New Alignment Problems?

Man, I dunno what updates there have been lately, but now my Glowforge is really out of alignment. Everything cuts a good 0.25-0.5” left of where it should compared to the bed image in the app.

I’ve noticed when I use a full sheet of medium maple ply (PG) to cut multiple pieces, the lower right is always screwed up. Now, I’m assuming that’s because of the difference listed above.

Anyone else having recent issues? Tips on how to fix? I’ve re-calibrated, rebooted, etc. nothing fixes it.

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Is the lid closing fully?

I’m noticing that either the camera is out of alignment or the crumb tray is crooked. I look at the preview of the bed and I’m not getting a straight image. I’ve also run into the 1/4" alignment issue where I’ll put an image over the material and then it’ll cut 1/4" to the left. That, last I checked though is a known issue.

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Yep. Lid and front gate are closed properly.

Interesting. Not noticing anything crooked in my bed image. The tray is in securely… and the bottom right is the only area where it consistently mis-cuts. But just now I cut something dead center and it was still off alignment by about 0.25-0.5” to the left.

Can you define “screwed up?” Is it relative to the rest of the bed or just off by the same amount as the rest of the bed, or…? Can you grab a shot of what you’re talking about?

You may have the collision on the right problem. Once you do a cut far enough right (often only front right) for the rest of that cut as well as all other operations or projects until you turn the machine off and then on again, everything will be 1/4" or so too far left.

The test for this is:

  • Turn off the machine and turn it back on again (wait for it to calibrate)
  • Print a Gift of Good measure in the center of the bed

If that turns out well and properly aligned, then:

  • Print another one as far front and right as possible

Part way through that stuff will be shifted left. Since it happens early on in the operation when you look at the result, you’ll think a few things shifted right, but if you think about it for a minute you’ll realize that the few to the right are the only correct position and most of the design was shifted left.

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Support usually asks for pictures after doing those prints as well as date and time of the prints.

Here is a pic of what I’m talking about…

This is a shot of the back of the wood, since the screw up happened on the bottom right, where the QR code is.

On the left side you can see how the cuts got screwed up… the right side is another set I cut, placed in the orientation of how it SHOULD have been cut.

I noticed something similar. I powered down my glowforge, closed the browser app, cleared my cache in chrome, restarted everything and it improved. It was almost as if the app had begun to lose its center positioning the longer I ran it. Clearing the browser cache and starting from scratch seemed to correct the bed imaging and art placement. Just my experience.

Mine was creeping up and right with each new job, btw.

Notice the over burn spot bottom left. I suspect that is where it was trying to go further right but couldn’t, so spent too much time in that spot. After that everything will be shifted left.

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I posted the same issue. It is quite off on the left even with proof grade material.With my Pro I don’t know if that played into it. Veneer was pretty badly burned on the floral pattern - but frankly this is well beyond what my needs are. It does brilliantly with SVG and cast acrylic - so I’m happy. If I were reviewing it based on features though, there are areas that are about 75% of where they should be by now. Then as for the cloud based side, it has plenty of crashes and issues. I will be using it just with Fusion360 or Inkscape for my purposes.

I saw the same problem yesterday. Alignments that used to be dead-on are now off by about 0.2". I don’t think it’s the hardware.

Note: I can’t test it today because it’s too fricking cold to open the window. About 6" of snow and it’s still coming down.

I’m sorry to hear you ran into trouble. Could you please do the following for me?

  1. Turn off your Glowforge (this is important to avoid damage to your unit)
  2. Open the lid and, using both hands, gently move the laser arm to the center of the bed
  3. Gently move the head under the lid camera
  4. Turn your Glowforge back on
  5. We included an extra piece of Proofgrade Draftboard with your materials shipment for troubleshooting. Please print the Gift of Good Measure on Proofgrade Draftboard in the lower right hand corner of the bed
  6. Let us know the result. If the print looks incorrect, please include a photo and let us know the date and time of the print

Thank you in advance!

It’s been a little while since I’ve heard from you. I hope that’s because everything worked out! If not, just let me know and we’ll get it solved.

The problem seems to have gone away for me. Alignment is perfect again.

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@dr.krawetz, I’m glad to hear it! Everyone else, please post a new thread if you have something that you’d like us to investigate.