A few questions after a month of owning an XCarve

Hey guy’s I’ve fell in love with this machine, and the machine has actually given me the opportunity to make some half decent money in my spare time. It has also kept the wife happy, as My new hobby makes me money instead of spending it all. She has even joined in and helped with vacuuming and keeping track of orders! With a baby on the way very soon, I am trying to finish up all my projects and free up some time to learn some more tricks. Anyways back on topic, After a month of owning the xcarve I have a few questions maybe someone can help me with.

  1. What does “Use Last XY Zero” really mean? I’m under the impression that it uses the last XY Zero that I set. However every now and then it goes way off track and Im stuck smashing the estop before it ruins the whole project. So what does “Use Last XY Zero” go by? I have allot of projects that require me to switch the bits to a bigger/smaller one to finish.

  2. What is the best way to do a double sided piece. I do allot of LED signs, and for the bases I’ve been doing a 2 piece design, I’d like to try to do a 1 piece design, with the slit at the top for the glass and then the froove for the led at the bottom. So I would have to flip the base over. what is the best way to keep an accurate xy zero?

  3. I’ve found that I really only have one bit that is able to cut through the wood and mdf. Most of the wood I use is labeled as 1inch but is really 3/4" the only bit I have that has the capacity to cut 3/4" deep is my .234" bit (big) So It cuts a whole ton of wood out for no reason. Do you guys have a preferred bit when cutting deep cuts? All the bits I bought from dr!llman seem to be really small and not much of a cutting depth.

  4. The other problem I have is the only affordable acrylic that I can buy in town is only .095" (2.4mm) thick. I don’t think I have a bit that can cut 3/4" deep that can make a slot that small. Any idea on a bit or some other way of doing it?

This is the kit I bought.

  1. This is more on the two stage carving. I hear allot about g28 and g30. I’ve been trying to do research into this, allong with making a bump stop. They say combining those two makes two stage carving a breeze. However I’m not sure if this is just over my head or what, but all I find is the word g28. How do I set it, is that something I can do in easel? Or do I need UGCS to do it? I’ve never used UGCS or UGS whatever its called. It it something I should get and play around with?
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This is a good read on G28… Learning About G28

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I don’t have an answer for you but I am always interested in CNC projects. Do you have any photos of the signs you make?

Search hellawell Customs build thread

I believe the USB connection will keep the Arduino active despite the power turned off to the P/S.

“Or use last home position” will use the last saved/set home position (from previous carve). This is good for redoing a cut job if aborted by user (not by machine skip or crash) or repeating a job on similar material positioned accurately (with blocks/jig).

If a machine crashes all bets are off as the controller will not know where the head is positioned. Same can be said for skipping steps but that can be fixed.

From the Inventables page

The drawback is, the control is generally open loop, so the system does not know if the motor stalls or gets out of sync with the controller.

I haven’t done and double sided carves yet, but I have seen one that used a pair of horizontal (or vertical) marks with pins (dowels into the waste board.

Create a job with your registration holes that you cut into the waste board. Next job is your first side with the same holes. Insert dowels into waste board, flip work, and carve second side with third job.

When you carve the second side, use the option “last home position”.