I have been marking stainless steel jewelry for about a year now. My GF settings are saved and have always worked perfectly. Two days ago, my marking suddenly started to get darker. It’s almost as though it’s being marked/engraved twice.
I’m attaching a picture of what these used to look like, and what they look like now (top is before).
I’m using the same settings, same SS and same marking material I always have. Even if I change LPI settings - it looks exactly the same.
Here is what I’ve tried so far:
Reset the machine
Ran the camera calibration
Cleaned the GF thoroughly per the instructions on the site
Tightened the belts by using a hex screw to loosen, then tighten, the tension on both the X and Y axes.
Played around with settings on the off chance something has actually changed
Flung myself on my knees and begged my GF to work like she used to
Bought vodka. A big bottle
Any other suggestions? I am at a complete loss. When I cleaned it yesterday, nothing looked damaged/cracked/broken. The very first engrave after cleaning printed perfectly. Then immediately reverted back to the darker print.
Since the Gift of Good Measure looks great, the machine is working correctly on proofgrade. It almost looks like your focus is off since the engraved area is so much thicker.
Spoke too soon … but at least I’m able to engrave with a workaround.
It seems to be ignoring my custom settings for the height of my materials. If I manually set them, instead of using my saved settings, it works just fine. When I select one of the saved ones, it goes back to being too dark.
So… it definitely is a focus issue, but doesn’t seem to be a hardware problem? Or is there something more I can look at?
I’m sorry you’ve ran into an issue on your Glowforge.
I’ve extracted your logs and I noticed the inconsistencies of the two prints are due to different settings for each. The first print was set to cut with a lower speed and the second one was set to engrave with a higher speed. Additionally, both prints had different focus heights.
For the next steps, I would recommend trying to replicate the settings from the first print. This time use Set Focus on the area of the material you wish to print on, and make sure it is set to engrave as opposed to cut.
If you’re not able to use the previous settings, please let us know!
Your observations are correct. I first cut at a depth of .118 (to cut a jig in cardboard) and the second is to engrave the actual piece (which varies according to my saved settings).
I’ve used these settings for almost a year with no issues. I’ve tried Set Focus and it doesn’t help.
Something has changed in the last 72 hours. The only way I can engrave is to manually set the height of the material - I’ve never had to do this before.
The set focus isn’t getting the height right. And, when I select any of my saved settings, it seems like they are being overwritten by whatever the last focal height was. Hope that makes sense!
Yes, they are fully coated with a black marking material (like Cermark) prior to going in. It’s stainless steel, so it doesn’t actually engrave, only marks.
There is something wrong… I’ve been doing this for a year with no issues. I saw another post on the forum with a very similar issue and they pushed some kind of update to her GF. Hoping it’s that easy to fix mine
… but at least I’m able to engrave with a workaround.
