Trying to understand what could be causing the machine to completely lose its “initialization” positioning midway through the job.
This is the second time where I’m about 75% of the way through a project, and the machine forgets where it is - it’s not occurring after a tool/file change, but in the middle of running a cut.
In the photo below, I did an initial detail cut of the letting and fish/deer, and then switched to a 1/4” downcut to cut out the remainder of the pocketing, which it did properly for about 15 minutes and then, as you can see, forgot where it was and cut a line straight through the second “o” in “Vanderpool”. Right before this I noticed it was starting to cut a little too deep when outlining the lettering and fish/deer, and then cut a little too close and messed up the left side of the fish and deer, then finally went completely rogue and I shut it down.
What could be causing this? I’m pretty confident it’s not a file issue as I’ve run enough jobs/projects to know whether it was a design flaw.
Sometimes the vacuum hose gets wrapped awkwardly around the router when I’m doing larger projects, but if it pulls too tight the hose just pulls out. Could the vacuum creating resistance cause the machine to lose its coordinates (by the looks of it, it went off about 6” on the X axis)
Looks like it was cutting full depth of carve along the top edge just before it turned down thru the ‘O’ - so the program was at the corner but the spindle was not. Most obvious conclusion is it was losing steps as it was cutting along the top edge, which also looks like it was nearly the full width of the 1/4" bit. You either need to slow down the feed rate or change the DOC so it makes 2-4 passes before reaching full depth of carve, or make a smaller step over.
When you did the bit change did you clean out the collet before inserting the second bit? This could cause a problem with the bit getting lose and dropping.
However I think there is another problem related to the wiring and connectors. I would check the connectors for all the motors make sure the pins are all pushed in and not burned on any of the tips of the male and female pins.
After you do this you could run the same job and set it up and once you have your Zero set and ready to go remove the bit and start the job with the router OFF. You can then do a wiggle test on the wiring and connectors and listen for any change in the sound of the motors while you wiggle the connectors. Any change in sound could indicate a bad wire or connector issue.
