I have the 1000 cm x-carve, for the most part i havent had many issues, other than depth issues. The depth is very inconsistent. When i set the depth for 2mm i usually get 3mm and the depth is typically a mm deeper on the right side than on the left side of the work area. I have checked and everything is level and when i do test cuts by making multiple shapes all over the work area they seem to come out fine, but when I do a large design the depths keep getting skewed.
Level doesn’t matter too much. With power off, lower the bit a hair above the material and slide the gantry by hand to see if it maintains the same height.
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Level is relative, if your spindle/gantry isn’t level to the wasteboard then you’re going to have cuts of various depths. My wasteboard had a .030" dip in the middle, so some shallow carves would leave the middle untouched.
@rpegg’s suggestion is good, and it’s an easy and quick way to see how relatively level it all is. You may want to consider purchasing a large wasteboard cutting bit and leveling it using the spindle. I attached a piece of 1/2" MDF to the top of my wasteboard and used a 3/4" bit to make a nice flat pocket. In case you want to see what I did, I made a video of the process and put it in this forum: X-Carve Maintenance/Troubleshooting Videos - Add Your Own!
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My X-Carve has the right side about 0.6mm lower than the left. I did as @RobertA_Rieke suggested and just ran a surfacing bit over an additional, sacrificial waste board. As long as the Z-axis is perpendicular to the XY plane, it will be OK.
I’ve just ordered a new mount for my Makita so I’m guessing I’ll need to do this again.
So I did as suggested and found that the left side is about 1mm higher. Aside from carving a top layer does anyone have any solutions?
If you don’t want to carve into the wasteboard, you can always put a sacrificial board beneath your work and level it first. I wouldn’t suggest shimming projects to level them out, since any area that’s not flat against the wasteboard will cause a lot of problems (chatter, bouncing, grabbing, etc.).
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Did you find a solution I’ve got the same problem
Hi Dennis, have you surfaced the wasteboard And/OR the workpiece?
You’d really need to surface both the wasteboard (which is now explained in the maintenance and calibration section of the assembly guide) AND surface the workpiece if possible. . . a close 2nd is surfacing the wasteboard and planing the workpiece. … However sometimes that isn’t an option and I use this shimming trick to get the top of the workpiece parallel to the spindle …
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