Finding my center / Square

[Deleted]

I am having a Hell of a time trying to find the perfect center / square on my Glowforge
I set the thickness, i used the focus tool, and my centers / squares keep shifting

here are two images, WHAT GLOWFORGE SAYS IS CENTERED.

and what MY EYE SAYS IS CENTERED

anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!!

Jonathan

[evansd2]

Don’t bother. make a corner/bottom edge jig. You’ll lose some overall size because of the margins of your material, but you’ll get proper alignment. Judging by how small your left and right margins are, a side jig would probably work well for you too, with minimal size concession.

I did an edge jig and photographed it a while back:

Map on slate

A nearly maxed out engrave at 10.5” by 16+“ (18:12 aspect ratio), The map is of Strongsville Ohio from a map of Cuyahoga County in the library of Congress, circa 1858. A gift for some Ohio family members. [image] As always lighting matters, here it is in progress: [image] Thanks to @kittski for her mineral oil slate technique and @Jules for posting settings. Sources, since people will ask… Map: https://www.loc.gov/item/2012591128/ Slate: https://www.worldmarket.com/product/slate-cheese-…

and went into detail about alignment here:

Settings for Engraving on Slate

Ok my addition to slate settings: this was done at 900/30/225. Vary power, one pass, minimum power zero. On slate prep: Thanks to @kittski, I wiped the board down with mineral oil first – it doesn’t require much oil, go light, and use the most lint-free rag you can wrangle. If you’re desperate, paper towels will work, but paper bits get stuck all over the place. Then, expanding on her idea, I let the oil soak in for about 5 minutes, then washed the board thoroughly with dish soap and water. …

[ekla]

Are you trying to find the center of your cutting board or the usable GF bed space?
If cutting board, @evansd2’s jig suggestion is the easiest and most reliable way.

[Deleted]

yes @evansd2 has the secret sauce, as usual
I am doing a run of cutting boards, and they need to be burned from edge to edge (or as close as possible) I was able to suss this with my plus, but the pro has a ‘different’ personality
(yes, I did an head alignment it was the first thing printed / done when I got the unit.)

Jonathan

[evansd2]

You might be able to do some cleverness if size is paramount, @MyDogsThinkImCrazy has done a lot of work with marking the floor of the glowforge for no-tray ops – you might be able to squeak a little more engrave size out of it. In general I find that limiting factor is that the aspect ratio of the engrave or the board doesn’t match the aspect ratio of the cutting/engraving area, so the gains are pretty small as a rule.

In your case, the art aspect ratio seems to not quite match either your board or the working area (it’s close but maybe not exactly) so your margins aren’t going to be dead perfectly balanced anyway… so size and whatnot are entirely up to you as artistic decisions.

I find that the least forgiving alignments/margins are circular, it’s noticeable if you are off on positioning by even a little bit with a circular engrave on a circular material. With things like this board, it’s not as demanding.

Anyway, judging by the aspect ratio of your art I suspect that you’ve maxxed the vertical size more than horizontal size, so I think it looks like you won’t need to concede any engrave size by shifting it to the right or left as with an edge jig. Then, the issue will be engravable area at whatever speed you’re using. If you’re doing high speed, an edge jig might push you too far to a side and you’ll run into limits there. If that happens, reduce your speed and you might be back in business.

[dwardio]

@Deleted

anyone have any ideas?

Old school – lay a straight-edge diagonally from corner to corner and lightly pencil in lines that extend about an inch in from each corner (just dark enough to be seen, or underlay a small piece of masking first). Repeat for the other 2 corners. Nudge your design so that the four corner anchors intersect the pencil lines.

Easier and faster than a jig for one-offs or small production runs, IMO.

[deirdrebeth]

Keep in mind you’re not seeing the entirety of the cutting board in this image…other than the bottom image looking larger they’re placed on the tape identically.

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