Has alignment changed in a recent update?

Community Support
21

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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22

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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23

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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24

That’s a very useful suggestion, thanks.

25

But that’s the thing. The offset varies with material thickness, position, bed position in the divots, table flatness. All the same variables that affect the camera accuracy with the exception of the camera position (lid, hinges), but replace that with head seat, rails and v-wheels.

26

It’s not just not colinear, it’s also not even parallel. By design.

27

Thanks for the suggestions @shop and @Jules.

@mnemosyne
Thank you for your reply.

The calipers shows that your Glowforge is performing within the range of accuracy that we expect right now. As we make improvements to the software, I expect you to see further improvements to your alignment.

I’m going to close this topic. Please post a new one if you notice your alignment worsens or if you have any other questions.

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