Boss LS-1630 X-axis home offset

So far, not impressed with the accuracy of my new machine or the "warranty" support from Boss. My machine arrived with the X-axis 5mm out -- that is, when the X/Y is homed, Y is at 0 and X is at 5mm with respect to the guide rulers (the display shows 0,0 though). Tech support said I could physically move the home sensor, but didn't advise it. Nonetheless, there isn't enough play in the sensor mounting screws to allow a 5mm adjustment. Next, they admitted that there is a way to set a home offset in the controller via Vendor Settings, but said they don't provide a password unless the machine is out of warranty. Huh? You mean I have to wait for a year for the machine to fall out of warranty before I can have a properly functioning machine? Essentially, wait for the warranty to expire before I can fix a warranty issue? Not the kind of answer I wanted to hear on an out-of-the-box defect on a $10k machine.

I'm sure that the vendor settings (Ruida controller) password is the default, so that shouldn't be an issue. My question is this -- so I don't have to fumble around the interface looking for the correct location, does anybody know where the settings for home offset would be? I essentially just need to adjust my X home offset by -5mm.

Why not just move the rulers? Most are adjustable.. or make yourself a new ruler, or an overlay and tape it over the old one? Have the machine make it's marks, then it'll be dead accurate to THE MACHINE. Most lasers aren't all that precise due to belt stretch and slop.

I've found laser machine rulers to be nothing more than a convenience, and NOT to used for actually measuring anything ;) -

And since you always set the Origin on your work piece either centered or Upper Left or wherever so what? Or move the rulers like Kev said.

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Originally Posted by Kev Williams

Why not just move the rulers? Most are adjustable.. or make yourself a new ruler, or an overlay and tape it over the old one? Have the machine make it's marks, then it'll be dead accurate to THE MACHINE. Most lasers aren't all that precise due to belt stretch and slop.

I've found laser machine rulers to be nothing more than a convenience, and NOT to used for actually measuring anything ;) -

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My rulers aren't adjustable. And, a side affect of doing a hack job like making a new ruler or putting tape on it would have been that I still would have been shorted in my usable cutting width. Basically it comes down to getting what I paid for. What if you bought a new car and the gas tank was empty when the gauge said you had 1/4 tank left. You complain to the dealer and they tell you to just take a Sharpie and mark "E" at the quarter tank level. How about if your speedo showed you were doing 65 when you were really doing 75 and it cost you a ticket? You tell the dealer and they tell you to put some tape over the speedo and just make new marks on it? I'm not sure about you, but those answers wouldn't work for me. Why bother putting a measuring device on a machine if it isn't accurate? In the end, Boss Laser remoted into my computer to check the X-axis home offset setting and it was already at zero (apparently, you can't put in a negative number there). The only solution was to remove the home sensor, drill new holes in the gantry to mount it more to the right and then recalibrate the new zero position using the offset setting. They gave me the approval to do this without violating the warranty, so that's exactly what I did. While doing the repair, I also noticed that the rulers weren't square to the beam travel. I had already checked and verified squareness of the X and Y axes, so I knew they were good, and the rulers were perpendicular to each other, just not to the beam travel. I found that there were four bolts that held the table assembly to the lift mechanism that were slotted in the Y direction but had enough play in them to allow the table to be set perfectly square, so that's done now too. And, no -- there wasn't enough play in the X direction to have adjusted out the 5mm of home error -- that's what I had initially hoped for.

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Originally Posted by Bill George

And since you always set the Origin on your work piece either centered or Upper Left or wherever so what? Or move the rulers like Kev said.

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Not necessarily always -- I have a template job that I use for internal production to process parts (removing solder mask from certain areas of fixtured circuit boards) that relies on squareness and uses absolute coordinates, so being able to index the fixture to the guide rulers and know that the home position is truly 0,0 is a huge benefit to me.

Most Chinese laser that quote say 600 x 300 will lose 5-10mm on the datum position, the head homes, then steps in by X amount in each axis. Every Chinese machine I have is a smaller work area than the actual size quoted once datum'd

Not here. This is a 750x400 work area, and although the laser didn't home at 0,0 - it did provide the full 750mm of X travel. Now, it provides that advertised travel and​ homes at 0,0. Also, while the "bones" of the machine are produced in China, final assembly, calibration, testing and QC are done here. That's what bothered me the most. I would expect that lack of QC from a Chinese source, but not when paying a premium for a USA based (albeit not necessarily produced) brand.

On December 2nd 1983, I went to my Buick dealership to take delivery of the first sequentially fuel injected/turbocharged Buick Regal sold in Utah (a WH1 T-type, the Grand National hadn't made it to Utah yet)... a crew of guys were giving it the California Duster treatment, all nice and shined up and ready to go. I opened the door and had a look inside, and-- there on the floor in back, behind the drivers seat, was literally a handful of various black and silver screws. A little more looking around and I found where a good portion of them were supposed to be, most on the pillar and windshield trim pieces, others were missing from various plastic covers- never did find a place for all the screws. How did this car pass assembly line inspection, and why didn't someone at the dealership notice all the screws, or do something about them if they did? This car cost only slightly less than the '84 Corvette, and I'm doing GM's final assembly before driving it away.

These kinds of things happen with human-made stuff! :D -if all your problems are limited to moving a switch, you're doing okay ;)

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final assembly, calibration, testing and QC are done here

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Knowing Weike (the people that actually make the Boss lasers) I very much doubt that :)

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Originally Posted by Dave Sheldrake

Knowing Weike (the people that actually make the Boss lasers) I very much doubt that :)

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I agree Dave, unless I actually saw with my own eyes the final assembly and calibration, which means un-boxing all the Chinese packing and crating I would take that statement with a grain of salt. Especially when the OP has those issues that involves drilling and moving switches plus then rulers out of square. Sounds like a standard run of the mill Chinese import.