I think my alignment is off more than the average user!

[Jules]

We’re measuring from the top of the grid, not the top of the tray…it has a raised lip at the edges.

(Mine is actually 1.378 inches off the floor of the machine, not 1.4").

You should probably actually measure it if you want to go trayless. There’s a how-to here:

Tutorial: How to cut without the Crumb Tray (Honeycomb)

Tutorial: How to cut objects too thick to have the honeycomb in place The GlowForge has a maximum material thickness it can cut through, but there is a maximum thickness you can even put on the honeycomb (crumb tray) even if you are surface engraving as the laser has a limited focus range of 0.01" - 0.4" *** above the surface of the honeycomb at the time of this tutorial. But let’s say you wanted to engrave something thicker that fits quite nicely inside the GlowForge but not with the crumb tray…

Several others linked in the Matrix as well, including a calculator, but this one explains why you have to measure it the way we’re doing.

If you’re not measuring correctly (close enough doesn’t really work too well with this) then it will introduce additional variance into your object placement. So be sure that the thickness of the Macbook is correctly entered into your calculations, and that you have correctly accounted for the height of the grid surface of the tray.