Things not working correctly

Hey gang!
So I’ve been trying to get the x carve to do what I want it to do without much success. I’ve been trouble shooting for a couple of hours, bolt turn, screw turn, try this out, try that. I’m just making thinks work less well.

Here’s what I want:

Here’s what I got:

There’s crunching sounds when the machine moves along the y axis. I’ve tinkered, it works worse after my tinkering.

But even before I started messing with adjustments, the circle in the middle would be waaaaaay off compared to its desired location. Anyone got a clue? I sure don’t.

Thanks a bunch!

-p

I think the crunching sound is binding or slipping, make sure the tracks are clear and the belt is tight. Also, what is the depth that you are trying to cut and speed.

Thanks for chiming in.

I’m using the birch ply wood setting in easel.
Cutting birch ply wood.

Yeah, either too tight or too loose. I’m not exactly sure what the end result of those belts are supposed to be. A guitar string? That’s how I figure I have them. I have them at my approximation of an A string.

I wish I could read your reply while I’m responding to it…

Do you have a way of measuring tension on your belts? It looks like you definitely have a bunch of lost steps in the Y, and @KinnithMarburg makes a good point that it may be a loose belt.

There’s a couple good forums you can check out for something like this:

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The second forum I posted to has a video that shows how I set the belt tension on my machine, which may be of use to you.

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Could also be that the piece you are working on is bowed, or that the router is not in parallel with the wasteboard. Could be digging in too deep and causing it to slip.

Hmmm, so it’s loose because I’m getting slips which makes it not cut where it was just cutting. I probably jacked it up trying to fix it. But even before I started messing with it, this happened:

Everything was going find until it was time to cut it out, then the machine decided that it should move up four inches.

There’s something screwy (usually yours truly).

Paul

Ps, thanks for responding! I

Coooo, thanks

Yeah. Those vids you posted are gold. Thanks man.

I gotta pick up some measuring equipment before I go any further.

Thanks!

-p

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Glad to help, just let us know if you run into any problems. Lots of us here had a steep learning curve, so if you have difficulty with something there’s probably someone here that has figured out a way to get past it. :slight_smile:

I had circles like that when the pulley on the x axis had a loose grub screw. I saw it by setting the jog step size to .5 mm and then watching the pulley and belt while I jogged it back and forth. When I reversed direction, I would hear the motor turn, but pulley and belt didn’t.

I had to pull the Z motor off to get at the pulley, rotate it so that a grub screw faced a flat on the shaft, then tighten the snot out of it. Had good circles afterwards.