I am working on a name puzzle for my son. I have a CNC 3018 machine using Easel for writing G Code and GRBL controller to run the G Code. As you can see in the picture, the W in Wayne is not lined up with the rest of the letters (disregard the E; that was my mistake). The “ayne” was off line from what showed up in the software. What would make something like this happen? Thanks for your assistance.
this is the result of a loss of steps, typically cause by going too deep too fast.
the baseline settings for a 3018 would be
Feed: 700mm/min
Plunge: 100mm/min
Depth per pass: 0.5mm
What settings were you running for this?
Also, if the grbl settings are set wrong (specifically the max speed and the acceleration) you could see this issue.
Can you share your current grbl settings?
OR if the lead screw is binding a bit on the brass antibacklash nuts (typically these are lubricated with a dry PTFE lube … to prevent debris from landing on the lead screw and getting into the threads…)
https://amzn.to/3Cf4PMZ
Thank you so much for the assistance. Let me preface my response by saying I am a beginner and am just starting to learn the terminology with CNC machines. I have snipped a few screenshots of settings that hopefully you are referring to. Any insight that you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
To get the grbl settings in candle, you’d type $$ in the “console” at the bottom right and send… then it will populate with $1 through $132 and = a bunch of numbers… if these are set wrong then it can cause a loss of step from driving too fast…
In easel, the feedrate of 30in/min looks good for a 3018, but not if your overriding it to 500% in candle… also, typically the spindle is run at full speed, 10,000 rpm, I’m not sure if those settings (500% and 1,00rpm) are the actual settings your running or just there from trying different things… 
There is a great playlist for new 3018 owners on YouTube by James Dean Designs.
I ran the $$ command in the console as you requested, and the following is the results:
$$ < $0=10 (step pulse, usec)
$1=25 (step idle delay, msec)
$2=0 (step port invert mask:00000000)
$3=2 (dir port invert mask:00000010)
$4=0 (step enable invert, bool)
$5=0 (limit pins invert, bool)
$6=0 (probe pin invert, bool)
$10=3 (status report mask:00000011)
$11=0.010 (junction deviation, mm)
$12=0.002 (arc tolerance, mm)
$13=0 (report inches, bool)
$20=0 (soft limits, bool)
$21=1 (hard limits, bool)
$22=0 (homing cycle, bool)
$23=0 (homing dir invert mask:00000000)
$24=25.000 (homing feed, mm/min)
$25=500.000 (homing seek, mm/min)
$26=250 (homing debounce, msec)
$27=1.000 (homing pull-off, mm)
$100=800.000 (x, step/mm)
$101=800.000 (y, step/mm)
$102=800.000 (z, step/mm)
$110=800.000 (x max rate, mm/min)
$111=800.000 (y max rate, mm/min)
$112=800.000 (z max rate, mm/min)
$120=10.000 (x accel, mm/sec^2)
$121=10.000 (y accel, mm/sec^2)
$122=10.000 (z accel, mm/sec^2)
$130=200.000 (x max travel, mm)
$131=200.000 (y max travel, mm)
$132=200.000 (z max travel, mm)
As for the feed rate being 500%, that was apparently the default when I plugged up the machine, because I haven’t changed that setting. I did change the RPM to 1,000 because, to be completely honest, I was a little afraid of the machine so I turned the speed down. The maximum speed the machine is set to currently is 2,000 RPM.
I would continue to appreciate any insight that you could provide on this project. I will definitely check out the 3018 youtube videos, as they definitely look helpful. Thank you so much.
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those settings seem fairly normal for a 3018, that’s good news.
It looks like your board has grbl version 0.9 on it, you can see this in that console window before typing the $$. Is it 0.9 or 1.1 (and what letter) IF your board can accept an updated version this would allow additional functions that are missing from 0.9. In order to demine that you’d need to identify exactly what type of board it is, there are hundreds of different controller boards for the 3018, so this can be difficult to determine if it can be updated.
Regardless, here is the website I reference in that video about the 3018 settings and what you might need to adjust. At any rate, running that spindle as fast as it’ll go is optimal for carving wood, going slow will cause the steppers to work a lot harder to push it through the wood and that might just be the issue that caused the W to be offset like that.
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