Thank you, I am going to give it a good clean and try again. I’ll also check the crumb tray again. I always use precision calipers (digital) and the surface was quite flat. The design was as close to right under the camera as can be and in the past I have had good alignment there so it was puzzling.
After a complete cleaning of optics, and using a similar file on similar non-proofgrade wood, it is definitely still out of alignment as compared to two weeks ago. I’ll post some images and measurements when it finishes. I don’t mind if I need to calibrate it manually, and while I understand that you only guarantee proofgrade prints, my alignment has definitely somehow changed.
I printed half a dozen of these two weeks ago, same browser, same zoom level, same measurement with digital caliper, but now alignment is off. It should be centered on the coin. Clearly this is within the acceptable result guidelines, but it is less accurate as it was on the same machine before the last update.
Can I ask you question? Are you aligning the cut to the engraving in the Glowforge interface?
You know you can get perfect alignment between the cut and the engraving if you put them into the same SVG file before opening that in the Glowforge interface - you will never have them show up off to the side like that.
For that to happen, you would need to use external drawing software like Illustrator or Inkscape to align the engraving relative to the cut before you save the file. It really eliminates a lot of errors, and you can get perfect cuts/engraves no matter where you place them on the bed.
There’s a discussion here on how to do it in Illustrator, it’s very simple. But you can also do it in Inkscape if you prefer not to buy the Illustrator license.
Hope that helps.
My problem is in engraving materials accurately. Sometimes they are materials I did not cut. The proofgrade demo is only an example to show that alignment is messed up the same way with proofgrade materials and settings. I realize you’re trying to be helpful but I want to assure you I’m not a total idiot.
That method I linked is also used to create jigs for materials that are not cut at the same time. Since you’re not an idiot (no one assumed that) you can probably easily interpret it to create jigs to align your non-proofgrade materials.
Jigs are a great way to work around the current camera limitations until they finish tweaking them.
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I use jig those. In the engrave file I include a cut of the coaster (I do this a lot with coasters). Then I run it with engrave off & cardboard on the bed. Pull out the cutout, drop the coaster in the hole and ignore the cut & run the engrave.
I also will just do a score instead of a cut and place the coaster in the scored outline.
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Right, I mean I’ve used illustrator for years, I understand how this works.
The jig is a great idea for doing ten of something at once, but I would prefer my alignment to work well enough that I don’t have to make custom jigs for every object I throw in. Perhaps a consumer laser just isn’t for me. I would prefer manually zeroing the tool head like a CNC than a browser interface with a camera.
Sorry 'bout that. No way for me to know a person’s experience level. 
I’ll just let you work it out then.
I am having very similar issues of missalignment, all within the last 2 updates. Performance of my machine in regards to accuracy has been dimishing rapidly to the point of not using the GF anymore and reverting to my old chinese reliable machine.
I am also having issues with circles being cut completely out of round and skewed. a separate issue from being 1/4" off on placement alignment.
It would be nice if they could include an option to turn on the measurement red laser to use as an alignment tool and use a preset offset to the actual cutting beam. Or just work reliably, that would be nice as well.
I would love that option so much… I really hope that the engineers are already on this and that it is a fast and easy software fix. I’m at the point where I can’t even resell this in good faith.
It would be nice, but it wouldn’t likely help since the red beam is not parallel to the IR laser. It’s aimed at an angle so that the horizontal distance on the material can be measured by the camera to detect material thickness. That is, the hardware is built entirely different to other laser cutters.
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To be more clear by “On this” I mean I hope they are on the messed up alignment issue. Thanks for that tidbit of information about how the beam works. About half the time the visible red spot never makes it on to my material but support says doesn’t matter for the feature.
Currently, this is only used to set the focus for the laser which will affect cut quality and depth, but Support is correct, it has 0% impact on alignment. It could help with alignment if the software used it to measure the material before showing you the bed image in the browser. Today, the UI depends entirely on the accuracy of the material height entered in the manual box (or Proofgrade consistency) and the bed being settled and level precisely the way it was at the factory.
I know that the beam is not co-linear to the CO2 laser but in reality, a dot is a dot, and can be used for locating on a surface with a simple pre-defined offset value. It would work, but i doubt they would ever add that functionality as its far more advanced than what this platform is intended for.
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That’s not the only reason it won’t work. I have a red dot aiming laser on the Redsail. But it’s not inline with the CO2 laser as it’s attached to the side of the head. So it’s canted at an angle so it’s close but not necessarily spot on. Further, since my head & eyeball is 3 ft above it there’s parallax inherent in making a visual assessment of whether the beam is on point or not. Add in the size of the red dot (it’s much larger than the laser beam spot) and I’m only getting an approximation of where the laser will land.
I tend to leave thin chipboard (0.01") on the bed and drop my stuff on it so adding an outline score to a project and running the score first is easy and I toss the chipboard when it gets cut up enough that it’s not holding together or I can’t tell one scored outline from another.
I actually used the Redsail again a couple of weeks ago as I needed more Z-axis depth. Using the dot wasn’t any more accurate than my eye & the GFUI alignment.
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i don’t remember if it was here or somewhere else someone posted it, but one way you can double check, if your substrate is masked, is to run a 1 power high speed cut so that it marks the masking lightly, but doesn’t cut through. that way you can see where the laser is hitting and if it’s on point. then you can make adjustments and run the low power run again to double check.
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That’s a very useful suggestion, thanks.