I was vcarving some letters and saw them jumping all over the place. I found some dust under the right belt and noticed some strange noise when the cutter passed this section. I cleaned it out, and everything seems to be working fine. However, I notice there is a large scratch there and I’m really upset about it.
Has anyone seen this before? Should I get this fixed or are there some tests to do with this?
Picture attached.
Tim
That looks like the imprint of threads from a machine screw.
Did you have a loose bolt that got trapped under the carriage?
Aside from the scar, that shouldn’t hurt the machine although you might want to take a little wet & dry to it to make sure it isn’t sharp.
Hey – what is wet and dry? I guess the belt doesn’t touch that, but the wheels might. I love my machine so much, I hate when I mess stuff up.
“Wet or Dry” is a trademark brand of 3M Wet or Dry sandpaper that can be used either with or without water (invented in 1921).
Errrr, not a good idea…the aluminum is clear anodized and sanding them will make that area a different color (uncoated Al vs Anodized)…and will REALLY stand out.
I have a few of these on my machine…no idea how they got there and as long as then are NOT on the V-Wheel track…just look away…because as we engineers call this: Will Not affect Form Fit or Function (FFF).
Looks like an Ällen set screw" and a lot of pressure.
Maybe check the damaged area to see if there is a bulge in the material around the wound. If there is a bulge,that may be affecting the belt idler pulleys outer flange when they contact that raised area?
Hey – so I’m worried now. After working today, I noticed a big slip on my workpiece. I inspected the belt and saw that whatever was there definitely affected the belt.
However, the slip was around 4 inches big and this just doesn’t seem to explain it. I had to zoom in and use photoshop to get the contrast right just to see a difference in the belt.
Look at this slip – it is huge. Made a terrible sound as the #201 bit cut full length into the mdf. Only 3/4 inch thick but still, I feel totally non confident in the shapeoko staying to the actual cut and want to find out what is causing this.
That slip is most likely mechanical due to the difficulties of slotting — add geometry and cut as a pocket to the deepest depth which is appropriate for your toolpath setup:
@Bonhoeffer The belt won’t slip (unless your belt is way too loose). When the stepper encounters too much force, it will skip steps. Basically, it tries to turn the shaft and can’t. The machine is dumb and has no way to know that steps were lost, so it continues on its way.
Those ridges on your belt…is that a coincidence they’re near the thread marks on the rail? Where did those come from?
Looking at the size of the thread marks crushed into your rail - looks like a set screw. Have you checked the set screws on the pulleys?
This could cause errant cuts as well if you are missing a screw and pulley is slipping.
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