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I have been trying to make a star template on easel. For some reason, the stars look fine on easel, but when I start carving them into the boards, they don’t cut right. Apparently, I am not putting the correct dimensions in still. I am trying to make a star template that will fit on a 13" across, by 10.125" up and down board. I am having difficulty figuring it out. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I have messed up several boards trying to accomplish this.Here is a link to the design. As you can see, it looks as if the stars will fit all on the board. The top of the stars tend to go off of the board.
I am trying to cut 50 stars onto a board that measures 13"x10/1/8" The image looks fine on easel, but when I go to cut them out, the stars on the first line do not stay all on the board. That’s the issue. They seem to all line up on easel and stay on the board, but do not when I got to cut.
If you could click File → Share → Shared with link, and cut & paste that link given here.
Then we can eliminate a few possibilities.
With the information we have now it could be anything from CNC moving in wrong direction, being miscalibrated, loosing steps or a combination of it all.
Easel takes the diameter of the bit that you select into account when it creates the toolpaths. I would suggest to never use the nominal diameter of a bit, always measure it with calipers and use that value instead.
It looks like it is set to cut outside the line?
If so then that may be the problem.
If you cut outside an outline the part cut out matches the shape and the hole left behind is bigger and distorted as the bit had to move a bit more to get a nice sharp edge.
If you want the hole to match the shape you need to cut inside the line. That way the hole will match the shape and the part cut out will be smaller and distorted.
Nope…
The problem looks mechnical.
Your stock does not look square to your machine, or basically your X vs Y axis are not square.
E.G they line up on one side, but not the other.
Have you calibrated your steps per mm?
This help will tell of if your machine is cutting things the correct size, and also help if your machine is cutting square vs a parallelogram.
As a workaround, you could have your machine also cut out the 10x13" cutout as well…
This will help determine who is right; your stock isnt square to the machine, or your machine is moving crooked…
It does look like somehow the size of those stars got changed. They are supposed to be 1.1" and they were 1.126". I will try this evening and see if that makes any difference.
Before you power on your x-carve, do you use spacer blocks to set BOTH Y axis motors to the same distance from the end plates?
This simple “trick” will help ensure that the Y axis motors are inline with one another (assuming your frame is square).
