After months of stopping and going, cursing in desperation and several false “Eureka!” moments… I’ve decided I won’t fix this on my own. Hopefully someone here can shine some light in my wavy darkness 
[lens clean, tightened, mirrors tightened, belts are tight (and tried various tightnesses), pulleys are press fitted on the shafts from what I can tell - so no weeble wobble there, the file is “clean”]
So, the picture illustrates the problem I have. I have a kind of but not entirely rhythmic deviation in my x-axis. This is a “bar code” sample I drew with vector lines and then engraved in LaserWeb. The same thing happened when I engraved from LaserDRW prior.
As far as I can tell the problem first occurred after I tried to swap out the moshi board for a ramps board - which was a disaster to say the least. I reverted back to moshi before buying a Smoothieboard. Hoever I can’t properly engrave anymore since.
I have checked all the mechanical components as much as I can, to the point of trying other motors and such. Right now I’m waiting on parts to replace the entire carriage with v-slot rails and stuff, but I’m not sure that will be the solution. My best guess is that the laser is firing too slow, but I don’t have the equipment to test it…nor does it make a lot of sense. The only lead I have/had is that the tube should be " hot stand by " in between actual firing to agitate the plasma and stuff… but from what I can measure and trial and error, the Smoothieboards min-value doesn’t do anything.
I used Don’s wiring schematic with the only exception I’m using a big mosfet as I’ve managed to somehow blow up the small one and that isn’t replaced yet.
Who has any suggestions on how to test where the culprit lies :-)?
Thanks in advance and please do ask if I need to run some tests beyond the usual.
