Image engraved on opposite side of MacBook

Hello, I’m new here. I engraved on our MacBook Pro yesterday. The engraved image came out WONDERFUL. However, the image was on the total opposite side of where I intended for it to be placed?? I wanted it to the left of the apple and it was engraved to the right? What did I do wrong? It showed it in the correct position before I hit print.

Did you use the set focus tool? Was the honeycomb tray removed and the MacBook elevated off the floor of the Glowforge so that the surface of the computer was within the focus length? A slight difference in focus height will cause quite a bit of variance.

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Yes, honeycomb was removed. MacBook was elevated off the floor. It engraved perfectly. Just on the opposite side of the MacBook.

Was intended to be on the left side. Not the right.

I did NOT use set focus tool. I wasn’t aware of it.

This IS the first time I’ve had a problem with the GF not performing in the area in which I’ve placed my designs.

I need to place another design on the other side of the Mac book and I’m a little nervous to do so.

I’m sorry, but this makes no sense to me whatsoever. When you get ready to engrave the other side, you can put masking tape on the computer and set the engrave power to 1. The engrave will mark the tape and you can see exactly where it is going to engrave.

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I’ll go out on a limb and be the one to state there is absolutely no way the machine could engrave that far off where the design was placed in the UI. “Set Focus” will adjust the image based on material thickness, but the range is only .5" or so.

User error.

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Whats not making sense? Am I not explaining myself well?

Or you don’t understand why the GF performed to the right of the apple logo vs. the left of the logo?

That’s what I’m trying to figure out…how could I have done this incorrectly?

It plainly showed on the screen where the design was supposed to cut.

Then it moved to the right of the apple logo vs cutting on the left of it.

Note the time of the print and support can check the logs to confirm, but what you’re describing has never been reported over millions of prints and three years.

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I’m with @eflyguy, the Glowforge didn’t do this. The Glowforge doesn’t see the logo or the image relative to the logo. The engrave is perfectly framed on the wrong side of the logo compared to where you wanted it, but the Glowforge didn’t shift it just enough to result in it being perfectly aligned but on the wrong side.

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As for the set focus tool, click on the three dots in the interface. In the drop down menu is “Set focus”. Click on this, then click on the part of your material that you are going to cut/engrave. Do this before placing your artwork. Make sure the red beam falls on the material, not a void.

I’m not crazy. I even called my husband in the room (this is Tracie/machine registered under Melvin) to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. YES, THE FILE SHOWED TO BE PLACED ON THE LEFT. BUT CUT ON THE RIGHT.

How to find a log of my cut time to report this to support?

You don’t, you just have to give them a rough idea of when you did it.

Okay, THANKS everyone. I’m going to figure this out on way of the other!! :slight_smile:

Were you watching the engrave and notice right off that it was in the wrong place? Please let us know what you find out. This is, indeed, a new puzzle.

Yes we were watching. It had already started and I didn’t want to leave the cover messed up looking.

So the plan is to put another design on the left of the apple logo now.

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I can think of only thing that might have caused it…the reflective material might have caused an incorrect reading for thickness…but I’ve never seen one be that far off before. Or the MacBook would have had to be really low (like way under the 1.4" reading for the top of the tray) but you said you had it propped up into range. When you propped it up, how high did you prop it?

So very unusual…it’s not even that reflective of a material.

No way the image shifts 5" to the right (or left) which is what had to happen to result in the whole image being on the wrong side.

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I’m wondering if this is a case of it was put in the machine upside down and when you looked at it in the picture you thought it was the other way around and then when it printed it was not the orientation you thought?

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That is the ONLY way it’s possible. That, or the glowforge is officially the first demon possessed (and craft demons are the worst kind of demons) laser cutter on the planet. :rofl:

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