No, skipped steps are extremely rare. Check your driver voltage and temps (import ramps boards have not been very good quality for the last year), max speeds, pulleys, belt tension.
Dull bit can cause it, non perpendicular also means one side is cutting really lightly and the other is cutting extremely deeply.
Skipped steps may be rare, but I’m losing position, because after a “slowdown” it doesn’t go back to the correct zero (which is pretty different compared to before where it cut badly but it still got back, I don’t really know why).
Temps are low, 40C for the steppers, and around that for the driver, belts are fully tensioned, and I checked pulleys already.
The bit is new, so it should be pretty sharp.
Also, I don’t know why you think that the step is caused by the spindle not being perpendicular. I know it isn’t perfectly square to the work, but something that could case that step would be noticeable to the naked eye.
I’m now leaning on the spindle not being as powerful as it should be, since it can’t handle 2mm of wood without audibly slowing down.
Tomorrow I’m going to check the current draw at the PSU and if it’s so underrated I’m going to find something better, maybe an actual router similar to the Dewalt.
The most common cause of that is a belt pulley that’s not completely tightened. When you put it under a sufficient load it slips slightly on the shaft.
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I’ll check the pulleys again, but they are tight enough that I’m just stripping the socket if I tighten them more.
It seems you were right:
My pulleys apparently had crap machining, and the threads got much tighter near the shaft. Tight enough that the grub screw, on some of them, would start to strip before being actually tight.
I replaced them with screws with a strong enough socket that I could actually apply some force on them, and lo and behold, my machine is now working perfectly.
YES!!!