Success!
So, I did the following actions, and now the machine is working as expected:
- Adjusted the potentiometers as described in this helpful post (my current was low, especially on Z, so it bogged down easily)
- Tightened the belts again and triple-checked all the V-wheels so there was no slop in movement
- Adjusted the Vcarve post procesors as picengravertoo suggested
- Ran PicSender with the suggested settings
- Nearly perfect rough and final passes!
The only problem I had was using the wrong bit and it ran too fast, too deep per pass, so the bit broke, but that’s a separate problem I can deal with. All my hardware and software issues seem to have been solved.
I also bought the PicSender software, and am very happy with it. A very inexpensive addition to an expensive hobby.
Thanks very much for everyone’s advice! As soon as I get a finished piece together, I’ll post it in the gallery.