Thanks Gary. I will try this. So far measurements I have checked are spot on except for the gouge.
We can't find play in the machine.

Here ya go Darren
 

Darren, here is the dxf file of what I was cutting.

Are you using "cutter diameter compensation" G41 or G42 ?
If you are put a G40 at the start of the program.

N10 G40G17G80G49
N20 T1 M6(6.35mm)
N30 G90G54
N40 M3
N50 G0X29.827Y-46.290
N60 Z30.000
N70 G0Z5.000
N80 G0Z3.000
N90 G1Z0.000F500.0

At the end of the cut retract above Z0. before applying G40.

G01 X28.85

Z0.
G40
M5
G04 P1000
N2330 G0Z40.000
N2340
N2350 M30

"Dwell" (time delay) G04 ?
Again ensure that you are above Z0.

N40920 X29.827Y-46.290
Z0.
M5
G04 P1000
N40930 G0Z50.000
N40940
N40950 M30

I'm only seeing 6 rectangles in your .dxf Pete, but they all appear to be closed vectors.
What version of software are you using?

Vectric cut 2D.

Probably a version too new for me to open. Go to the Central forum and post. Brilliant and helpful folks there.

I checked the dxf as well, only 6 outer rectangles show under Autocad 2016, 4 large squares, 2 rectangles. I suspect not all the vectors were selected prior to export

Oh, and awesome job getting the machine cutting, well done Sir. Really like the vacuum table.

Does Vector 2D have cut simulation? If you have not run it through the cut simulation, you could try that and see if the problem appears there as well. That would help with troubleshooting.
I use Aspire and I can can run a cut simulation to check for problems before cutting any material.

Full dxf
Version 8.02 on vectric.

Yes vectric has simulation. Not seeing it there.

One major thing I did was I went to a down spiral bit and took the speed up to 400 inches per minute. I may drop the speed down.

400 ipm is cooking. I've never ran that fast.

Pete...
I'm with Darren. You will fight a long fight trying to get accurate quality cuts at those speeds with gravity based motion mechanics.

Only did that based on what I thought I read here.
What speeds do you run?

When you tune your motors in Mach what velocity do you set?

My sweet spot with an 1/8" down spiral in 1/2" BB doing a 3 pass cutout is 125 IPM. at 8Kish RPM with my Milwaukee router and a SuperPID speed controller.

Thank you.

Is that what you set your velocity at then?

success
 

Set my feed rate to 125
set acceleration to 35
set look ahead to 200 lines.

Perfect corners.

Thanks guys.

Excellent!!

Is there any particular reason why your Z-axis is mounted backwards in the Y-car?

Congrats on your build!!' Yes you'll be 127. I'll update once I'm back in the office.

Alan,
I went back and watched the video. It took me a second to look at the brown machine in motion, but you are right. The router is on the opposite side of the y axis drive motor end of the car.

Pete,
You most likely won't experience any significant issues, but the drive motor is designed to be close to the cutting tip. Personally, I have used a MM with dual Z axis in my #5 and never noticed a real issue unless really pushing the speed of the machine. If going to fast, and the cutting tool further away from the rack and pinion side, the tool path does change with deflection.

Just keep an eye on it.

Sean

Alan, good catch. Dyslexic I guess. I'm not noticing any deflection but will change it. Thanks for the advice Sean.

George made me money today. He cut out a large variety of parts while Tony and I were doing other tasks. 16 sheets of plywood cut into a bunch of small parts with all the shapes and holes complete. Pretty awesome. To me at least.

He does just what he is commanded to do.

Doing the tally on costs and hours to build. Right at $7,000 US and 150 man hours. Less on both accounts than I had figured. That does not include the equipment that I purchased to do the job or the hours of study prior to actually building it. It helped to have the funds available so we could get the materials in at one time. We didn't forget where we were at.

Mike, sounds good.

Oh. If you want you can change the title as well. Maybe "By George it cuts!"

Dont change it just yet, lets see how it works, it may be better for you as you have your dovetail jig at the back of the machine and this orientation may make it better when operating on that side, especially when changing cutters. It all depends on which end you will be spending most of your time.

By the way Sean, I'll have you know. That is not Brown. It's "Copper tone Bronze".
Sheez.

;) Cheers!

Keep it up Pete, and the new title may be " 'Old Man Brown' machine runs despite glaring flaws in the construction!!"


:p:rolleyes:

You used to be such a nice boy Darren.

Can't let you get a big head, Pete.

You leave my head out of this.