My Shapeoko 3 XXL won’t carve straight on the x axis. Have done many test cuts and every one slightly angles the letters upwards toward the end. I tightend up the x axis rollers behind the router and that didnt work. I have brought out the level and the rails seem to all be level etc. What could it be? Any help is appreciated
First thing I would do is verify that your machine is square. If your machine isn’t square, the things you make wont be either. Here is a good video:
Second, before you power on the machine, pull the gantry all the way forward to the stops.
Try those things and see if it helps.
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will do…I will try those things
From your picture, looks like the top picture is straighter than the bottom picture. So it’s not consistent. Maybe your not placing your job correctly.
Put an 1/8 bit in the router. Move the carriage all the way to the back of the machine. Then move it about an inch toward the front of the machine. Turn on the router and Lower the bit until it is just slightly below the top of the spoil board. Then manually jog the x axis all the way from the left to the right. This will give you line across the spoil board. Try your job again and use this line as a reference point to make sure your job is positioned correctly.
You could also measure from this line to the front edge of the spoil board on the left and right to see if the distance is the same. This would tell you if the y axis is out of wack. If the distances are the same then theres nothing wrong with your machine and its your job placement thats causing the issue. Also as someone else mentioned jog the gantry all the way to the front of the machine and make sure its hitting both stops at the same time. Then jog all the way to the rear and check that its hitting both stops there.
Before you initialize your machine its always best to move the gantry all the way to the front of the machine and make sure its against the stops on both sides.
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I use L brackets to get my projects square to the router. When I place the L bracket I jog the bit down below the surface of the L bracket. Then I jog the router over and see if the L bracket is square. I slightly tighten the screws holding down the L bracket and if you are not square move the bracket and jog the router again to verify you are touching on both ends of your L bracket. I just made a new longer L bracket. This helps with getting long skinny pieces square. I use cam clamps and the clamping can skew the board.
I have an SO3 with a 2" spacing spoilboard and 1/4-20 tee nuts. If you have a hybrid table you can simply space your holes to line up with the hybrid t-tracks. I have found this longer L bracket to be very effective in lining up projects square to the router.
Here is my c2d file for the long brackets and some cam clamps. You can adopt my brackets for what ever spacing you want. I do not put all the bolts in just 2-3 along the long side and 1 on the short side. The cutout is for a v1 BitZero and the minimum thickness of the material is 1/2" because I did not want to make the corner too weak. You could make the L bracket wider and cut out the spot for the BitZero all the way down if you work with thin material. If you have a v2 BitZero you will have to measure and adapt for that version.
long_L_bracket.c2d (296 KB)
My cam clamps are 2 one direction and 2 the other direction. The reason for this I put the clamps on different sides of the project. Tightening the bolt with the cam moving in the direction of the tightening helps keep the cam clamp from loosening from the counter rotation of the tightening.
I pulled the Gantry to front and the back. In the back, the right side (if Im facing it from the back) has a small gap while the left side is totally flush. Maybe that is the issue. Once I figure out how to square the whole machine up where both sides are flush, hopefully that will fix it. fingers crossed
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That makes sense. That would account for your design not being level. Loosen all the front and back bolts that hold the side rails. Then push the carriage all the way to the back and hold it tight against the stops. Then tighten the back bolts. Then push the carriage all the way to the front and hold it tight against the stops. Then tighten the front bolts.
If you cant get it square then you may have to remove the filler strips, and loosen the screws holding the bars on the cross rails together and try it again. I think the video above should show you the whole process to square the machine.
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If it’s any help, I found a few hints and tricks to get my machine predicably square.
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While you’re at it… check your pulley set screws 
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And you are absolutely positive your material is placed perfectly straight??
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