I need some help with a few things

I have an X carve 1000mmx1000mm.
I’ve bought it used and have done some very basic adjustments, but to be honest I’m not sure if I did more harm than good or if the adjustments were correct. The only thing I’ve done so far is adjust the v wheels, but I’m not sure I did that correctly, or which ones to adjust. I watched the inventables video on how to adjust the z axis so it is square to the wasteboard and I’m not sure how to do it on mine, because they have a different one in the instructional video.I know my z axis is off because it can see little lines on every pass the bit makes, unfortunately I don’t know how to fix it.

So I’m getting these grooves in my cuts as you can see in the bottom pictures. I’m doing a roughing pass with a 1/2" bit and a detail pass with an 1/8" bit. Where it cuts the 1/2" bit section it is higher up than the border that is cut with the 1/8 bit. what’s strange though is, if you look at the picture with the 9 carved out. it only extra ridges on the right side. I carved 4 of these all in all 4 corners of the total cutting area and they all had a similar flaw.
If you look at the texas shape it’s clearly not even close to the same depth, and I used the z probe when setting up both the roughing and detail carves. any help would be greatly appreciated :frowning:

here’s a video where you can see the roughing pass not cutting evenly


I’ve seen people mention loose wires potentially causing missed steps? these wires were broke when I got it home, didn’t notice at time of purchase. I believe its the wires that tell it when to stop moving. could this be causing a problem?

On top of that my x carve is not cutting the same each time. I carved out these 4 circles and none of them line up. however they don’t seem to be off in the same spot either. is this from a belt missing steps or something?

and its not just circles, I cut out two of these octagons, and they don’t line up with each other




Make sure you’re setting your Z height in the exact same position on your wood. Make sure its an area that will not be carved when doing the roughing pass.

How deep are you cutting and how fast?
Russell

Hey @RussellCrawford , Thanks for the response.

I’m using the z probe at x/y 0/0. So I assumed that would be correct, yes? this area is still flat and uncarved by the machine.

I am using the automatic cut settings for the 1/8" bit

50in feed rate
12 in plunge rate
.05 in depth per pass

That would be correct, you may have flex in your material, how tight is your dust boot against the material? if the dust boot is real tight that can cause the material to move up and down while the dust boot goes over it.

That will cut good. How tight are your belts? some people use a fish scale to adjust the tension, you want to be able to pull up about an inch in the center of your belt using 2 fingers.

i had the material clamped down really well, to the point where i was pretty sure there was no flex on the cutting surface. I’ll have to check the dust boot. It was touching the cutting surface. I’ll try a test cut with no dust boot and see what I find.

I have no idea how tight the belts are the feel pretty tight, I can definitely move them 1 inch

When you’re setting your Z using the probe if you can move it up some so its not on the corner that should help. I copied this picture form @PhillipLunsford video about tiling. Also check out PawPaws YouTube channel, he has a lot of good information about the XCarve

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dhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4zwrTBS5RM&ab_channel=ryandahir56

@RussellCrawford here’s a video where you can see how that groove is being made. it happens on the roughing pass alone. is this a z axis not being square to the table issue?

I don’t see the video but if its happening on the roughing pass then something is loose or the material isn’t secured good. Can you wiggle the router?
Russell

@RussellCrawford I put a link in my original message, and in the last message I sent you. I can’t wiggle the router. If I push hard enough it moves over a step

I was thinking up and down on the router, when you remove the router there are 2 screws that go into a delrin nut, sometimes those can come loose and the router will move a little.
Did you tighten the eccentric nuts? To get the V wheels tight.

Go through these instructions to make sure the lead screw and flanged bearing is tight

I think these are the two screws you are talking about. They are definitely loose.
Just tightened them. About to do another test

@RussellCrawford Here is a video of the new test. Unfortunately, the same result have occurred. The v wheels on the z axis seem very tight, if I try to move the wheel with my fingers the whole carriage try to move. Idk if thats good or bad.

Those screws were definitely loose.
Did you check the nut on top of the lead screw?
How deep are you cutting? using that 1/2" bit at a depth of cut at .125" may be to much for the XCarve to handle. Try a cut depth at .06 and see what it looks like
If you try and turn the V wheels the carriage shouldn’t move if the machine is powered on, the stepper motors should have it locked in place. Now if you force it you can move it in any direction.
Russell

The nut on the top of the lead screw is tight. Switched cut depth to .06. Same inconsistent depth of cut.
With power on the v wheels can’t be moved and the carriage won’t move. I couldn’t move the v wheels when the power was off either

It’s weird it looks like it’s just missing spots all together?

What does the tip of that bit look like? does it have blades going to the center? or do the blades stop at the sides?
Russell

The blades do not go all the way to the middle

@RussellCrawford were you able to see the last couple videos I posted? I know you said you couldn’t before, but they may help in the diagnosis. It looks partly like a z axis thing, but it also doesn’t explain why the 1/8" bit was cutting deeper, and why it was also cutting different sized circles

I saw the videos, I can see why that 1/2" bit will give you trouble but the 1/8" bit should cut good. Did you try using just the 1/8" bit?
If you go deeper that than the blades on that 1/2" bit it will push up on the Z axis because its not cutting.
Russell

Oh I see. Cant go any deeper than the space between the blades and and the middle shaft of the bit? That makes sense… as it’s plunging that middle part ain’t cutting, but once it starts moving won’t it level out?

I have not tried to make that cut with just a 1/8" bit.