Super Blurry Camera & Misprints

I’ve been having fairly regular mis-prints, where the file prints fine for half and then becomes ‘mis-aligned’ somewhere in the process, making cuts unusable. I was looking into support and found out about the ‘Set Focus’ option. I’ve tried that and am making another cut now, but it made me think that the camera was way blurrier than I remembered.

I cleaned my lens about 6 months ago, but have made only a very few cuts since then. The image above was saved after I had done a set focus and started a cut.

GF recognizes the QR codes, and it still cuts through material and etches with good resolution (although kerf may be slightly larger than I remember).

Here’s a shot post-cut. This is actually a bit better than it has been, but I think I’m still about 1/2" off in the up-down direction.

Anyway, this cut came through fine, but I’m wondering if anyone has experience something similar and has any tips for me? Thanks!

Have you run the Camera Calibration?

The picture you posted does not show a 1/2" variance in my opinion, and 1/4" variance is within the specs Glowforge supports. That being said, you need to clean your lid camera as well as all of the other optics. The fact that everythng is cutting and engraving normally is a good sign. Run the lid camera calibration, always use the set focus before placing your artwork and you should be good to go.

1 Like

Gotcha, yes it is still cutting and etching fine. Any ideas why files might become misaligned during the cut?

I’ll run the camera calibration and see if that helps. Thanks!

I see that the community has provided some good advice on the next best steps. I’ll keep this thread open a little longer, and see if any of those steps helped. Let us know how it goes!

Could you please do the following for me for your camera being blurry?

  1. Turn off your Glowforge
  2. Using a Zeiss wipe, gently wipe the lens of the camera on the unit’s lid.

Thanks for the input. I cleaned the camera lens and ran the camera calibration, which significantly improved things.

1 Like

I’m glad you resolved it! Thank you everyone for your advice. I’m going to close this thread. If you run into any other trouble, please start a new topic, or email us at support@glowforge.com. We’re here to help!