Accuracy on 4x8 area

Hey all. Standard build, plan to attach my upper crossbeam/motor mount to the wall for stability. Hope to get machine in sept.

What is the accuracy over the sheet? I cut yard art for the holidays and am hoping this could help.

Also, thoughts on reliability- can you set a job and work elsewhere in The Garage?

Thanks all!!
Matt

TL;DR; It requires some babysitting, but in general yes you can be doing other things in the same room. While keeping an ear out and visually checking in on it periodically.

Also have the standard build, and I have found that the upper left/right and lower left/right corners loose accuracy. How much I don’t know, but for me when the tension on the chains gets too high or too low it does not act as it should.

If you need to leave I would suggest using the Ground Control “Hold” button to pause the work, and then “Continue” when you return.

When I’m working in the garage I generally let it run and keep working in the same room and make sure to check on it occasionally and keep an ear out for anything that sounds odd.

The things I’ve needed to fix while it was running was big pieces that get loosed because its the last layer of the plywood and freeing those, or if the vacuum inlet gets clogged, or sometimes when the Z-Axis is moving into the material I have to give the sled a push to ensure the bit made it to depth. The depth issue is probably because I need to get my center of gravity right on the sled.

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I was searching for this exact topic.

I found that the upper left and right corners are fine on my machine. The lower corners are where I have problems. I think mine maybe part chain tension, but also interference between the sled and where the frame sticks out to support the plywood.

I also see a problem with cutting down vs up. Up cuts are smooth and identical on each path. Down cuts can have some slight wobble.

I wonder if I could get Fusion 360 to generate tool paths but only up cut vertical paths.

Ryan.

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On the down cuts, especially out at the edges, the friction of the sled becomes important. As with many automation problems, there is a ‘software fix’ and/or a ‘hardware fix’. Fusion360 is very powerful, and it might be that there is a ‘software fix’, but here are some ideas of the hardware flavor.

Adding weight to overcome friction is tempting, but causes problems in the top middle zone of the workarea where both chains are tightest.

Standing the frame more vertical is a possible ‘tweak’, but the angle affects how much force is available to keep the bit from climbing up out of the material being cut.

Easiest to do is working on the friction of the sled sole, whether with sandpaper and paint, wax, or plastic. Search the forums for ‘wax’ or ’ UHMW’ or ‘HDPE’ for some talk about approaches.

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There is almost certainly the possibility of coding these preferential motions into a MaslowCNC specific output generator within Fusion360.

I’ll note this thread in the Fusion360 Post Processor thread, and keep my eyes open for the appropriate place in the Fusion360CAM process for these type of processing preferences to be inserted. I’m quite sure there’s somewhere within Fusion360 where you can define, prior to tool path generation, a specific machine’s preferred motion, there’s so many possible CAM machines, it would amaze me if there isn’t.

Meanwhile, compiling a list of these instances where the MaslowCNC machine does some operations well and does others (less well) poorly will always be helpful.

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