Stray Cuts

[nat_wheatley]

Under the right conditions (RPM's way too low, or Dust Collector turned off), I've seen my machine forced off course, only to return to normal cutting. I've seen the cut path stray as much as 1" out of line.

It's not something that I encounter in day to day cutting, and I'm only posting as I'm currently having an issue with my DC relay, needing to turn it on manually for each sheet. The other day I was late in turning it on, and several parts were off as a result of the stray cutting.

Machine is a PRS Alpha, and I'm typically cutting 3/4" melamine, full depth, at 480ipm, which I know does put considerable force on the machine.

Is there a setting I can change to eliminate this?

Thanks

[beacon14]

I don't really have an answer, but I'm wondering why the dust collector being on or off affects the cut line?

[nat_wheatley]

The dust not being evacuated from the kerf (but rather driven back into it), seems to be adding force to the cut for some reason. I wouldn't have thought it so, had I not seen it happen.

I've cut a lot of sheets with these same settings with no issue. On the one sheet I hadn't turned the DC on, the cut stray was enough to make the parts unusable. There was about a 3/8" 'arc' on what should have been the straight edge of a panel. Several other parts had a smaller waver in the edge. I turned the DC on the middle of the sheet, and the remaining parts cut fine.