Cutting ovals instead of circles

I have dusted off my x-carve after a year in storage. Got it set up and my first project keeps failing.

I am trying to drill a grid of holes. Holes are .3 in wide .5 in deep in .75 pine with recommended setting. When I do a test cut the holes are shaped like an oval bottom left to top right.

I checked the steps per mm and they come out perfect on my calipers in both x and y. I noticed after one cut that the single x motor was hot and the rest were cool. I adjusted the potentiometers down and brought them up while the machine was moving until they smoothed out. Did both x and y.

I also made sure the piece was clamped down and did not move during the cut. What else can I do to troubleshoot? Any help would be appreciated. Sure I missed something simple.

i had this issue once, my pulley setscrews were loose, loctite them, if you didn’t already :slight_smile:

I also had this problem slightly after overtightening the Eccentric nuts on the X axis

I tried what you guys suggested and nothing worked. Then I changed the cutting settings and cut the depth of cut in half. Now I have decent circles. Using the recommended cut seemed to be the issue. Thanks for the help guys