I am trying to carve a simple groove in on a display box, then cut out a lip on the box (wood is 1" thick and I am cutting a .5" lip around the edge) then cut the final profile out of the overall board. My problem is that after cutting the groove for the acrylic insert, the rest of the cuts shift. In other words, I draw a box, I center smaller box inside it … yet when I cut the outer box it shifts and is no longer centered. All looks great on my Aspire preview, but the actual cut is off by about .5" I am using a Longmill. I am including 2 photo’s. Any ideas?
Possibly cut too heavy or x/y speed too high causing skipping ?
Welcome to the group @TLarr!
Are you using multiple tools? If so, are you using multiple tool paths or tool change? I think multiple toolpaths is easier but that’s just my opinion.
Are you doing anything other than resetting the Z zero on tool change or next toolpath? The only thing you should have to do, as long as all the toolpaths use the same origin is reset the Z zero. If you are resetting the XY you could end up off a little bit and if you forget to change the bit size when resetting XY you can end up off by quite a bit.
This looks like missed motor steps on whichever the narrow axis is to me. I’m assuming X. I would suggest making sure your anti backlash nut is adjusted correctly, the motor coupler is not slipping and the tension on the lead screw is not too tight. Are you cutting the .5" lip in one pass? Theoretically max depth of cut is 2x bit diameter but I’ve found that the theoretical is a bit much for the longmill when doing a full bit engagement tool path. .
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