Fairly new to CNC… I had issues homing my Xcarve and read in one of the forums that to do a “reset” so I typed a code (I don’t remember it) into “Machine Inspector” and also tightened ribbons in the Xcontroller. The homing issue was fixed but after trying my first carve I get these strange symbols instead of stars. It’s supposed to be a flag inside of the NY state outline. Has this ever happened to anyone? Or can someone please share a solution? Thanks!!
It’s hard to tell if you don’t let the toolpath finish a star. What strange symbols? If anything, it looks like something might be loose. I’d let the toolpath run on a test piece to see if the end of the toolpath cleans up those corners.
It looks like you may have selected the current Year model X-Carve when you actually have an older version.
You may want to setup a new Machine Setup in Easel.
To do this go to Machine>Edit Machine and delete the current profile and then go to Machine>Setup New Machine and when you select the machine, you’d need to select the “Pre-2020 X-Carve” option.
Also note that the Engraving Workpiece you have setup with the flag does not align to the other workpiece with the cutout.
If you want to make custom shaped flags, this shows a relatively simple method to do that. 🎙️ Create Custom Flag Signs AND Custom Surname Signs in Easel - YouTube
Thank you for your feedback. I didn’t let it run its course bc I noticed it wasn’t carving stars. I made another attempt after making sure belts and wheels were good but got same results.
Thank you Seth. I followed your instructions but same results. The second attempt was even worse. It seems to do the stripes but the stars are an odd shape and I think it even went off-path.
Just to be clear…you are carving the area around the stars. In your project, your stars are not carved into the stock.
How are you setting your Z-zero?
I agree with [NeilFerreri1] you are carving around the stars not carving the star itself out.
So I flipped the wood over and let the project complete . Seems to be carving a little higher than where the project should be. I am probing to set Z zero. I apologize if it looks horrible. Really trying to figure this out.
I was stopping it short thinking I wasn’t getting stars and bc it was off-path. This time I let it complete and got the stars but carving went too high and off board.
It looks like you’re making progress. BUT maybe you are trying to use the Center as the origin aka Zero,Zero… this is the proper method for doing that.
Thank you, Seth. The video taught me how to properly Zero at Center. I still have A lot of catching up to do on the rest of your YouTube videos!
After Four days of agonizing over what was really wrong with the project going off-path and stars messed up, I thought to myself, why not just reset everything to its original settings? So I looked throughout the Forum and bumped into an article that taught me how to “re-flash” GRBL to the X controller. Needless to say, I was happy that it worked! Here is the link to the post just in case anyone ever needs it!
How do I re-flash Grbl to my X-Controller/Arduino?
Thank you, Seth and Neil, for the help and also for triggering my mind!
And by the way, I also ordered the Xcarve upgrade last night!
This is how the project looked after I did the re-flash.
Are you using a detail pass as well as a roughing pass? It might be just cutting out enough of the design and the rest will finish in detail. That would be my guess
