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I’m new to CNC, my wife was gifted a Fox Alien Masuter Pro and I’m trying Easel Pro because frankly I need something easy to use until I learn what I’m doing. That said, I have the machine set up, it moves X/Y/Z and homes as expected. If I create a project that has very shallow cut settings everything is fine, but if the project requires multiple passes each subsequent pass appears to shift on the Y axis and recut the first layer again.
I’ve set up multiple projects and the same things happens on all of them. Any idea what could be causing this?
Looks like your Y axis is loosing steps… there’s a handful of possible causes… Carving into a Knot won’t help either as Knots are more dense than the surrounding Pine wood…
And to borrow some information from a recent response from Brandon:
I would check the following:
1. Ensure your feeds & speeds are appropriate for your machine & cutter & material. 2. Ensure there are no loose V-Wheels or other components. 3. Ensure that there are no loose connections on each stepper motor and connector at the controller. 4. If you have a router as a spindle, the lower the speed setting the better for most things.
Your Masuter Pro (I have one of those also BTW) should use the following cut settings as a default semi “Go-To” safe settings…
Feedrate: 500mm/min (20ipm)
Plungerate: 100mm/min (4ipm)
Depth Per Pass: 1mm (0.04")
And the stock spindle RPM max is 10,000, so setting any higher is simply wishful dreams as it will not exceed 10K… you can leave at 18K if you want, but it’ll never go that fast…
So with these more conservative settings and ensuring the Belt Tension is taught wigthout being too tight, the carve should be okay to re-run.
Ohh one more thing, MAKE sure the Z Probe thickness is entered correctly into Easel>> Go To Machine>Edit Machine and at the lower left is the button to get into the Z Probe settings to see what the Probe thickness is set to, measure yours with calipers and enter the True thickness there if it’s incorrect.
One more thing, to get the best, most accurate, and quickest guidance on FoxAlien CNC’s go to FaceBook and Join their FaceBook Group>>> Redirecting...
Thanks for the tips. I updated my Feed and plunge rates to match yours. (depth per pass was already .04) I wasn’t sure what RPM to use for the spindle. It’s a Braun router and it says it has a max speed of 20K but I only have it set to 5 out of 6 on the dial. I can dial it back but I don’t believe the software/firmware are really controlling the speed anyway. Seems like the only thing it controls is whether it and the vacuum are on/off.
Belts and wheels all seem tight but the connector to the Y1 motor was a little loose so I got it all tightened back up. I have to head up to work but I’m going to give it another try on my lunch break.
*Edit - I think the loose connection on the Y1 stepper may have been the issue. I was able to successfully cut a design that took many passes and it never shifted. Now it’s time to start figuring out the optimal speed for pine as I plan to use that until I get comfortable with the machine. I feel like I could probably get more out of the machine.
In that case you would go to Machine>Edit Machine and simply select one of the Routers from the list in there. What this does is Removes the RPM data entry block altogether since Easel doesn’t care about that data set since you will set the Router manually via the Adjustment Knob.
