out of ideas

[electrictermite]

I see things I would not do - BUT - I don't see enough wrong that it would not work.

First you mount one piece of wood and run the first two toolpaths.
That makes the inlay female pocket.

Then you remove that first piece

Then you put a new piece of wood and run the second two toolpaths.
That makes the male insert.

Is that what you did?

Yes clearing and then finish on first piece of wood for female.

[Adrian]

Should I try to run clearing endmill with pocket function and follow up running vbit with vcarve funtion to clean up

You need to figure out why you're getting the results you are with the v-carve clearance toolpath. Changing to a different toolpath is just going to cover the issue up if it actually works at all.

There's no VCarve product reason why you should be seeing the results you are. If there was an issue like that with the v-carve clearance toolpath the forum would be full of people having the same issue.

[electrictermite]

I just had another look at the preview compared to your pictures and it looks like a machine issue to me. Compare the left hand side of the W from the picture to the preview. In the preview the sides are parallel in the cut they're widening out and the bottom curves of the W are a lot bigger.

Similar thing with the N. The centre section is far wider than in the preview. In each of those areas you have that island. With the S it's constant curves rather than straights so the loading on the bit is different.

That is something to check. I ran it 3 times on the wood after setting the touch probe just to see it it would follow the Same track. Since there is no resistance after the first running unless it ran off on a new track there is nothing to force it off track. It ran the same track 3 times and that is why I can not figure it to be machine ?

[Adrian]

Strange that it does it with no load but it seems odd to me that straight lines seem to be running off line while the curves stay on. My money is still on some sort of machine configuration error.

[adze_cnc]

...and do you re-zero to the surface of the second piece?

Why I ask is that the material thickness in the file (for both plug and pocket) is specified as 1". But the material thickness for the pocket piece in the picture above does not appear to be 1" thick. The material thickness for the plug piece at the thread I linked to above does appear to be 1" thick.

Because none of the cuts are through-cuts having differing thicknesses for plug and pocket material is not a problem unless you don't re-zero when swapping pieces.

What also confuses me is that I watched a demo video for the Carve King and it was cutting aluminum quickly and thickly. Yet, in this file for wood the depth of cut for the 1/8" bit is 0.025" (0.635mm) and the feed rate is 25 in/min (less than 1/2" per second) with a chip load of 6/10,000 of an inch...(1/6th the thickness of a sheet of paper).

[Leo]

If it moving around?

How is the workpiece being held down on the machine?

[Leo]

OK - no load and it is repeating the same tool path?

Are you absolutely sure that you are running ONLY the first toolpath? JUST the clearance tool.

If it was the machine I would think you would get erratic behavior, not a repeating behavior.

Can you take a shallow cut using the same program on some scrap wood. Using 3 pieces of scrap wood. Run ONLY one toolpath - the clearance tool.

edit in
Do NOT change anything, don't even reset Z zero, just change the workpiece. Of course it needs to be positioned in the same position as the previous piece.
end edit in

Run three tests. Take a pic of the three tests and post the results.

If - it is the program, all 3 will look exactly the same.

[Adrian]

Which post processor are you using? If the code produced by that is correct for your machine it has to be a machine/controller/configuration error.

I'm wondering if it's an acceleration/deceleration issue (constant velocity) as it looks like it goes wonky after a straight section when the machine would be moving at it's fastest stage of the cut.

[electrictermite]

I will try some of the posts out when I get home from work and reply.

[electrictermite]

i tried some of the posted suggestions. i got home and loaded saved template. i deleted old tool paths. i went into tools and changed the step over from 70 to 40 on the Amana 46200. i unchecked the box for " project on 3d model ". i made a new tool path just for female clearing and female finish pass. I saved each tool path separately. I am using Source Rabbit since one of you asked. i will look back at the post to change some more things and try. below is the result of the changes i made. looks like those changes did not work.

