[Solved] Going off path like crazy

I’ve been up and running for five days and I have made some projects with success. Yesterday I ran Carmichaels guitar neck (from the project page in Easel). Everything went well but suddenly I heard something went wrong - I rushed to the machine and saw it had gone off path. Today I started over with the neck again and everything went as expected for two hours - then it went all crazy and took totally wrong paths. I would say it’s related to the Y-axis steppers but I have checked all connections - and double checked (and I will do a triple check).

i had a similar problem. the vwheels weren’t tight enough and slipping was occurring.

check your belts and v wheels

one thing to highlight. After I did this modification, i haven’t had any slipping wheels

Can loose V-wheels really inflict that much? Belts are really tight.

Just watching this thread because I was carving something and the X axis appears to slip about 1/8th an inch after running fine for 2 hours. Lost the piece, but I can save most of the wood for another project.

That could be the problem. I have been testing it on smaller pieces and moved the steppers back and forth for some hours - nothing wrong. Have also checked cables and connections. A newbie question: how do I calibrate? Link?

Depth per pass was 0.7 mm.

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make sure you do not over tighten the belts either.
There is a thread where someone used a fish scale to adjust them.
Also if you ever get any obstruction and the rail stops moving hit that panic button right away.
I am still working on getting one and I regret it as the motors ate my belt and it broke. :frowning: not very good. have fresh new belts on hand so your not out. :wink:

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Continuing the discussion from Going off path like crazy:

I haven’t got the X-controller. I will try to calibrate it.

@StephenCook: in what way can to high tension? Can a obstruction eat them? Are they available from Inventables?

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I had accidentally left my suckit in the path and it caused the y axis to halt but the motors kept on spinning. Made a loud grinding noise.
It ate the belts just enough that I didn’t notice until they broke.
having really tight tension will make them too stretched and break more easily.

Also make sure your tension is the same on both sides of the Y axis.

I have calibrated the stepper motors and it works fine. Thank guys!