I do have a question. Some of the design kind of run off the band, how would that effect the cardboard? Getting burnt on the edge at like 600 speed.? Like this!
shouldn’t be a problem. i’d keep a closer eye on the job because it’s cardboard, but it shouldn’t affect the jig much. might just have to clean a little more ash off the band. i run mine off the edges too.
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Yes for sure keeping a eye one it. Just wish GF knew why it was doing this. They do not see a problem with it.
What @jules is saying is that if your jig material is not the same height as the surface of your watch bands, your engraving that’s perfect on the jig material will be off when done on the watch bands. Having done a few watch bands myself, I was going to say the same thing. I think that’s where your trouble lies.
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Thank you! But I don’t think that is it. I could understand the depth on the engraving be off. That shouldn’t have anything to do with line up. I have done hundreds of bands, and did not have this problem before. It is like the last month it has given me this problem. But I will play around with that and see if it is it.
Well part of this is you haven’t explicitly stated your process. So, at the risk of telling you things you already know:
@geek2nurse is dead on if you’re moving your jig or art to try to line up to the camera.
If you’re following proper basic jig technique:
- you first lock down your uncut jig material so it can’t move
a. Your jig material cannot move again. Do not move it until you’re done using it. - Align the jig design over your jig material using camera alignment.
a. At this point you never move your design in the app again. - cut your jig voids
- open the machine, remove the jig waste pieces.
- lay your target material (your watch bands) in place.
a. again, do not move your jig material - turn off the jig cuts and turn on your engraves.
a. In case the memo was missed, do not move your art in the UI at any time after 2.a. If the camera looks off, ignore it, @geek2nurse is correct. - engrave your bands. The alignment should be as perfect as the fit of your jig to the bands.
- remove your finished pieces.
- (optional) return to step 5. As long as you don’t move any art or jigs, you can engrave more and more bands without cutting a jig for them.
There are advanced techniques that can also yield better results.
For example, the crumb tray can move and wiggle if you’re rough with it. There are “boots” you can print from @timjedwards that can lock your tray in place pretty well. Since you’re doing lots of jig work, I’d recommend them.
You can use a reusable double jig design, it’ll save you time and materials.
Learn how to effectively use corner jigging to make material placement simpler and faster.
Use autofocus to speed the overall job process. Run autofocus while you’re adjusting settings. Then when you hit the print button, it starts very quickly.
Maximize your number of bands in your jig so that you can run more at once. Fewer job setups means less time spent fiddling with the jigs and jobs in the UI.
Anyway, if anything I’m telling you here is news, I’d suggest searching the forum for more on it and then asking any specific questions you have. There are lots of us who frequently use jigs – if you are following the basic techniques and your machine is performing properly it should be dead on.
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I don’t think you are understanding how the height of the material affects the fisheye lens correction. Height of the material has absolutely NOTHING to do with the depth of the engrave.
Your focus needs to be set on the surface of the jig, because your watchbands are most probably not the same height as the jig material. And as @evansd2 said, don’t move the jig or your design, no matter what you see in the camera. Leave everything exactly the same, and set the focus for the second step (engraving the bands) on the jig, not the bands.
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My take here is that it’s irrelevant where you focus the second step. Just manually set the focus height on your engraves to the correct height for the band. Where you focus the camera doesn’t matter because you’re manually setting the correct engrave height, and you’re not using the camera anymore because you’re not moving a dang thing (in case I didn’t make that clear 
) .
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Yeah, you’re right; I keep overthinking the set focus thing. 
I went and found some underlayment flooring that was cheat and it is the same thickness as the bands. SOOO if this works I will be super happy!!!
Thank You!
One thing I never did is focus on the bands. Always on the material. I told GF that the crumb tray has a slight movement. I noticed when I cleaned last, I pushed in the back of the dimples. I noticed that when I open the front door I could push it back just a hair again.
They knew this, it’s part of the design. It’s not a big deal for almost any other kind of process.
Cut yourself some boots, you’ll be happy you did. 
Thank You!
I downloaded the boots will cut them after I get some orders done. If it has been the thickness of my board this whole time. Why couldn’t GF tell me that? I feel like I had them scratching their heads. I have been going mad over this.
It’s not.
You are either moving something (material, art, tray) or your GF head is losing its position (lost stepper motor steps, head collision, loose belts, re-homing for any reason).
If you follow that process strictly the alignment literally can’t be wrong if your art is aligned properly. if you follow it to the letter and it’s still off, it’s time to get serious about possible mechanical issues.
If I were in your shoes, I would make a test design and try it out a bunch to ensure that the machine is working properly. There’s no reason to cut/engrave an entire watch job just to test this stuff out. It’ll be faster and cost less materials if you just make a series of experimental “targets” and use that as a testing design.
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When you say don’t move the art. Once I have it download in GF I don’t. but every order is different. I use a template. I always download a template every time also before placing the designs.
In the past few days, once I cut a jig, it is good until the next day or when I turn the machine off. That when it seems to go weird. My GF is still under warranty also. If this helps!!
it is not trivial to put the boots in place. but once you do that crumb tray stays PUT!
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There’s your issue.
You’ll have to recut the jig every time* you upload new art.
* not really but explaining how to setup the jig/art and/or use precision placement to avoid that is hard to write out.
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