Allignment

If your item is 1" to 1.5" thick, you must remove the honeycomb tray and then raise the surface up to be in the 1/2" focus range. You can’t set past 1/2" since that is the maximum distance away from the lens it can focus. Have a look at this tool for seeing if your material is in proper range for the laser: No-Math Focus Ruler

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Thank you for providing this information. Would it be possible to send over the photos my colleague Pip inquired about?

Also, the advice @dklgood provided is correct, removing the crumb tray when printing on the material you are utilizing may help to reduce the errors you’re seeing.

Once we can review the images you provide, and take a look at a print with the crumb tray removed, we’ll send over the next best steps.

You can send them over to your colleague. I have treied removing the crumb tray also

Thank you for updating us about trying printing without the crumb tray. The photo that we still need from you is of the bottom of the. printer head,

to ensure that the printer head windows are clean. Could you please post a photo of the printer. head like this one, as well as close-ups of the two windows (pointed to by arrows)?

I look forward to reviewing them.

Now it seems to better, but have another issue. It doesn’t seem to be engraving that well.

I’m sorry to hear you’ve hit another roadblock with engraving.

Based upon the alignment issues you’d initially brought up as well as your current problems with engraving, I think it’d be very helpful to get a good at your optical components to see if there’s any issues there.

I would like to check over just a few more things. Could you do the following for me?

Please send photos of all your cleaned optical components, with special attention to any damage you might find:

  • Both windows
    • The printer head window, on the left hand side of the printer head
    • The laser window on the inside left of the Glowforge
  • The printer head lens
    • Both sides of the lens, top and bottom
  • The mirror inside the printer head
  • The bottom of the printer head

Once we have those pictures, we’ll follow up with next steps.

Where does that blue printer lens go? I didn’t see that.

That’s the lens removal tool, with the lens sitting on top of it ready to reinsert.

I cleaned all the lens and ran it , was going so well until the last word, , then it over lapped again.

Hi @coastallosttreasures,

In order to help troubleshoot this issue further with you we need to take a look at your Glowforge optics.

Please send photos of all your cleaned optical components, with special attention to any damage you might find:

  • Both windows
    • The printer head window, on the left hand side of the printer head
    • The laser window on the inside left of the Glowforge
  • The printer head lens
    • Both sides of the lens, top and bottom
  • The mirror inside the printer head
  • The bottom of the printer head

Once we have those pictures, we’ll follow up with next steps. Thank you!

I thought I had it figured out, but another issue came up… So when I bought this,I was told I could use a piece of wood up to @inches. It says under .5 use tray, 1. to 2 no tray, but the problems seem to be with 1 inch or between those mesurements. I think the laser is knocking the wood

The surface to be engraved must be within .5" of the lens as that is the focus range. You can put a 2" piece of material in the Glowforge and your focus height will be .001. If you put a 1" piece of material in the Glowforge without the tray, you must elevate the surface to engrave such that it will be between 1.5" and 2" off the floor of the Glowforge which brings it into the focus range.

So if I want to engrave on a 1 inch I have to put something under it?

Yes. You would put something at least 1/2" and less than 1" underneath it. Use the set focus tool before placing your artwork.

Do a forum search on “cutting without the tray.” You’ll find tons of good information and helpful tool files. :slight_smile:

Try this for finding focus height:

The actual distance between the material and the laser head is between 1.4 and 0.9"…

I’m sorry to hear that you’re continuing to run into trouble.

As @dklgood outlined, when utilizing material that is 1", putting a piece of material underneath it so that it is 1.5" to 2" off the floor of the Glowforge bed can help to ensure the material height is detected properly.

I also want to circle back, and make sure we are not missing any of the other snags you’re hitting. Are you still running into trouble with engraving and alignment, or were you able to narrow down what was causing the behavior while printing?

This is another good tool to check your material height is in range, it measures from the floor up so you can check your stack outside the GF before you put it in.

https://community.glowforge.com/t/no-math-focus-ruler/

It’s been a little while since I’ve seen any replies on this thread so I’m going to close it. If you still need help with this please either start a new thread or email support@glowforge.com.