[adze_cnc]

I'm wondering if it's an acceleration/deceleration issue (constant velocity) as it looks like it goes wonky after a straight section when the machine would be moving at it's fastest stage of the cut.

And we're back here. You might check out the following two videos from Peter Passuello (click on the bright graphic at each blog posting to see the associated YouTube video):

1. Constant Velocity—Don't Do it! https://www.cncnutz.com/2020/08/constan ... e-248.html
2. Make Smooth running GCode https://www.cncnutz.com/2020/09/make-sm ... e-249.html

[electrictermite]

I'm wondering if it's an acceleration/deceleration issue (constant velocity) as it looks like it goes wonky after a straight section when the machine would be moving at it's fastest stage of the cut.

And we're back here. You might check out the following two videos from Peter Passuello (click on the bright graphic at each blog posting to see the associated YouTube video):

1. Constant Velocity—Don't Do it! https://www.cncnutz.com/2020/08/constan ... e-248.html
2. Make Smooth running GCode https://www.cncnutz.com/2020/09/make-sm ... e-249.html

i watched it and that is way too much to do. I noticed that i do vcarve in inches and save tool paths in inches. when i run Source Rabbit it is set as mm instead of inches. could this be the problem. do i need to do vcarve in inches, save tool path in inches and run Source Rabbit in inches.

[Adrian]

i watched it and that is way too much to do. I noticed that i do vcarve in inches and save tool paths in inches. when i run Source Rabbit it is set as mm instead of inches. could this be the problem. do i need to do vcarve in inches, save tool path in inches and run Source Rabbit in inches.

Generally you want to have the machine set to the same units that the post processor uses. What units you use in VCarve when designing and creating tool definitions doesn't matter.

If you're saving the toolpath in inches but your controller software is set to mm then the post processor must have a command in it to switch. If the job was running in mm then it would be tiny but still correct which isn't what you're seeing.

It's worth making sure that the post processor and control software match though as it does eliminate one more thing.

With issues like this there isn't a quick way to get to the bottom of it. It's a matter of changing one thing at a time and seeing what it changes. If you go at it with a scatter gun approach you'll never know what fixed it.

Looking back at your feed rates, pass depths and RPM's for that tool they all seem way off to me but as you say it's still doing the same thing with an air cut so that won't be the major issue but it's something you need to learn about once you've got the main issue resolved.

Using a manufacturers tool data base doesn't guarantee that the feed rates are correct for your machine.

[martin54]

As the others have said this is likely to be a process of elimination, there isn't a magic fix-all button for a lot of this stuff & it's a case of working through one change at a time to find the root cause of the problem. Manufacturers' settings are generally aimed at machines that are more capable than yours & even if you have a machine built to a higher specification they should still really only be treated as a starting point to fine-tune your own machine.

First thing I would generally have said is lower your speed & feed settings to see if that makes any difference but as Adrian has pointed out if you have run an air cut & had the same results then that is unlikely to be an issue.

It doesn't look like you are losing steps because that would lead to the letters looking completely wrong in their shape overall which they don't it seems to be just certain parts of certain letters which as has been mentioned could be an acceleration/deacceleration issue.

You might want to consider contacting Vectric support directly as they will have more knowledge using different types of machine & machine controller.

support@vectric.com

[Leo]

So, You can keep guessing at it - maybe you will get lucky - maybe not

You need to isolate the problem. How? Through a process of elimination.

1) Is it in the post processor?
2) Is it a machine issue?
3) Is it the G-Code?
4) Is it feeds and speeds?
5) Is it in V-Carve?
6) Is is a control issue?
7) Is it loosing steps?
Is it in program transfer?

How do you figure it out? By guessing?

I asked you to run a test. That test would help to isolate the issue by eliminating some of the guesses.
NOT by guessing.
We can ELIMINATE some guesses by performing some tests.

You are currently running around in circles, and that is because of "guessing".

Do you want to solve this?