I need some help in laying out a carve I have 9 wood game flippers I want to carve with numbers 1-9 and want to do it in one machine pass each flipper measures.798”wide x 2.090”long x .485” Thk. Lined up side by side total width is 7.083” see (attached photos) The way I’v been doing it my numbers come out off center they’re ok in the first few numbers but way off center in the last couple of numbers. Whats the best way to accomplish this Thanks Jim Tar
You may need to calibrate your axes. It sounds like your steps per mm for X need to be a bit larger.
7.182 is 9 x .718
Thanks Martin I made a typo in my first post the width of my flipper is .787 x 9 =7.083 and the photos were for illustration only. I also have a Millright King Carve Machine I watched Paw Paw calibration but he has an X carve Machine I don’t know if Millright King Carve calibrate the same, but I will CK it out Thanks again
Jim Tar
If it is a grbl machine, then there are the grbl settings that you can get to change.
Two ideas that might help if this isn’t an issue with accuracy:
- Make sure you are measuring the overall width after you clamp them together. They may measure some amount, and multiplying them out probably makes sense, but reality often differs by small amounts that can compound. I’d clamp them together, measure the total width, and divide that out by the number of items, rather than assuming dimensions are correct.
- If possible, try starting your cut from the center, rather than the corner. I know this isn’t always possible, but if you can, then you cut the compounded error in half (50% to either side of center, rather than 100% across the whole width).
Another option that has worked amazing for me is to cut a jig out of some cheap wood, with 9 individual spaces. You can align the numbers to the slots, then duplicate the workpiece in Easel and set the slots to 0 height.
If you have a repeatable 0-point, and can repeatably clamp your jig to the same spot, then you can just drop in the 9 pieces. Without knowing your exact design, I’m not sure how you’d clamp them, but there’s probably a simple way.
I use jigs on both my X-Carve Pro and laser for repeat carving. It makes it fool-proof, and I don’t have to align the x & y after the initial jig is set. Easel also has a repeat-carve option now, which will reuse the previous Z setting as well. It’s extremely quick to knock out dozens of the same cuts.
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I would mark a center line based on each number tile dimension and then layout the keyboard based on this center line. All letters have different dimensions, Fonts have either fixed or have proportional spacing. ie W is wider than I and 1 is different than 8 and this means both that the text processor and the drawing is also padding the font text behind close doors so you can’t see. Also be cautious what Easel is actually showing in it’s preview and that Times might be different than Times Roman.
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Press ctrl+shift+d to open the "Machine Inspector” window. This will show you exactly both where the spindle actually is in relation to home position and where the spindle is relative to the work piece start position.