Welcome aboard, and it is nice to see another M2 user. There are not very many of us, so it can certainly be difficult to get help in a timely fashion. I have two M2 machines, a FoxAlien Masuter, and a Genmitsu 4040 Pro. I have had my first M2 for about four years now, and it has been a lot of learning and mistakes, but I have also made some really cool stuff with it. Check out My Maslow Adventures to see what it can do.
I have also had issues with the M2 jumping, or I call it “hockey sticking” at the top of the wasteboard. My experience has been that it descends from left to right, and then sharply comes back up to correct itself, hence making marks that look like a hockey stick. I am very interested to hear about your experience with a higher amperage power supply to see if that makes a difference.
That being said, it only happens in the top 10-12" of the wasteboard, so I effectively have to make sure that my work happens in the middle of the wasteboard, and everything is fine. I have also found that the sprockets on the motors tend to back out the set screw over time, which causes the sprocket to move out on the motor shaft and if unchecked, it can fall off the motor. I use blue locktite on those set screws, and keep an eye on them. So far it has been better.
I have also considered upgrading the motors for more power. I have a little extra weight on my sled, and tend to prefer depth of cut over speed, which has worked a little better for me. I try not to exceed 750mm/m, but I can do 2mm depth per pass and it will be okay. If I’m doing work on a hardwood, I’ll slow down to 500mm/m, and maybe reduce dpp to 1.5mm. I have done a few projects at 3mm dpp on plywood and could perhaps go deeper per pass.
I also do not run the router wide open, or even close. I’m using a DeWalt DWP611, and find that it burns through brushes very fast (50 hours or so) running at 6, but running at 1.5-2, the brushes last more than a year.
So with these hokey bicycle-chain machines, patience is your friend, not speed.
I do hope that you post back with an update using a stronger power supply. I think the reason this happens is kinda like weight-lifting (like a clean-and-jerk) where the vertical pull is at a max-power limit, and it just can’t maintain it over a consistent horizontal plane on a nearly vertical incline.
I think many people would agree that although the machine is capable of moving around a 4x8 area, the effective cutting area is more like 3x6.