Set Focus - Bottom right image alignment off by 0.5 cm

I usually print near the upper left corner and for the most part it’s pretty accurate.

After seeing the set focus I thought I would give it a try.
Ultimately it looks like my machine still doesn’t work well. It has always been off but I just worked around it. It appears to be off by half a cm.

Test was done without ever moving the draft board.
Preview after print shows it’s off.


Image of the sheet show that it’s off by 0.5 cm.
Is an offset of 0.5 cm in the acceptable range for performance?

First results from using set focus in the top left corner, it’s very close at 500% zoom but still offset to down and right a bit.

I have also noticed some strange behavior.
Set focus will not let me use the far right side to focus which I’ll explain along with some images.
Before pressing set-focus. The image looks close to what it should be.

Image after selecting set-focus from the UI. The image looks smaller than it should be and I can not select the far right side to set focus. i.e. focus at X aprox. 19 inch.

Just FYI my machine has snap mark enabled but it did not work correctly.
Support told me that my machine calibration was miss-identified for snap mark.

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As far as the margin on the right side for selecting the set focus area, that’s normal. The red beam it uses for the focus is offset to the left of where the lens is and laser beam exits. If it went further, it would crash.

That makes sense, thanks

Technically anything under 0.635cm is “within spec” though many (most?) folks have gotten noticeably better with that after running the lid calibration

I found with mine that my table turned out to be bowing at the front, so the back/top was beautiful, but the front/bottom wasn’t - fixing the table fixed the issue

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Thanks, @jbmanning5 and @deirdrebeth, that’s correct! The right-side margin for setting the focus point is larger and a difference in alignment from our app preview to the cut result of 0.25in (0.635cm) is within spec. If you haven’t already, we’d recommend trying the Camera Recalibrator tool. To get started, click on this link: Launch the Camera Recalibrator

In addition to the suggestions others have made in the thread, we suggest that you check the following:

  • Use material that is not warped or tilted.
  • Remove particles from the surface of the crumb tray and the area underneath it. Check the four indentations under the crumb tray and the area underneath the front door of your Glowforge. Check to make sure that, when closed, the front door is not pressing down on the lip of the crumb tray.
  • Turn your Glowforge off and on again. Alignment can drift over time, particularly if you bump the head of your Glowforge while removing material.
  • Check to confirm that the surface your Glowforge is on top of is level & there aren’t any particles/debris underneath the unit.

Should you finish all of these steps, and find that you have an alignment error of more than 1/4", please measure the accuracy of the camera and send us a screenshot of the results. Please let us know how it goes.

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