First time posting here and brand new to all this. I am running my first project by my own design and having problems with accuracy while cutting full depth contours. I’m making these plant stands at 1/2" width, but keep getting some angled cuts and inconsistent cuts from one side to the other. One side reads 3/8" and the other 1/2". It appears that the upper part of the stand doesn’t line up with the bottom.
It also appears that in some spots the cuts are at an angle. I re-secured the spoil board, checked all the v-wheels and checked belt tension, but it could be one of those.
While I may not have your solution, which piece on the file is the one that is cut different?
Looking at your toolpaths I see you have two different speeds selected. The one on the right side (stand 1) is cut at 90IPM and the one at the left (Stand 2) is cut at 75IPM. It could be the higher speeds on the right side is too much load and is pushing the piece slightly instead of cutting clean.
You also have only 2 tabs per piece. I would try adding 2 more tabs each piece for 4 total so the piece is more secure piece. Were the tabs at all broken when the job was finished? A broken tab will allow the piece to move and thus can cause uneven cuts or angles at ends.
Thanks for the feedback. I played around with the settings a little bit based on some things I read on the wiki page, but I guess I didn’t change both pieces.
As for the tabs, now that I look at it the arms that don’t have tabs are the ones that are thinner, but it starts cutting them thinner from the beginning, before anything gets moveable from further down. Maybe I should just try with 4 tabs just for fun and see what happens. There aren’t any broken tabs, just for the record.
A couple of considerations here beyond the feeds and speeds and tabs:
cutting a slot as narrow as the endmill results in near constant 100% tooling engagement — best practice is to add geometry and cut as a pocket down to tab depth at least: Adding geometry to cut as a pocket with a finishing pass
leaving a roughing clearance and taking a finishing pass will help with final dimensions
Will what exactly does the term “Add Geometry” mean. I did a google search but was not finding any definition that I could understand. I have seen this term “Add Geometry” several times and dont understand what it means. Thanks
Go back to the design tab and add geometry to the design by offsetting the geometry (path/object) which will be used for the perimeter or otherwise recreating it:
Thought I would update this with what I figured out was my problem in this situation. I went through a series of configuration steps that led me to think through and read more into what might be the problem. I checked for square, level, belt tension, then configured the x/y values, all of which yielded the same results. I levels the spoil board, checked for necessary tram, both of with yielded similar results. I changed the file to create geometry outside of my contour.
Over all the tests I ran I found that eventually the screws that hold the router mount to the tramming plate had become loose. I also found that one of the Y motor pulleys was loose about a half a turn. After tightening both of those everything is within .2mm, which is good for my standards. Thanks @WillAdams for keying me in to looking further into how everything works, tuning, etc. Now more learning, more testing and more projects!
