Not sure what happened to cause this alignment problem

[Roy Fleshman]

Hi Guys,
Seems like the best practice with problems is to upload photos and the file. So if I did this incorrectly, I apologize in advance. I still have newbie-itezs. I am building a cradle for the soon to be arriving grand daughter.

I have mocked it all up in pine, albeit a smaller size in some cases and larger in others. This allowed me to tweak it to where I wanted to. Great machine to do this with by the way.
I was so pleased with the result, I went a little out side of my comfort zone. I added both pieces together into one pattern or plan and cut it as one. I also took the carving level up to best bit optimization. At first it seemed to be working great. But some how the names got misaligned with the tree and the cuts were off maybe half an inch. I used a 40 inch board that was 10.5 inches in width. I told the rollers no and not cut to size or any other adjustments. If you get a moment and look at the result and the mpc, maybe you can give me an idea of what I did wrong. It might have been a one-off act of nature, I don't know. I had just completed a pine one with the tree moments before. Tomorrow is another day and I will give it a try doing each one individually I saved the files.
Thank you in advance.

[CW-HAL9000]

The board lost its tracking with the brass roller. Possible causes are no masking tape on the bottom of the board along side that contacts the brass roller. Board not flat, ends tipped due to infeed and outfeed tables not adjusted properly and or additional out feed and in feed support was needed due to length of the board.

[Digitalwoodshop]

I can't look at the mpc as I have older Designer.

Look for any 90 degree restraints that are yellow as in holding the board position or even yellow lines based on the edges of the board. Select them then select remove restraints to turn them green.

Best guess....

[DickB]

I think CW-HAL9000 called it. The longer the board, the more difficult to ensure proper tracking, as any warp or cup in the board can be exaggerated. You have to have the feed rollers set just so for boards of this length. It's less critical with shorter boards.

One practice I recommend, based on my experience with many, many 4' long projects, is to have the machine measure the board before you run the project. If the board can track well during the measuring process, it will likely track well for the project. You can avoid ruining an expensive board, or having the project carving/cutting operation halted by an error, by doing this. If the board cannot be measured due to tracking errors, adjust the infeed rollers, add masking tape, etc. until it can be measured without error. Then run the project without removing the board.

I would suggest that you start using a sled or sleds for a couple of reasons. First, you can eliminate the waste of expensive stock by leaving the 7" behind. Second, if you build a straight sled, it will track well, even if the project board that you load in it is slightly cupped or warped. It makes for more reliable operation.

In your mpc, I recommending limiting the depth of cut on your cutouts to no more than .25", particularly when using hardwood stock.

[DianMayfield]

Hi Roy,

I think it will be beautiful when done. Nice job.

I did notice that your cut lines are very close to the top edge (.171), which ends up being above the roller mentioned earlier. It is recommended that your cut lines are no closer than 1/2 inch to the top edge of your board in Designer, or load it on a sled.

Did it ask you to scale the project? Scaling causes unpredictable results, especially with text. Been there, done that, have the bad carves to show for it!