Okay for real, i know ive heard people say that sometimes these things just happen. But cmon wtf
Luckily this is a scrap piece, so not a huge loss. But when i throw my maple or cherry in here for the real one. Im gonna lose my mind if this happens again.
The area in black is meant to be on the right. Some how it went perfect about half way and then lost its zero, because it shot so far to the left. Those holes are meant to be on the right, and then it started trying to cut the body in open space. So i stopped it, went back into design and removed the jobs it already did, resaved the g code with a different name, and restarted. Started going good again
Then just now mid body cut, decided to start the turn early, so im sitting here like wtf, twice in the same job?
Should i start learning a new gcode software, cuz if this is a regular occurance, its unacceptable
Something has caused your zero to be lost. Common causes are: excessive cutting force and the steppers lose steps: Exceeding your machine’s max or min and the ‘end stop’ again causes steps to be lost. If this is what is happening, it is the machine not the software.
Carbide Motion doesn’t have a ‘perimeter run’ option so you can make the machine travel around the full extents without doing any cutting, so you have to be inventive. I would try setting Z-zero 2" above the wood and running an ‘air cut’ and see if the machine bumps into its end-stops. If it’s not that, then I would take a close look at speeds and feeds in your software (Carbide Create?) - Will has pointed out some common causes too
A drill is four times better at cutting while plunging than an endmill — conversely, an endmill is many times better suited for cutting side-to-side than a drill.
I meant the perimeter/outline cut — rather than cut it as an outside Contour toolpath as deep as the stock, instead, add offset geometry around it (endmill diameter plus 10%):
My guess is you are pushing your machine way too hard and overpowering what the belts/stepper motors can support and therefore loosing position. What bit are you using and what is your depth per pass and feed rate?
When I first started cutting out our “fish” cutting boards, out of cherry and/or black walnut, I ended up with two or three “run-a-ways” cuts, I did not understand about the offset feature and thus did not use it. As a result, what seemed apparent for no reason the program/machine just took off into the middle of the boards cutting every which way…seemed like it lost it mind!
However, once I started using the offset feature, and over 240 boards later, this has never happened again.
Definitely a learning experience, but well worth the edu one gets on this forum!
Keep going. It really gets to be fun!
