I have no idea what’s going on!

Can anyone explain this? It started cutting correctly, then suddenly started cut the design in a completely different place. Like it changed the original starting point mid cut. You can see in the image that it started in the correct spot, then continued about 2 inches higher. I have no idea. I don’t want to keep wasting wood if it keeps doing this.

Can you send the gcode file and explain what software and job setup parameters?

I just tried it again on a piece of scrap and it worked fine. The only thing I did differently is take off the dust boot. I got a new dust boot yesterday. The machine did this one other time and it happened when I touched the metal on the machine. I felt some static discharge and then it started cutting in a different spot. Just like this. I didn’t touch the machine this time though. Could the new dust boot be causing static build up that causes the machine to go all haywire?

This is the new dust boot by the way. This is without the brush part attached.

Absolutely, static can mess up the machine. Its best to ground or isolate the dust system so no discharges can happen

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I just completed my new shop. The dust collection (aka shop vac) is on its own circuit. The router is on its own circuit. The monitor and controller share a circuit. What do you mean by grounding it?

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If the dustcollector has any plastic piping you can create a static charge so it needs to be connected to a ground. There’s many solutions to this if you look through the forum or on youtube

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Thank you. I’ll take a look. I hate that the whole project can be ruined by accidentally touching a metal part of the machine. This last time it may have happened. I did touch it but only the sleeve of my sweatshirt. I guess that was enough.

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The problem is that you dont even have to touch it. Once enough of a static charge is built up, it will try to find a path to ground. Depending on the path, it can play havoc with electronics.

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I looked up some information on grounding, including on this forum. Unfortunately, it all seems to be too far above my head. So, not sure how to solve the problem.

I have an old-time solution to the static problem. scrape a bit of the plastic off the coiled wire in your dust hose, connect an alligator clip with a connected wire to the coiled wire in the dust hose and then connect that wire to a grounded pipe like a piece of plumbing and presto, no more static.

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I recently had something similar happen, which ended up being a bigger issue, but I believe it was partially because my dust collection system wasn’t properly grounded

Check this out