Hello all, I hope someone can help, maybe someone has had a similar experience. But, I am new to Carbide Motion/Shapeokos but I’m not that new to programming. I programmed and ran CNC mills at a few different places I’ve worked.
I programmed a part using Mastercam, and sent that GCode over to Carbide Motion. I set my Z zero at the bottom of the wood I was cutting. The 1st op was successful but the 2nd op was not. The 2nd op started out by facing the wood. I’m using a 1/4" Endmill and it was cutting at .050" depths and feeding at 50ipm. The first few passes, it cut nicely and ran good. Then it dropped around .200 instead of .050 on the depth, and then dropped down .050 on the next depth. It then did a contour around the part, and it showed that it was above zero. I don’t remember exactly how far above but probably .250". But it was actually cutting below zero. I stopped the program. checked belt tensions, checked screws, checked my tool was not loose, checked the zero on the end mill and that was dead nuts. I rechecked the program coming out of Mastercam and that didn’t show anything below zero on the Z axis.
I’m not sure why it did that. Wondering if the shapeoko cant handle the .050" depth cut going 50ipm. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
I used the same tool for both ops. The ops were different programs and required me to flip the wood and change the XYZ locations. So I loaded the program, set the tool using a piece of paper to get the location and then ran it. I don’t have a BitSetter. The first few cuts looked good.
Super late reply but I figured out the issue. The way this shapeoko xxl has the belts, wheels, and everything out in the open, I was getting little chips of wood caught in the z axis belt and it was slipping because of that. It then lost its z position unless I homed it again. Now I’m trying to figure out a way to permanently keep debris off the raceways, wheels, and belts.