I use my GF nearly on a daily basis, cutting fabric at short bursts of 1-2 min jobs. So, this is pretty familiar to me as a set up already.
Today, when I loaded up my blank and pressed ‘print’ the head went from it’s resting position at the top LEFT of the cutting area and moved down to the bottom RIGHT and made a little creaking/fluttering noise. I’ve heard this before and it usually means it’s going outside the cutting area and the 0x0y is now off. I cut my first blank and sure enough, the pattern is shifted over to the left about .25".
I don’t know if this is GF admin trying new things to get a bigger cutting space, but I am un able to cut anything because I use the exact maximum cutting area and cannot afford to move it over .25" that it’s now re-calibrating at every time.
Tried resetting, the machine 3-4x and reloaded the GF interface as well as close my browser and reopen.
It sounds like the gf is confused about where the head is at startup. This could be for a few reasons, but here are a couple things to try:
start the gf up with nothing on the bed. If you’re using materials that you’ve already cut pieces from, sometimes rectangular cutout shapes can look like the head to the lid camera, and the gf tries to go from there.
with the power off, gently move the laser head until it’s positioned right under the camera. Close it up and turn it on. The camera should see the head and the gf shouldn’t have to hunt for it.
Might not help or be applicable, but it’s a good test.
Is it possible that it’s hitting something, that there is debris on one of the belts or rails, or that a cable is getting caught on something as it moves? That’s what I’d check for. It should be able to traverse the entire cutting area without getting knocked out of alignment.
Thanks for letting us know about this. I’m sorry your prints aren’t coming out where you placed them.
Could you try a test for me? Please do the following:
Restart your Glowforge.
We included an extra piece of Proofgrade Draftboard with your materials shipment for troubleshooting. Place the Proofgrade Draftboard in the center of the bed and print just the cut portion of the Gift of Good Measure as far to the right as you can place it.
Take a photo of the print and let us know how it goes!
It’s been a little while since I’ve seen any replies on this thread so I’m going to close it. If you still need help with this please either start a new thread or email support@glowforge.com.