Been GF’ing for about a month now and I’ve found myself in a jam a couple of times with needing to re-cut/score parts after the fact and have not had the success I’d like to. I’ve found the lack of precision on the camera dewarping to be unhelpful other than to broadly place parts around voids (and even then it fails).
One example, I did a little holiday set piece that had a doormat-like thing. Forgot to set the “Merry Christmas” engrave parameters. Pulled the parts (and the wasteboard) before realizing the text was missing. So, I used the wasteboard as a jig, put the parts in “centered” for the kerf and taped them. I luckily had the file still loaded so I re-run stuff, but could not 0,0 it so everything was off and worse, it had a 2 degree rotation relative to the first cuts. Was it because the crumb tray moved? Was it because I wasn’t quite square to the edge of the CT? Was it because my holddown pins weren’t an accurate guide? Maybe all of the above?
I’ve cruised the forums on jigs, but I haven’t seen anyone address the fact that the crumb tray is not fixed / finding “0,0”. The gantry obviously has a “0,0” and so does the crumbtray, but because the crumbtray has play in it (I don’t understand the design choice), this results in any movement of the crumbtray, or material on it to lose reference.
I have seen the suggestions around 12x20 and that many people use jigs that are 2 edge-aligned on the CT. I tend not to do that since I have seen problems with through-cutting vs. material warp. So, I’m pretty diligent about pinning my material down - at least on 3 edges.
I haven’t double-stuck the tray down as a) it will affect focal height, b) the first time I move it, I will lose reference again.
Love any tips from people who have successfully done multiple passes between lid opens on the same part. Ideally, I’d like to find a workflow that lets me do this arbitrarily and not require jigs. Most of the time that I’m needing this, it’s not a pre-conceived, multiple part thing. For example, last night built an architectural model for a home and decided that I wanted to score the garage door after the fact. It’s a big part with some other detail on it and didn’t want to waste the wood. But, finding a way to get the alignment - X/Y and rotational - is escaping me.
Thanks in advance!