I’m stuck - X-Carve - titled deformed letter engraving

Good morning all, I’ve hit a wall and have failed to identify what’s causing the issue below. I’ll add context and specs, any help with this will be greatly appreciated.

To sum it up my lines aren’t clean and at the worst case sometimes deformed. The letter H in the picture attached shows it best. The top half is off center. I’m using the following setup:

  • Xcarve with a Xcontroller

  • Nema 269oz with 9mm belt upgrade

  • 1/4” 60 vbit with 1/2” D.

  • Plaque is hickory (a tough choice I had to make, great grain but tough to carve, I reduced the depth pass to .1”) the problem is replicated with cherry.

  • feed rate 60 in/m

  • CAD/CAM Aspire. Preview comes out very clean.

  • I do not have a dial indicator, however the Dewalt 611 has minimal slop. I bought it used and has always been like this. If you press up on the collet and side to side there is very very minimal movement in those directions.

  • the carriage is very stiff with the stepper motor/belt upgrade. However the mount has very minimal movement if you apply some pressure to the bit while stationary. This is better measured with a dial. But unfortunately unable to do that at this time.

  • I’m using UGS with the Xcontroller with a Z- Probe to set zero.

Tracks are clean, the belts and gantry are calibrated properly.

Standing by for any additional information that might be needed to trouble shoot.

I apologize for being unable to upload the actual files due to the nature of the plaque.

Eccentric nuts properly adjusted?

Were you happy with the carve before painting?

I wanted to start by saying thank you for the quick response and I apologize for my delayed response.

Over the last two weeks I slowly rebuilt the Z axis with linear guides and basically copied the Z upgrade kit from scratch. It was a learning process but I finally have a Z axis with zero play.

I haven’t pushed any cuts through it yet but I just wanted to give a quick update.

And to answer your question, Seth, I checked all wheels all nuts and nothing is out of calibration.

I’m the process of rebuilding the axis I discovered that the ball screw is slightly bent which caused a side to side movement when going up and down. Now with two linear blocks on each side it forces the screw to stay centered.

I’ll send an update once I push a cut through.

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I’m sorry for the delayed response, Mr. Bachman. The carving comes out with tilted and deformed letters but for the most part it comes out ok. I personally love the painted look, it makes everything pop.