Motor stutter or jitter when cutting arcs near top of sheet--

Troubleshooting MakerMade
62

It does trim decimal places, but it ain’t optional, it’s dependent on the NIST spec, and the tolerances you use.

Yes it does, and again it isn’t optional, it will always do this replacement, subject to the tolerances.

63

From my own testing I found that the Arduino could only process about ~10 lines of GCode per second. Which was a big reason why I wrote GCodeCleaner in the first place. So if you’ve got lots of tiny little movements in your GCode then it can effectively choke on trying to feed the lines through.

For example, some of the GCode that I had for a project was doing about 0.1mm per line of GCode, so instead of my cutting speed being ~12.5mm per second it ended up being just ~1mm per second.

1 Like
64

md8n

So I did get my machine working. The one caveat is that I had to slow it way, way down in order to eliminate the jitters. No doubt due to the slow, slow Arduino Due (MakerMade)

Also stopped using Fusion and went with Easel instead. Simple and straightforward

After cutting two sheets of 3/8" plywood, I had to stop because my neighbors were complaining about the noise–giving them migraines

I was able to cut what I needed, for now, but since the rig is in my driveway I’m unable to use it because of the noise and because its actually raining in Norcal

I cant complain about the rain–hoping for more to end the drought. And the wildfires are out for this year

I need to spend some time sound insulating the Dewalt router if hope to be able to use it again–trying to be a good neighbor.

I was really surprised that a 1/8" upcut bit on 3/8" plywood would be so loud. I’m also using a 2HP shop vac

The 3-4 hour cut time is a big part of the problem–due to the slow speed

Thanks

Chuck

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One advantage of living in Timor-Leste - no-one cares abut noise pollution. Which explains why you need to wear industrial hearing protection here for “Tinan Foun” (new years) which goes on for about 2 days non-stop.

So if you get the latest copy of GCodeClean and run your new GCode outputs through it, it will hopefully do a much better job of reducing many teeny tiny colinear cuts into one big single cut, and therefore give you better GCode line-by-line performance, because there’s less of them. For arc deduplication I still have a way to go (much mathematics involved), but it will still do some deduplication.

With regard to slow feed rates (as a consequence of slow GCode processing) you’ll also want to consider your spindle speeds (slowing down the router), and reducing them to match. Along with that switching to a single flute bit can help. If you’re getting charring on your cuts because the effective feed rate is juts too slow you should consider both of these options.

The biggest source of noise for me is my shop vac and not the router. Although the router is loud of course.

My cat loves the noise, but then again his favorite song is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dR5NWchEpM (and yes he does have very definite musical tastes)
He does like things very very loud

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66

try a straight bit, different biys can greatly change the noise level

David Lang

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67

The harbor freight dust collector is very quiet and works very well for the cost. It is just huge.

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Orob

That’s what I’m using. The noise is acceptable

The noise from the router is not–I need to wear ear protection

I’m not sure why it is so loud, and penetrating. My neighbors weren’t happy

M8dn suggested a straight flute bit. I am using a 1/8" upcut

I plan on adding an 8" diameter clear, polycab shroud around the router to see if that helps reduce the noise

Also, the 3-4 hour non-stop cutting is a problem.

I know that I can pause it, but I don’t think that will help much…

Thanks

Chuck

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Are there loose wood parts that are clattering at high frequency or metal pieces that are resonating. Maybe glue or padding would help quiet it if applied to the right location.

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There is at least one person who has built their machine into an encosed
cabinate (built 9" wide skirts and then out from that far enough to give
clearance for the router and a clear panel across the front.

David Lang

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Orob

I dont think it was cause by vibration. I had the plywood, 3/8", screwed to the 3/4" wasteboard at 12-24" spacing simply because it has a real tendency to warp

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David

That’s a really great idea. My worksurface is 9.5’x5.5 and I use the entire area

BTW, it still does not cut well in the far lower right, even with a 12’ beam.

I have to push down on the sled with my hand to make sure it does not wander

Also, I’ve found that I need to reduce my image to stay 1" inside the 4’x8’, otherwise it hits the soft limits

I suppose I can adjust those limits so that does not happen, but I needed to finish cutting my templates

I haven’t cut in the lower left yet. Probably the same problem

Here’s something I would like to see:

To be able to go back and re-cut a certain area of the sketch,

And, to be able to re-start where it stopped if there is a problem

I realize this is a software issue.

Neither Fusion or Easel seem to allow for this

If I could capture part of the gcode and resend it, that might be a workaround

Thanks

Chuck

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If you are careful, you can remove already cut portions of gcode after the starting header and then save the file. As long as you haven’t skipped a chain link or altered your machine somehow. If it knows its position and doesn’t need to be recalibrated, you can recut pieces, but it is time consuming to set it up. In a pinch, it can save the piece of wood. As long as you have the offset work position correct as it was when you started cutting it will work.

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David

That’s a really great idea. My worksurface is 9.5’x5.5 and I use the entire area

BTW, it still does not cut well in the far lower right, even with a 12’ beam.

with a 10’ beam and a 8’ workpiece, you have 1’ of beam out each side and 4’
down on the workpiece (plus beam offset)

with a 12’ beam and a 9.5’ workpiece, you have 1’3" out each side, but are now
going 5.5’ down (plus beam offset), so I wouldn’t be surprised if your angles
were even worse than stock. put your numbers into the online calculator to
compare things.

the key thing to look at is the minimum force for the bottom corners

Here’s something I would like to see:

To be able to go back and re-cut a certain area of the sketch,

And, to be able to re-start where it stopped if there is a problem

the original groundcontrol software has the ability for you to move through the
gcode to the next Z axis move, this is to facilitate the sort of thing you are
looking for

The problem with editing gcode is that there are some settings that affect code
after that (always the first few lines, before you see the first g0/1/2/3
commands, sometimes more, including the first command that includes feedrate
‘F’) if you skip those lines, bad things happen. once you understand the gcode
your CAM software is producing, you can edit it, or skip around it to recut or
continue a stopped cut, but generalized gcode has lots of traps for people doing
this (the good news is that most CAM software doesn’t use a lot of the features
that cause the worst problems)

David Lang