Cutting deeper in areas???

Hi Guys

Well here is a strange problem, having been cutting loads of plaques something seems to have gone somewhat haywire in that my machine is suddenly cutting deeper on the left side of the item being cut, very noticeable in the picture. you can see on the text that it has cut fairly deep from the top left to cutting so shallow towards the bottom right that it barely cuts through the paint mask.
http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.ph...id=14504&stc=1

The spoil board is nice and level and the material is of equal thickness.
The CNC uses the DSP controller, used vectric to design the plaque. Thought maybe it was a dodgy output file so remade the design with new tool paths etc but problem still there. Any Ideas ?

Cheers

Al

When all options are exhausted usually means Mach3 is broken. Uninstall, restart,fresh install and paste yourbackup.xml,restart again and should be working.

Skim the bed and/or spoil board.

Could it be the tool slipping up inside the collet during the engraving? I've had that happen once which was confusing at first.

Alternatively could be missed steps on the Z stepper - can you remind us of the machine you are using?

Cheers Guys

I do not use Mach3 it's a DSP system using the nk105 pendant and NC file formats. Have already reset and reloaded the DSP OS.

The Spoil board has been skimmed and is nice and level. I double checked by lowering a cutter just touching the bed and jogged around the X.Y axis and all fine.

Hmmmmm.....

Al

If you have a Z probe I would take readings across the work piece to see if the top surface is level. Also in your CAM software is everything flat on the XY plane.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EddyCurrent

If you have a Z probe I would take readings across the work piece to see if the top surface is level. Also in your CAM software is everything flat on the XY plane.

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Hi Eddy,

do not have a probe although I have one on the shopping list (amongst other items lol) although I am not sure the DSP system supports probes, trying to find that out. I redrew the design again making sure all was well on the XY plane and still the same problem, very odd.

I have cut other plaques with almost the same size text with no problem, I even tried changing fonts in case the font was causing problems but still the same.

Al

Then start from scratch, to find where the problem lies. First check if the machine recognizes correctly the Z0 / top surface/ across all 4 corners. Then you will know that the controller functions ok. There are not many possibilities. if the table is surfaced, the controller is ok, then is something mechanical or software. Eliminate the mechanical by revising and pushing around, looking for some play, if not - its software. Search a previous job that you know has OK code and check.

If all has checked out as level and square no lose mechanical's run an older file that you know worked fine if no difference, try to rotate the workpiece 90 degrees in software re-code and try again, have you used Engraving tool path in Vetric? set the start depth to 0, set (all the next advise depends on cutter used) Flat depth to say 0.5 set your tool up with a pass depth of say 0.5, step over say 40% and code up and test, also check the DSP has no off sets setup.

Phill

Quote:

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Originally Posted by phill05

If all has checked out as level and square no lose mechanical's run an older file that you know worked fine if no difference, try to rotate the workpiece 90 degrees in software re-code and try again, have you used Engraving tool path in Vetric? set the start depth to 0, set (all the next advise depends on cutter used) Flat depth to say 0.5 set your tool up with a pass depth of say 0.5, step over say 40% and code up and test, also check the DSP has no off sets setup.

Phill

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Sorry for delay replying. Well I flipped the workpiece 90 degrees and it seemed to cut ok, If i flip it back to the original orientation, the problem still exists. Tried a couple of other jobs and they are fine if flipped 90 degrees (design longest along the Y axis) but the problem is there still on the original orientation. Very odd

Al