So for some reason my discovering that I have a leveling problem. The bed of the new man is theoretically perpendicular to the spindle but when I try to make 30mm long cuts in my part I’m 0.25mm lower on one side. I’ve already faced both sides of my stock and the MDF it’s on. Clamps exsert side ways pressure perpendicular to the error and it’s consistent when I move the cut closer or farther away from the clamps.
I’m stumped on this one. The bead slops about 2° but the spindle and MDF do to so I’m thinking it’s my workbench which shouldn’t effect the relationship between spindle and work.
Could it be the machine getting pulled into the cut? Have you tried leaving a roughing clearance of 0.25mm (or a bit more) and then taking a finishing pass for the bottom?
You say the bed is “theoretically” perpendicular. Best to run a dial indicator over your work to test this. If you lack a dial indicator you can jog and sample regions with feeler gauges.
If you find the work is not perpendicular, check the spoilboard in the same manner. If that is out-of-true, you should tram.
I tend to put my stock in ‘portrait’ mode because clamping is easier and safer since you can avoid the spindle. As such, after dozens of cuts, I can report a similar finding.
No matter what the stock the cuts made towards the front of the nomad are slightly shallower than those at the far end of the stock… I’d put it at 0.02 of a mm though (noticeable when engraving brass for example).
Hmmm that does seem like alot. There are lots of options for what could be going wrong but I would go with @bpedits suggestion first and attempt measure what is going on first. You would think everything is flat and square but you can be surprised. Clamping can do some funny things to stock as stresses are released as well. Part of why I tend to do more tape and CA glue method is I have found even 1 inch thick HDPE blocks deform measurably under mild side clamping force and even more as you cut into them.
+1 for measuring but I’d go further. If you think it’s the bed that’s the problem, run a dial indicator over the bare bed, ideally with the indicator on the spindle or at least the Z-axis carriage.
Did you face the stock with the Nomad?
If you faced it with the Nomad and the Nomad isn’t square, then the face the Nomad faced won’t be square either. You should be able to measure the discrepancy with calipers or a micrometer.
If you faced it with something other than the Nomad, it’s possible (and my guess is more likely) that the thing you faced it with is the problem.
Yep faced it with the nomad. Also so ran a dial indicator over the bed of the machine and getting slightly less than 2 mm discrepancy. It seems to be pretty consistent and towards the front left corner so I just put a piece of shim stock under there and called it good. This is probably the limits of what the machine can reasonably achieve anyway.