Locked Down and Cutting Like a Pro

It has been a long hard road, but I can now say that my Phlatprinter \\\ is cutting the way that I had expected it to from the beginning, this after a month and a half of daily trials and tribulations dealing with its finicky behaviours.


Today I buttoned up the machine and put the covers back on and retested my normal group of test files.  Circles are once again circles and tracking is right on the money with both foam and MDF.  I still have a few more tests to perform, but from what I am seeing, I don't think there will be any more surprises.


During all the recent activity, I had managed to break my two best 1/32" end mills.  I went to Skycraft to get some replacements today only to find out that a group of folks had bought every box of the assorted sizes of bits.  All that was available were a bunch of small drill bits, so it looks like I will have to order some replacements before I can complete all my tests and cut out my Balsa project.


In the coming days, if time permits, I would like to review what I have learned over the past two months and recap what it took to make my Phlatprinter \\\ perform as well as I my expectations.


I would even like to do a video showing the various areas I had to modify to get where I am today and to show some of the tests I have used during this time which have been instrumental in solving the puzzle.


I continue to see posts on the forum which indicate the same problems that I had are prevalent in other machines.  Some are going it alone or waiting for new rollers to fix all their problems, but the fact is, there are many contributing factors and the only way to get one of these machines to perform at its best, is to attack it on all its fronts.


Some may not even realize they have issues because all they care about is cutting out a foam plane in which accuracy down to a 1/16" of inch is not even noticed.  But there will come a day when they will need that accuracy, and it may or may not be there.


Showing that you can cut 10" circles does not mean a machine is cutting accurately.  Try cutting a 1/4" hole for a landing gear screw or a 36 to 48" strip of material with slots and tabs that has to line up with matching parts cut on the X axis and then you will know whether or not that you have a perfectly tuned machine.