Cutting path swerved and went back to normal

[Jho (Joe)]

I am building Parson’s Cabinet per the plans he posted here a few years ago. I noticed on one of the passes the router was traveling straight up the y axis and it swerved out and back in on the x axis. It only did it once so i dont think it is anything to do with a bad belt tooth or anything.

Has anyone experienced this? As the cabinet is being built, it is sitting on a concrete floor and i understand this is not ideal.

Edit: i forgot to mention that i was playing with the speed override and took it to 140%

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Is the machine in good mechanical condition?

It might be a tooling engagement issue — where possible avoid slotting and add geometry and cut as a pocket

Making vacuum hose adapters

While cutting up vacuum extension wands for this is expedient, it’s a bit problematic given that Shop Vac recently filed for bankruptcy, was bought at the last minute, and production hasn’t caught up. I need a receptacle for the Sweepy 2.0 dust fitting — one option would be to purchase one from Woodcraft, but Carbide 3D sells blocks of HDPE: which looks to be just barely big enough for things to fit. Measuring the hose fitting I get a diameter of ~63.5mm — offsetting that twice we arrive at…

and/or

Adding geometry to cut as a pocket with a finishing pass

One technique which is often suggested to avoid slotting is to add geometry around a part which one wishes to cut out and cut as a pocket down to tab depth — here’s one technique for that. In this case, the project is a bevel gauge which will be cut out of 0.0625" (~1.5mm) thick aluminum: [bevelgauge] Due to the narrowness of the angles, an 0.03125" endmill has to be used, so after importing and scaling the file (we will be cutting out one which is 3") we select the perimeter and offset it tw…

and consider leaving a roughing clearance and taking a finishing pass.

Best Bit for full cut through

One which has a cutting flute length equal to or greater than the thickness of the stock — pretty much any tool should work. Big thing is the toolpaths — if cutting out, rather than just cutting a slot: [image] Offset to the outside by endmill diameter plus 10% or so: [image] [image] [image] Then cut as a pocket: [image] down to tab height or the penultimate pass: [image] then move the contour down to below the pocket and start cutting at the bottom of the pocket: [image] and…

[Jho (Joe)]

Im new to this and am really sure of what to look for. I do plan on tuning up the machine once the enclosure is built. Its not easy to do much at ground level.

I think i understand what you are saying. Are you thinking the bit being engaged on both sides caused it to grab and yank the whole thing sideways? I am familiar with that effect from trying to use a palm router.

[TonyMurray]

@Jho yes that is what @WillAdams is saying. In the CNC world we call it slotting where the bit is engaged on both sides to avoid this you could offset the boundary by the bit width and carve/pocket it down to close to the bottom of your work piece and then run your contour path. Sort of like with a palm router working the bit in to your line your routing. Hope this helps and makes sense. -Tony

[Redlander (Tim Jones)]

@Jho

You have to be careful with laminates. The sandwiched layers can contain knots etc and this could affect the router travel, more with a belt machine than a ball screw machine. The fact you were ramping up the feed while slotting is most likely the cause.