. By the way, only move the gantry (very) slowly when unpowered.
About your issue: on the X and Y belts, make sure they are “as tight as a guitar string would be” (which I realise may not mean much to anyone who never tuned a guitar )
Myself, I initially erred on the side of too much caution and did not tighten it quite enough. Things started getting much better when I tightened them some more, up to the point where I can hardly slip one finger under the belts.
I would say do not worry about the Z axis until after your X/Y alignment problem is fixed.
Tighened everything up and deleted most of the file for a test pass on a 12x3 piece of scrap and it came out alot better. A little issue with the file I noticed at the top the holes were a little off. I went back through today and evened everything out. Will try again tomorrow.
Glad to be of some help. One other thing that I accidentally found is that when moving the rail by hand it is possible to get out of square. After you’ve finished sorting out the belt tension, it would not be a bad thing to check the gantry squareness vs the side rails. Will try to edit this post in a little bit with the link to that post.
For your enjoyment
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