Fuzzy/crisp sides of the cut

X-Carve Troubleshooting
1

New user here,

One side of the cut is very crisp, the other is rough,
I am cutting with a Straight cut - two flute Whiteside Bit.

The problem is the side I need to be crisp is the side that is being chewed away.

Has anyone run into this and is there a solution?
Thanks!
Peter

2

Sounds like your issue is due to conventional vs climb cutting. This is basically the direction the bit is moving in relationship to the direction it is spinning. Climb cutting will cause more chatter which will result in a rougher cut. Since Easel does not allow you to specify the cutting direction the best solution is to slow down the feedrate and/or reduce the depth of cut so that you are not getting as much force on the bit.

3

Awesome!
Thank you, Do you suggest a program that will let me specify cutting direction?
Peter

4

I use Vcarve, which does allow you to choose Conventional or Climb cutting for each operation.

5

Thank you so much for your help!
Ill check that out now!
Peter

6

Here are some resources that help explain Climb and Conventional cutting

2 Likes
7

Thanks!
Does esel use climb cutting?
Peter

8

Easel uses both types, it’s tool path strategy does not seem to care about climb/conventional it is just trying to optimize cutting time the best it can,

9

Thanks sooo much, again!
Peter

10

I should also mention that the X-Carve should be rigid enough that under normal feedrates there should be minimal chatter when climb cutting. If your machine is showing excessive chatter that is probably due to something being lose.

You may have a loose vwheel. Also be sure that you are using the shortest possible bit for the job. If you have two inches of bit sticking out beyond the collet that just amplifies the forces being applied to the vwheels and rails.

With everything powered off, you can grab the end of the bit and see if when you apply a moderate torquing force (left/right/forward/back) do you feel any wiggle on the spindle mount. If so, something is definitely loose.

11

Can you cut right from vcarve, or do you make the file and then load it into eseal?
Peter

12

Vcarve will generate the toolpath (gcode file), then you will use a gcode sender like “Universal Gcode Sender” (UGS) to send the gcode file to X-Carve. So if you use Vcarve you would not use Easel. But it is very easy to switch back and forth between using Easel and Vcarve.

Here is a link to UGS - GitHub - winder/Universal-G-Code-Sender: A cross-platform G-Code sender for GRBL, Smoothieware, TinyG and G2core.
I would suggest you download version 2- http://bit.ly/1hftIhy

There are other gcode senders, Chillipepper is one that runs inside your browser, it is a bit more difficult to setup but lots of people like the features it offers.
http://chilipeppr.com/tinyg

13

Awesome, so i got the version 2, but i’m not sure what to do with it…Sorry for being a nincompoop!
Peter

14

Got it, i had to unzip it…
Peter

15

Also, be sure you have downloaded the latest version of Java