Tabs/cutting through material

since I bought my machine a couple months ago I have a few projects that require me to put tabs in and cut through the material however after each time the tabs have never been carved into the material and the machine continues to carve past the thickness that I have set it too, I have looked around in the forum for possible solutions and read some things about adjusting I have done all that and still the my X-carve continues to do this, I’m at a loss on what to do any and all suggestion help you all can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Just a thought but have you used anything other then a ruler to measure the thickness of the material.

If you share a project that had the issue we might find the cause.

Here is my workflow when precise cut through is desired:

Prerequsites:

  • Skim cut waste board, this ensure its parallell to Z path
  • Router is trammed, ensuring Z is truly perpedicular to the XY plane

Actual work flow, say you have 1/2" thick stock:

  • Establish Z on the actual waste board surface
  • Raise Z 1/2" + 1/16"
  • Jog XY to their intended zero position
  • Set total carve depth in design to 1/2" + 1/16"
  • Carve

This will ensure that the bottom of your material is even in Z, and the design bottom out exactly on the surface.

I had a thought: when are you setting the depth of your material?

There’s a bug in Easel where if you make your design (say, with cutout depth of 1/2") and then change the thickness of your material to less than that (say, 1/4"), it doesn’t always change those cutouts from 1/2 to 1/4. Sometimes it prompts you about it - warning you that you have cuts deeper than that material - but other times it just leaves it.

also make sure your Z axis is accurate. Put a dial indicator on it and do a plunge to a known distance, then measure it.

Absolutely a big plus.

If using the waste board as reference though calibration dont matter as you have moved a certain amount up and the design goes equally deep. Simply ruling out any step/mm discrepancy out of the equation.
But yes, do make sure the step per mm calibration is precise :slight_smile: