A little stinky at times, but a good friend none the less.
He arrived two days ago, with ALL FOUR HANDLES and a pretty immaculate box.
Since this is only my second day using a laser cutter ever, and I have a lot to learn, my cuts have been pretty basic. However, I already work with vectors and svgs for my vinyl cutter, so I know a little about that part.
My first cut was the glowforge ruler keychain, and it was flawless. I’ve pretty much just been doing a bunch of test cuts on non proofgrade materials so I can gain some understanding on how the machine and software works, before I go all out into production mode. These are some test earrings I’ve been messing with, and as you can see, they are cutting really wiggly.
my table is solid and not moving while cutting.
Anyone know why this is happening? Every pair has cut the same. I made the file myself and know it’s clean.
I was really hoping to attain some good detail for some pieces I hope to make.
Thanks guys!
I can try that. They are wiggly in the same spots too. It’s .061 thick wood, and I have the cut at 455speed and full power. It’s a pretty clean cut, but I’m also trying to reduce the flashback.
What design software are you using to produce the vectors for cutting? Can you go in node edit mode and see where the nodes are. Often at larger screen resolutions and thicker stroke widths, you can’t see that the lines are in fact shifted at a node. I see that there is a larger overlap at the top left of the earring that might be where the cut starts and stops. Check to see if your nodes are joined. The fewer nodes the better. Also, keep upping the speed till it just goes through. What happens at a node is one of the handles gets jerked out of alignment slightly of the correct path and you get some wobble in what looks like smooth path. You can also zoom in to check the vector with the display in outline mode that gives a very thin stroke width and allows you to see how smooth the lines are. If you don’t wish to post the file for us to look at it, you might consider PMing it to someone. We are pretty reliable about just checking them out an not using them for our own use.
Just to round things out, I was going to suggest trying it on a different material - looks to me like the wavy line is kind of following the grain of the wood. Might be some hard spots in it that are burning unevenly?
If we are looking at the same things, notice the left and right waves happen at the same spots. They appear around the corner curves and repeat exactly. I’d say there was one earring shape made and then duplicated so the error is propagated to the other shape.
I’m using MTC (Make The Cut). I can edit nodes, however, there are none along the top side. You are also correct that I made one and duplicated. Looking at the nodes, there are only 8 nodes on the whole outside shape, one where each corner starts and ends. The sides are all straight.
I have seen ringing when going at high speed around a corner. You are cutting near the top speed so wouldn’t be surprised if that is what your are seeing. Looks like the motion was counter-clockwise and started ringing after the bottom left and top right corners. Slowing it down and lowering the power to compensate should fix it.
It kind of looks like backlash or what we would call “ringing” in 3D printing. That is, overshoot on the corner and then vibration that dampens out over time.
On a 3D printer I’d suggest looking for looseness in the Y axis direction (belts, v-wheels, etc.) and on the carriage, head, etc.
Also, is the head firmly connected to the carriage via the magnets?
The orientation is as we see here, right? The vibration is front to back over right to left and left to right motion.
I think @rpegg is right. Generally proofgrade cuts and score settings are slower. I think moving the whole tube back and forth is just a lot of mass to stop and start.
I’ve got a knk zing. I have been very happy with it…it’s a workhorse…at least I treat it like one and it’s still going strong! As for MTC, even though it looks like the updates are done, I’m still happy with it. I don’t regret buying it, and it works great for making svgs for this new toy, er, business machine.
Well, all of you who suggested slowing it down, that was the fix! Thanks guys! Sorry I was out all day processing a deer and I just got home. I tried it again, slower, and it worked the first time!
I’m glad you resolved it! Thanks all for the help. I’m going to close this thread - if the problem reoccurs, go ahead and post a new topic. Thanks for letting us know about this!
