Hello, I’m completely new to Maslow and am hoping someone could give me some guidance. The little “windows” (squares) on the pictured logo are supposed to be, well, squares. However, you’ll notice that the 1/4" router bit moved pretty consistently up and to the right to create the small rounded protrusions outside of the square (sorry, the orientation of the photos makes the protrusions show in the lower right, but the piece sat on the maslow frame with the point of the house sticking straight up at the 12 o’clock position).
I received a jpeg of the logo from my buddy, then used the “Import- Image Trace” feature of Easel, and then exported the GCode to Ground Control. I’ve zoomed in on the little windows as they show in Easel and I’m wondering if that’s where the problem stemmed from- see gray and white photo. If there’s a better way to convert a logo other than using the Image Trace feature, I’m all ears.
a router cannot cut a square corner as it’s a round bit. An option in CAM is to
make what are called ‘dogbone’ cuts where the bit moves out just a bit in the
corners so that you can fit a square object in the cut.
Please have a look at running you Gcode at NCviewer.com. A round bit can cut square outside corners but not any of the inside corners. The smallest features with be limited to the size of the bit. Using a smaller bit gives greater details but takes longer to do the same work.
I don’t think the problem being reported is related to square outside/inside corners. The problem is that the router bit moved further upward (note the picture is rotated) than desired resulting in a ‘runout’ (or whatever you would call it). Those ‘bumps’ you see weren’t intended nor are they likely in the gcode, so I suspected maybe a sled balancing issue?
@madgrizzle you have explained what’s going on better than I did…thank you! To answer your earlier question about balancing: the sled lays completely flat against the workpiece without any rocking when I press on the edge along different spots of the perimeter. If there’s another aspect of balancing aside from that, I’m all ears.
On a second attempt, I increased the size of the project in Easel to see if the issue was from being too small and having the bit “cramped”. It appears that the issue still exists when enlarging the design. I’ve attached a photo of the larger results and this time the photo is correctly oriented. You’ll see the “runout” is evident in the upper right and left corners of each of the squares.
I’ll attempt to post the GCode as well…wish me luck!
