Hello everyone,
I am doing a simple tiling carve but using the tiling feature in Easel for the first time. In the past, I did manual tiling by having marks for the each y-axis zero on each tile. The ability to auto-tile seems like a great thing within easel.
But … I have an alignment concern that I want to toss out to the collective here to get an opinion:
Project is 8" wide by 5’ in length. It’s basically a wall-mount growth chart for a child, and has detailed animal and paisley lettering running down the center of the board.
The auto tiling had the first tile start at 0,0 and would go to 30" up y-axis. Second tile would start at 29" up y-axis for the auto-overlap.
And that is where my question is … I measured and made pencile marks 30" and 29" up the y-axis of the board, using a dimple mark from the v-bit on the board as the 0,0 point. Then started the carve.
The carve of the first tile is completed and the carve actually goes to about 30.125" up the y-axis. It is clearly 1/8" higher than the 30" pencil mark.
So I am assuming that my belt tension is off and that is what caused the slight difference between the carve and my pencil mark. But moving on to setting the location for the second tile, should I set the 0,0 at my 29" pencil mark or should I re-measure a new 29" mark based off the edge of the carve at the 30", at the top of the first tile?
As this carve has an intricate paisley design, a 1/8" (or even 1/16") shift would cause a very noticeable alignment issue with carve and would pretty much look horrible. I am guessing I should re-measure a new 29" mark, but I don’t know if there is actual intended overlap beyond the overlap!
What does everyone think? New 29" mark or use the original 29" mark from the first tile 0,0? (With the price of wood these days, I really don’t want to have to re-carve this piece!)
Thanks!
Cheers,
Mike
Using the currently configured machine, you may not be able to accurately set it up 100%. It sounds like the calibration is off on your machine. You can check the distance traveled by just jogging the machine the same distance. If moving it 30" results in 30.125" of actual movement then you know your machine is off. If it does not then something might be up with the tiling function.
I would perform a calibration run on the machine. If it is 1/8" off over 30", then there is definitely room for improvement. Searching this forum or Youtube will provide you with excellent examples of calibrating an X-Carve.
Another random thought… You’re not measuring to the top edge of a V-Bit cut where the V-Bit width is 1/4" are you? That would make sense as well because in that case the machine stopped correctly (i.e. the tip of the bit is at the 30" mark with 1/8" radius beyond that point). In that case I would move it as originally marked.
{:0)
Brandon Parker
1 Like
Great questions and thoughts, Brandon. I thought of something after I made the original post on that I can very accurately measure the travel of the y-axis … as I was carving a growth chart that has markings for both inches and centimeters!
And guess what? The carved markings are exact. So calibration is spot on. (I do calibrate often measuring the travel.)
As for measuring tip of the v-bit versus the edge of the v carve, the edge of the carve on the tile is very intricate with fine lines, so there is a visible line of demarcation where the carve ends, so it is from tip to tip.
So maybe this is a software issue and not hardware. I can wait to resume the carve on the second tile on Monday after contacting Inventables.
I think I had the same issue with a similar project on my first carve.
Trying to carve a growth chart:
I initially ran the first tile, moved the peice as the SW indicated (shift the Y axis down 17") and cut the second tile. There was a number that was on the border of the 1st and 2nd tile that was off by a 1/4". I used the 0 position set in the first cut.
To try to diagnose, on a new board, I ran the Tile 1 toolpath twice in a row without moving the workpiece using the 0 position set in the first pass. On the second cut, the machine shifted the cut in +Y by 1/4".
Not sure what is going on. My only thought is that I am too close to the edge of the machine (I am lined up with the edge of my wasteboard).
Only my first set of cuts on the machine so I may be missing something obvious.
Let me know if anyone has any insight on this issue.
Thanks!
