My x35 woodworker seems to have developed a mind of its own

[Aiph5u (Aiph5u (not affiliated with Onefinity))]

Hey John,

@Woodenwizard

I was cutting some finger holds on an end grain cutting board and the first attempt the machine whent to the far right side and began cutting into the cutting board. It was nothing like the tool paths I had entered from Vectric Pro. I stoped the cut and re-booted everything reset X,Y, and Z and attempted to cout the tool paths again. This time it began as it should have, on the left side ot the board. Then about 25% through the cut, it just took off on a random path through the middle of the board. Can anyone tell me what the problem was, how to correct for it so it doesn’t happen again. I just ruined a nice endgrain cutting board. I unpluged the cables, and plugged them back in. Seems like the X cable may have a problem with maintaining connection. I rebooted everything, zeroed X,Y, and Z and tried the tool path for the third time. This time it managed to complete the cut.

everytime I hear this it makes me so sad because I belong those who appreciate the existence of wood so much, and most frequent causes to ruin it with the machine usually would not even need to be. I assume you have the Standard Series machine that can show problems with the connectors, especially because of the lack of strain relief on this machine.

@Aiph5u

the Cable Connectors used on Onefinity are the weak spot on the Onefinity (not the controller), especially in combination with the lack of strain relief on this machine. As someone who has assembled and troubleshot many computers, I can’t have a good opinion of such tin-plated connector contacts. The Onefinity CNC manufacturer addresses possible connector problems in this FAQ document .

@Aiph5u

If one day you find that your Z-axis moves up and down as it pleases and ruins your workpiece and your wasteboard, you might find that it’s because the connectors can make problems (see also here), which may be caused by the fact that you did not yet retrofit strain relief to your machine , which the machine unfortunately lacks. In this case you may want to procure what is needed to make new cables yourself. The same applies if you want custom length cables which would be the case if you want to mount the controller further away.

So what I would try before risking to loose another piece of wood, is check the cables and especially its connectors, and where they are crimped (if you can look a little into them, do they come out when you move the connector on the cable) or do you measure discontinuity in resistance between both ends with a multimeter? You can use the search function to search for cable multimeter to find how others solved their issue. Unfortunately if you search for plunges workpiece you can find many other who observed their machine ruining a workpiece.

Should this be the cause of your issue, the best thing to avoid that in the future is to retrofit a serious cable management system to the machine, especially where the cables hang freely without strain relief on moving parts, as is the case for the X and Z stepper cables where they enter the left end of X axis, and the curly Z cable often fails after a longer time too.

@Aiph5u

I would check all the points in the help document “Troubleshooting: Rail is getting hung, stuck, or out of alignment” one by one.

Also note that cables not only fail on their connectors. A multimeter can help. Also be aware that neither Onefinity cable is made for permanent motion in a CNC. Sometimes replacing the curly Z cable, that can break internally, or retrofitting strain relief on the machine can help (or better retrofitting a drag chain system that runs cables specifically made for permanent motion).

It was already the choice of these Molex connectors on the Buildbotics controller that was a mistake that Onefinity inherited on their hardware fork, but it’s quite obvious that the machine/controller was also about a low price threshold. With gold-plated circular connectors as used in the industry and a proper cable management (drag chain) this happens less of course.

@Woodenwizard

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Would attach a photo but not sure how to do that.

[OT] You can upload an image with the seventh icon on the top bar of the message compositing window (the icon called “Upload”). A file selection window opens where you can choose a file to upload into your message from your computer.

But it is not necessary to show a photo. If you search for “plunges workpiece”, you can find enough and we all know how this looks like. It is a very sad topic