My Struggles Cutting a Grid

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As my second cut I’m attempting to cut a grid into the waste board for stock alignment, as an accuracy test of the Maslow, and just a general low risk second project for learning purposes.

On the first and second attempts I had confusion about the starting position in the gcode set in MakerCAM, and old video of Bar’s helped me sort that out.

Third attempt I went crazy and tried doing a full 1/8" cut in one pass, broke the bit in about an inch. Lesson learned.

4th attempt I reduced my full dept to 1/16" and used the default step down of .03125.

The grid is made of individual squares (gcode and stl attached), it made one round of the first square just fine, It started the second pass and aproaching the second corner it just stopped.

The lower left belt had become loose, pictures:

20240522_161209
20240522_1612091816×4032 922 KB

20240522_161302
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And here is the square as far as it got, it looks good too my eye.

20240522_161556
20240522_1615561816×4032 1.35 MB

Here is the console output:
[MSG:INFO: Retracting all belts]
[MSG:INFO: Bottom Left pulled tight with offset 0.000]
[MSG:INFO: Top Right pulled tight with offset 0.000]
[MSG:INFO: Top Left pulled tight with offset 0.000]
[MSG:INFO: Bottom Right pulled tight with offset -0.011]
[MSG:INFO: Extending all belts]
[MSG:INFO: All belts extended to center position]
[MSG:INFO: Measured waypoint 0]
[MSG:INFO: Center point deviation: TL: 0.293 TR: 0.263 BL: 0.411 BR: -2.803]
[MSG:INFO: Center point deviation: TL: 0.293 TR: 0.263 BL: 0.411 BR: -2.803]
[MSG:INFO: Center point deviation within 15.000mm, your coordinate system is accurate]
[GC:G0 G54 G17 G20 G90 G94 M5 M9 T0 F0 S0]
[GC:G0 G54 G17 G21 G90 G94 M5 M9 T0 F0 S0]
[MSG:INFO: Tool No: 0]
[MSG:INFO: Using spindle NoSpindle]
[MSG:ERR: Position error on Top Left axis exceeded 15mm while running. Halting. Error is 15.017mm]
[MSG:ERR: Emergency stop! Stopping all motors]
[MSG:WARN: The machine will not respond until turned off and back on again]
[MSG:INFO: Reset during file job at line: 36]
[MSG:ERR: Position error > 15mm while running. E-Stop triggered.]
No heartbeat from machine in 10 seconds. Please check connection.

grid

grid.nc (18.0 KB)

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This seems to be a common issue right now. I’m investigating what could be causing it and I’m hoping to have a fix soon. Right now I truly have no idea :grimacing:

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Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. Testing on my specific setup or whatever.

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I have wondered if maybe a grounded piece of metal screen might be placed between the router and the PCB to reduce electromagnetic interference. I would place it between the router and the PCB mount so there’s no chance of shorting something on the PCB. No idea if this is the problem, but it’s worth a try.

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I was waiting for a new firmware update before trying again. In the mean time I improved my frame to make it less wobbly.

Today I updated to the latest firmware, re-calibrated, and retried my grid.

It went much better. Successfully cutting the top row of squares.

Then there was…an incident. As far as I can tell the bit came loose, was driven deeper into the waste board and then snapped.

We’ll call that operator error. I have the confidence from this exercise to move ahead with other things. I think I’m done with my grid for now.

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Yep, that can happen.

Which is why I’m switching over to a spindle straight away, which uses an ER11A chuck, once I modify my power box and make relevant shims for the spindle, it is much narrower than a router

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Could i ask which spindle do you use

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If you go ER11 Digikey sells a $30 an ER11 collet nut with a ball bearing. Its locks bits nearly by hand tightening makes changing bits faster.

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