Never cuts deep enough

[Gamble]

Hmmm, having a few minor issues here.
Cutting some .5 aluminum. Designed and exported the file to easel and created gcode. Set it to cut at .1 DOC and cut as deep as .6 so I know it will get all the way through.
Never does. I swear it got maybe 3/4 deep but that was about it. I had to run the program again and push the router down when it would drop in height just to get it to cut lower.

When i set my zero I bring the bit down to the work surface until it touches. Turn it on and then drop it down .1mm so I know it's deep enough to start cutting.

Also seems there is some slack in the z axis belt. Cant seem to find a solid way to take up the slack. I think the belt could honestly be a bit shorter.


Then onto my other questions. Maybe it's me, maybe it's easel. I've seen people cut and the zaxis will move up and down seamlessly while cutting (say you are cutting a part and have tabs) However mine will cut up until the tap raise up, move over, lower down and start cutting again. how can I make this so it will move more than 1 axis at a time and not have to stop and raise. If that makes sense.

[WillAdams]

Moving down while moving horizontally and cutting us called ramping (also leading) in, and is a function of your CAM program.

Not cutting deep enough in harder materials is probably insufficient Z-axis tension. http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/Shapeoko_3#Belts

My experience at: http://www.shapeoko.com/forum/viewtopic ... 075#p53075

May want to check belt stretch / calibration: http://docs.carbide3d.com/article/42-ho ... lt-stretch --- I believe we finally got that page right.

[Gamble]

Would it be the inventables program that creates the gcode or how UGS reads the code?

[Beemer533]

It would be in your CAM program (Carbide Create, Fusion 360, etc).

UGS and other gcode senders only do what your gcode (created by your CAM program) tells it to..

[WillAdams]

One other possibility, are you using an endmill capable of center-cutting?

[Gamble]

Haven't used it yet but got a lot of slop out of the belt tonight. Took the router off and used a long flat head screwdriver to push down on the round aluminum piece behind the z plate and tightened it up. Easy peasy. Hoping to get some cuts done tonight

[Gamble]

Meh getting annoyed now. Belt is really tight. Set my zero. Cut starts exactly where it should and then z axis goes up and comes down to the second cut but this time it's 1/4" above the material. Makes no sense.

[Gamble]

Ah HA. I got it.
Opened carbide motion and hit M and typed this in per the second post
$100=40.0160064

I had no way to measure since I don't have any fancy measuring tools. But when I first setup the SO3 the x,y were half of what they should be. And this was half of what it should be. Lowered the z axis to the plate and raised it 1" and measured with a tape measure. Much better. Before it was literally half.

Cut this on some 1/2" 6061. No fancy jigs. Just drilled some holes in the plate and some drywall screws to the wasteboard.
Cut was 65ipm .01 DOC and I tried a lot of different speeds. You can see some irregular lines on the side (not in this pic) but I'm 99% sure it has to do with the z axis plate flexing.
I'm going to cut another one but this time do it super slow like 20ipm and see what happens.

[Chembro]

When I need to cut completely through a part I tend to just set the Z-zero on the bottom of the stock. I set it so that it goes around .001" deep into my spoilboard.

You can look at the GCode and see how far down it travels near the end. This sort of diagnostic is very helpful to use before even running the code on the machine.

Cutviewer has paid for itself in saved material. Just a recommendation.