Tiled cut issues

Hi all,

Could anyone assist in why my profile cuts refuse to line up when doing tiled cut and feeding through Y direction? I have made a straight fence, so I am sure I am feeding the stock material through straight - but every time I try to cut Tile 2, it always starts about 3-4mm to the left of Tile 1.

I currently zero my XYZ on Tile 1 (bottom left corner) and run cuts. Then I carefully slide my material down the table against a fence to the specified tile height (800mm in my case). I keep the same 0:0 as Tile 1 and ensure my Tile 2 bottom left corner is lined up with that (using an engraving bit with fine point for accuracy).

Any other ideas?? Should I zero XYZ for both tiles?

1 Like

I have not tried tiling myself but I have been watching some YouTube on the process. Most (all?) videos I have seen use some sort of registration holes, cut by the CNC, to ensure alignment.

For example: https://youtu.be/6c7iN2NlSHA

2 Likes

What software are you using, Kyle?

Thanks Ben I will have to try it out. It’s just so odd, as I am sliding it against a straight fence but it always seems to be out by 3mm along the X axis.

I tried physically moving my stock for the Tile 2 cut buy 3mm to the right and ended up getting results I could work with. Really odd.

Hi Dave, V Carve Pro

Is your machine a parallelogram?

2 Likes

This is a video that Vectric put up on Youtube regarding tiling of 2D toopaths, might be worth a look.

Thanks Nick. Think you might have nailed it

1 Like

I would recommend checking if the straight fence is parallel to the machine axis.
You could slowly jog a bit (not running) 1mm alongside your fence and measure if the gap between the bit and the fence remains constant.

There are (expensive) sensors to test parallelism, of course, but if you have a 3mm difference it would show with just a simple ruler and a long bit.

For anyone else doing a search on how to improve their tiling game, ensure that you’ve 1)made your 1F coplanar, 2)made it square, and 3)ensured that your model’s distance is the distance that is travelled in real life.

To that, I might add 4)when you do your tiling material reference holes, ensure that you’ve recorded your 0,0 offsets. From these boards (specifically here, and here), I’ve gleaned that this is the only way (short of some fancy homing switches) to get your 1F within decent tolerances of your previously cut reference holes (if, say you incorporated 19.05mm/.75" dogs and 20mm dogs as extremely flexible reference pegs and as an incorporated clamping system).

That way, any placement grid you might do as one of your first projects and your 96mm-on-center (or whatever) dog holes, which will help you both to line up future large workpieces for tiling, and help you keep alignment when you replace individual spoil boards (I have the QCW, and have already replaced the first spoil board strip because the reference doghouse were out-of-whack…I’ll likely replace the 2nd as well, but noting the offset this time).

With 4) above, I may be way off base, as I am still learning the ropes and building experience with the 1F J-man and wheeled/portable QCW (from below). Anyone with the knowledge, please chime in and school me if I’m wrong.