Acrylic carve design keeps changing - 3018 pro

[Travis2]

Hello,

I have been trying now for the last few weeks on my free time to get my 3018 genmitsu pro to carve a proper design and It keeps changing on me.

So first off I know most of you are going to go “3018 is trash” I understand. I picked it up to start to learn. Im a professional designer and have done a lot of work in vectors before and I figured this would be a cool field to get into and start a small business.

So starting out I had to learn from a lot of mistakes with the acrylic and I more or less got to the conclusion to not melt the acrylic I needed to set the settings as you will see in my attachments. I read that these were recommended by easel. I am doing a 1/32 cut with a .0002 feed depth to slowly and lightly cut without getting melted plastic stuck to the bit. which I did several times early on trying to set/learn.

Okay so here is where its getting me. I finally hit a perfect cut. I was stoked. But the next time I did it. With the same file. The outter line moved. Then again with the next one and the next. I at this point am confused and am like… Do I need to try another program? I feel like at this point its got to be the pathing that is screwing up right? After over and over again having it just move the line. I can only assume that is what is breaking it over and over? I did on a early cut watch the matchine skip. But that was cous I was trying to cut deep and fast. But I haven’t seen the machine skip on these and I am doing veryyyy light passes several times to just get 1/32 cut.

Can anyone give me some assistance? Am I missing something? Why do these keep doig everything perfect except a few spots each time and changing each time?

I’ll attach photos now. If you look the outer line in the design just keeps moving. Or interior the lines end up moving and going over other parts. I don’t feel like Im doing anything to crazy here. Maybe acrylic is just way harder to work with? I also have this thing fastened down like tightly. Its not moving. Showing below. I have given a solid bop on the sides and it doesn’t budge on the machine and design with my clamps. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Travis2]

Oh with the designs. The only one that properly cut exactly was the top 2nd to the right. The top 3rd to the right was the next one I did and the line heavily moved over on the left and bottom side. The 4th over on the top I perfectly measured to be straight. I canceled the cut after I saw it had inner left lines move…

[Travis2]

bump - Still trying to find a solution here. Thanks!

[NeilFerreri1]

You’re running the same file? This all looks mechanical to me. Make sure your shaft coupler set screws are tight.

[MartinW.Mcclary]

I have an all metal 3018 that I bought just to see what it was about. It actually is a pretty capable little machine. I think I’d replace any plastic parts with metal ones if they are available, and as Neil mentioned, check all the fasteners.
I haven’t done this, but there is only one spring on the Anti backlash nuts, and I think I saw somewhere where somebody doubled them up or replaced them with a stiffer one… It could be worth the small investment to get better results.