Twisted Lettering - Motor or calibration Issue?

I am having an interesting issue. When engraving text, the text appears to be twisting. Overall, the writing is correct horizontally, but each letter is independently twisted in such that the bottoms of each letter rises slightly from left to right. I’ve attached a photo below. You can see the bottom lines of the H, E and L that should be in line, but instead each has a slight, but noticeable, angle to it.

The text in the photo was done over 4 passes taking only 0.5mm each pass, so the results are consistent. I felt this likely ruled out friction on the sled causing it to pull upwards. This is also the second time caring this piece in different hardwoods with identical results.

I believe my machine is well calibrated and the corner tests are spot on. I should note, I had a non-text graphic on this engraving that turned out spot on, but all three font types had this twisting issue.

Has anyone had this happen and have a notion how to fix this?

Thank you!

Pascal

A couple ideas, of which none may be correct, but might be worth checking:

  1. beam is flexing
  2. router is moving in its mount on the sled when the bit is under load
  3. bit is dull
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