Futura not cutting straight

[girlfromkent]

Help! This is really stressing me out

Just upgraded to a (second hand) Keencut Futura, mainly as a treat for working my arse off over Christmas but also because my original Ultimat appeared to have a few quirks that meant sometimes I had to do things twice.

I appear to still be having these problems, so it must be me rather than the cutter.

First things first
The straight cut is not cutting exactly straight. I cut all my board on here so this is a problem.
Even if I take off the edges to ensure the mat is square, I'm getting a 2mm difference, i.e. A mat cut to 30mm will be 30 one end and 32 the other. I would be so grateful if someone can help me solve this.

Secondly
On all the bevel cuts I get a (albeit very small) scuff where the blade pulls out. I've tried releasing pressure on the mat before lifting the blade out and this helps but surely it shouldn't do this anyway

Many thanks in advance as I'm going nuts

Megan

[JonathanB]

I would ring Keencut - they're great at talking you through an issue and helping you solve it

[Not your average framer]

I have experience similar things in the past. For me the solution was to adjust the flatness of the working surface under the mount cutter. It is an unfortunate fact of life that the base board of the mount cutter has got a little bit of flex and that is needs to be on a nice flat surface to stay perfectly flat. This has become more significant since the introduction of extruded aluminium base boards on more modern mount cutters. If the base board of the mount cutter is not flat, then the clamping action of the flat bar which the travelling cutter head slides along, with vary along it's length and permit some side ways movement of the mount board as the blade is carrying out the cut. This is not always obvious unless you know what to look for.

It is particularly a problem, when the surface under the mount cutter is twisted from one end of the mount cutter to the other. I have a digital level, which shows the exact angular amount that any deviation may be and this enables me to correct this with shims of card, or paper, very simply and easily. My shop is in a very old building an the floor moves over time, with variations between wet, or dry times of the year. Newer buildings are much less likely to do this. I measure the deviation at different places using a long still and flat straight edge, which allows me to measure the deviation over the full width of the mount cutter base, otherwise you may be chasing your tail over shorter deviations which possibly are not actually in contact with the base of the mount cutter and therefore have no effect that needs to be corrected.

I hope that this is helpful and makes adequate sense, so that it may be easily understood.
Mark.

[girlfromkent]

Thanks both.

I'm talking to Keencut tech support and will look at getting a flatter worktop.

[Richard Photofusion]

Another variable is the organic drive control unit. On ourJavelin BigBench, I had to condition myself to walk with the cutter head, or atleast swivel from the hips as I pushed through longer sections of more rigid materials. I discovered that I'd apply slight rotation with my fore arm, as I pushed through the cut (I put that down to karate as a kid). This flexed the cutting head, and took the cutting blade out from the desired 90 degrees.

[Parm]

Hi Mark - Hope your well!
Would 'flex' in the baseboard and / or - the work top, also cause a slight 'hook' or 'bend' in the cut - usually in a corner?
Kind regards
Parm

[Not your average framer]

It can do, but there are other possibilities to consider as well, particularly slack in the cutter head bearings, or cheaper quality blade which sometimes flex too easily when being plunged in to the mount board. You really need to look and see what is happening as the hook is ocurring.

[prospero]

Just to clarify.....

I take it that it's cutting the blank board dead square that is the prob. (?)
And not the actual cutting of the window.

Sounds like the measuring arm is not square to the cutter bar. These machines do go off-kilter with use.
(Especially if the operator is a tad heavy-handed. )

Methinks it needs a bit of recalibration.

[Parm]

Thanks Gents