So once again I re-squared and trammed my shapeoko and messed with my deeds and speeds, but my stars aren’t coming out as uniform as I’d like. Any advice would be useful.
I’m thinking one the of the belts is loose?. I’ve had the Z axis come loose also, as it’s only a cam holding the Z guide tight. I had to loc-tite my Z. Bummer man…that looks awseome.
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I have thr HDZ so not a belt issue on the z axis but maybe loose on the x and y?
Check your full travel if its tracking. I had a slightly tight v-wheel causing the Y axsis to travel slightly diagonally.
You can check the v-wheel by rotating the v-wheel w/eccentric nut by hand while restraining movement of the gantry. Feel for equal friction or wheel slippage.
Compare each v-wheel for same amount of friction or wheel slippage.
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What surprises me is that most stars are reasonably sharp, but then there is that single one that is missing a part, that does not make sense to me (I would expect the interrupted cut to be round-ish, and there is the rest of the Vcarve job that shows some Z inconsistencies at each corner.
Was this all run as a single job ?
For sure check the machine mechanically (eccentrics etc), but I would be surprised if you can get “good” stars like this is there is any significant slop on X/Y. Maybe try reducing depth per pass ? Or use the old trick to rerun the same Vcave job a 2nd time immediately after the 1st one (no re-homing, no turning off the machine), see if that helps.
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It looks like all of the inconsistencies run with the grain. Maybe try the same toolpath, or a sampling of the same toolpath, in MDF. So you can take wood grain out of the equation.
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If the machine is mechanically sound, and the cut doesn’t match the preview, leaving a roughing clearance and taking a finishing pass usually works well to address minor issues such as this.
Then definitely check ALL your eccentrics (+guitar-string-tight belt tensioning on X and Y) first. Hunt for any slop, a possible test is to power on the machine (so steppers will lock in place), then grab the router collet and try to push it left/right/up/down/front/right: there should be very little play in any direction.
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I’ve also seen wiggles in isolated lines on test wood parts. It was always impossible to duplicate and didn’t show up on the good wood final part. MDF is good to use to isolate a problem like this.
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Ok thanks for all the help I re-tittend all the belts and there was 1 loose vwheel. All in all running WAY smoother there is just a small about of wayvness that I think comes from to high if feeds and speeds.
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