X-carve circles

The circles that the x carve produces are not circle but more like footballs. What’s wrong!

Do you have any pictures you can post?

There could be any of the usual suspects…

  • Misalignment
  • Missed steps due to:
    • too tight, or not tight enough V-Wheels / eccentric nuts
    • not high enough current going to an axis
    • loose or slipping belts
    • depth of cut too deep

The list could go on, but you get the point. If we had more details about your specific machine and maybe some closeup pics of the circles that came out wrong and what your feeds/speeds and bit specs were, it would help us help you.

There’s another post that details the same thing: Squaring & Calibration Logbook

There’s a lot of good potential solutions in there.

Belt tension and backlash can add up and cause you issues. All of my mills have their SPU (Steps Per Unit) calibrated with a dial indicator to adjust for belt tension and such. While the end value it not too far from the stock setting, It fixed my odd shaped circles and once I measured and compensated for backlash they are now about as round as can be expected on a mill of this style. I run a different style of controller though that allows me to measure and compensate for backlash.

But if you measure and adjust your SPU settings it will go a long way to helped reduce those sorts of issues. Of course the normal stuff of wheels and belts also applies.