Easel, creating a Lopsided logo cut in aluminum?

X-Carve Troubleshooting
1

Greetings, happy to be up and running parts with the X carve but am having a strange anomaly in the cut. For some reason even though I have double checked the art and it looks good in easel, it is carving one side wider on the left side of the top of the skull than the right. See pics.
ANy help appreciated

I am using a 1/16 2 flute bit from Lakeshore
cut rate is 7.1 ipm
depth .00394
Cutting on the inside of the logo
Dewalt speed approx 21559 rpm (number 4)

THis is the 1/16 bit

Here is 1/8

Here it is in Easel

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2

First guess would be belts or pulleys. Does it change sounds throughout the cut?
Btw, what are those things? Cool logo.

3

I think your picture shows Outline highlighted. Am I wrong.

4

Do you see the same thing in wood/MDF?

5

Hmm, I could double check that, the machine has only been in use for a month and belts may need adjusting. I’ll try that.

The design belongs to Corvette Racing, it is called “Jake” we are doing it for a Corvette Dealer.

6

It is set to Outline/Inside

7

We only work in Aluminum

8

Generally it’s better to “dial-in” the machine with softer (cheaper) materials first. Jumping straight to aluminum might not be the best idea.

9

Possibly a miscalibrated axis issue. If moving x distance, does move actually measure x distance?

John
www.picengrave.com

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10

I am of the opinion that it is the belt as it has cut fine up to this point, will let you know after I tighten the belt

12

Try reorienting the object. Cut one upside down, one at 90deg and one and -90deg
That should help you track down just what is going on.

Also cut a few circles and see if they are round or have a slight tilted ellipse to them.

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The tilted ellipse shape is often caused when one belt is looser than the other.

15

Smartest thing to do is cut that again rotated 90 and 180 and 270 degrees. I think you will see your machine needs adjustment. It could be your Easel drawing (but I seriously doubt it). Once you get it dailed in:

(IMHO) That is incredibly slow feed rate for aluminum and the spindle is too fast… Turn your spindle down to 12-15K (probably 1). If you have have a stock machine:

For the 1/8" bit: I would decrease the DOC to .002 and up your cut rate to 40 inches per minute

For the 1/16" bit: DOC to .001 and cut rate to 25 inches per minute. Once you get good results, you can try to push this to .002".

If you do not have forced air blowing on that, then, I would be hitting it with wd40 too, as it cuts and get those chips out of there. I bet there is aluminum paste gunk welding to the cut, to the bit, etc.

16

Thank you for the replies. I was waiting on parts, so the problem it seems was the y belt was pretty loose on the left side I tightened it. It now cuts the skull perfectly!

I cut a few other logos and it seemed to be fine, till this one. I dont understand why this is bumping down on the lower right corner of the letters, also the O is cutting lopsided.

Here is what I have tried so far,

  1. Checked and tightened the belts all the way around.
  2. Increased the stepper voltage on the Y axis
  3. (See my cut setting below I am not pushing the feed rate in order to try and get a quality cut)
  4. Double checked all the art for symmetry

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here is a link to the file Easel
I used mirror images when creating the art so nothing is asymmetrical.

@AaronMatthews I do see my hole in the center of the logo is lopsided thanks, will try later

Thanks for the settings @earwigger, I was hoping to hear some feed back on aluminum settings. On this cut I am currently using:

1/8 2 3 flute bit
cut rate is 7.9 ipm
depth .0.01969 in
Cutting on the inside of the logo (@PhilJohnson I really am :slight_smile:
Dewalt speed approx 21559 rpm (number 4)

I will try your suggestions tomorrow

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17

@earwigger That was it, new settings you suggested made the difference, now cutting with no problems. Thanks for that!