The “What it looks like after cutting” view in V-Carve: I did zoom in a bit to the area I am interested in, which are the legs and the bottom edge of the neck area.
I used a R1.0mm x 3.8deg x 6mm shaft tapered ball mill for the final carving. Here is the issue; I just used this machine to carve this tiny keychain just a couple of days ago using an 0.0118" bit with 0.006" DOC and a full depth of 0.0120":
The machine makes it look like half of the leg is cut down. There is a “shelf” for a lack of a better word on the trailing edge of the raised portion of the 3D carving. The finishing path I used for this specific carve was a concentric style path. It started in the middle and started making super small ovals and worked its way outward. I stopped it at about 60% completion because it is not usable.
The g-code looks fine. I mean, I used an external g-code visualizer to look at it, and it looks good. If there were slop or play in the Z-axis, I would have seen it when cutting the 0.006" DOC on the keychain the other day. Same for the X and Y. I have no idea what is going on. All of the moves are G1 moves, so it’s not like the controller is getting hung up on the circular interpolation.
Anyone have an idea? I am going to try again, and just go back to the raster path (back and forth, in case anyone didn’t know) if no one has any ideas.
Hows the preview in prusa slicer for how it would 3d print. Maybe its just not a good model. You could also possibly try rotating it some and checking the vcarve preview again.
The stock is held down with 7 clamps and is firmly in place.
If it was losing steps, I would think that each pass it would be getting higher or lower, and there would be a spiral shift up or down as the step losses compounded. The direction of the spiral is such that the extra “shelf” is on the downward direction of the spindle.
The only thing I could check is if there is indeed a loose set screw on the Z-axis. I’ll check them all when I get home tonight, but if there was a loose screw, it would be on the Z I believe.
It’s hard to tell from the pic, I was thinking of a single “bump” along X (is the crow leg mostly “vertical” ?) at some point that would induce a constant shift for the rest of the cut, but indeed that would not explain the Z step…let us know, this is intriguing
Well, nothing exciting to report. I checked the HDZ coupling set screws, but they were tight.
I turned on the machine to get the steppers to lock up, and pushed and pulled every axis. Nothing moved, shifted, clunked or jumped.
I decided to move on from that design and work on another one. I was running the raven at 45IPM feed and 15IPM plunge, 24K RPM and the only thing I could think of is that the feed was too fast. I am cutting a turtle at 30IPM feed and 15IPM plunge, 24K RPM and maybe that was the issue? It appears to be cutting as it should be.
It’s possible. It is an AlTiN coated carbide bit that has cut about 16 hours or so on MDF only. I’ll have to compare it to an unused bit and see if I can tell if it is still sharp.
