Inconsistent Cut Depth in Text

Thanks man appreciate it so I need to have the waste board skimmed.

yes I would start there. Make sure your spindle is trammed first, then skim the wasteboard so insure it’s flat.

Can you elaborate in which pulley was loose? I have a slight issue like this as well.

It was the Z axis pulley. Not the one on the motor. Mine has two set screws. One was missing all together, the other was loose. I put blue loctite on both, and retightened. Problem solved

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That is the most troublesome spot on the X Carve. There is no good surface for those set screws to engage.

Another thing that can happen is that the workpiece is not really flat. Even with clamps, you might have Z problems if the clamps are not holding the piece down everywhere. Even if the piece is “flat” against the spoilboard, if may not have uniform thickness. So, in addition to leveling the spoilboard, some level the workpiece before carving with a “roughing” cut. Not trying to be a rich-bitch snob, but pay the money and buy Vectric s/w. It’s much more capable than Easel, not that it’s the problem. Finally, and I don’t know what you’re doing exactly, but buy good wood at Lowes or Home Depot although I buy hardwoods cheaper from North Carolina. I know that some are able to carve the Mona Lisa from pallet wood, but with a million CNC variables, one shouldn’t start there.

I seem to be having the exact same issues, though mine keep changing. I’ve been carving stars to make American flags. Yesterday the stars on the lower part of the union were shallower than the stars on the upper part. Today, I made sure the pulley set screws and all of the belts were tightened properly, then checked all four corners, keeping the bit at the same level to determine if there were any height discrepancies on the Z axis. I used my Z probe plate and a business card as my guide. I had to raise the z axis .007" when I moved along the X axis to the next corner. I then moved it up the Y axis to the next corner and had to raise the bit .029". On the last corner, I had to lower it .024". I made some adjustments to the rails and everything somewhat equaled out. It wasn’t perfect but it was close. I then skimmed my waste board. My first carve after that was done was a reverse of my issue yesterday. The stars at the top of the union were now shallower than the bottom. I’m using birch plywood and it is sitting completely flush against the surface of the waste board. The thickness variation when testing all four edges of the wood was no more than .002". Not enough to cause this much of a discrepancy in depth.

I masked off the bottom several rows of stars and tried to carve the top three rows again when the machine went a little haywire and just started carving downward into the corner (home position). I stopped it before it went down into the waste board. I then flipped the wood over and tried carving text. Again, the text on the bottom was deeper than the top, but the spindle was also very choppy in the way it carved. I tried carving again, this time at 1/4" deep (first time was 1/8") and while the machine was moving, nothing was actually happening. It wouldn’t carve any deeper. Once it returned to the home position, I set the carve depth to 3/8". Again, the same problem occurred. It wouldn’t go any deeper than the original depth, and it was very choppy with the movements. Obviously there’s some sort of issue with the Z axis being off, but I don’t know what that issue is.

Also, the Y axis is dead on with travel. The X axis is ever so slightly off. When skimming the waste board, it skimmed deeper towards the front of the washboard than the back, but maybe only by 1/32". That shouldn’t attribute to a 7" piece of wood having that much of a difference in carving depth, should it?

As for the choppiness and not carving deeper, could the problem be my slow internet connection? It’s never been an issue before, but I’m starting to wonder if both kids streaming and playing Xbox while I’m 150 feet away from the router in my workshop is possibly causing the machine to not communicate as well with my laptop.

I apologize for the long-windedness of this. It’s been a very long and wasted day of trying to fix this machine and I’ve got nothing but more problems to show for it.

No, all data streaming is performed locally from your computer.

There are only two reasons a machine (bit) isnt where it is supposed to be - its either mechanical or it was told to.
So you probably have mechanical issues or something is slipping/flexing causing the deviation.

By the looks of that carve you have V wheels that are loose. I bet you can grab your spindle and shake it around on the Z axis, maybe the X and Y also.
Regarding depth. V carves will only go as deep as the width of letter allows regardless of your input.

Thank you. I’ll take a look at that today. I went back out last night to try again and it carved deeper, and the depth issues switched again to where the upper word carved deeper. I’ll check all of the wheels.

I will check the wheels today and see if they are loose. I did go back out again last night and test it after restarting my computer and clearing my browser history (some on Facebook said it could be an issue with Easel) and it carved at the depth I wanted it to, but the upper word carved deeper. I also tried a carve with a 60 degree bit and got the same result. I then switched to a 1/8" upcut bit and both designs carved the exact same depth, though it still carved too deep. I had set the depth to .25 and it carved both at .297.

Starting to have the same issues with my stars. Did u find a solution yet?

Same here. Were you able to find a solution?

I’ve tightened everything. Machine is square and finally surfaced the waste board. No changes. Right side of carve is smaller than left side. Carving stars.

For me I finally checked that my z-axis was trammed and while it seemed nice and square I only had checked left to right. When I finally checked front to back it wasn’t close. That accounted for all sorts of weirdness in cut depths. Once I got it squared off in both directions my machine worked soooo much better.

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