Epilog Center-Center Registration

[Steve Clarkson]

I'm trying to vector cut something and I have a question about center-center cutting and registration. The table size of my Epilog is 12"x24".

Assume my material is 10" x 20" with uneven edges and I set up a Corel file and engrave an 8"x10" rectangle and a small black dot next to that rectangle. Then I remove the material and then place it back down on the laser table......but in a slightly different position.

How do I cut out that rectangle using center-center and the black dot?

When I put the material on the table, and I set my home position on that dot, and I choose center-center engraving......it doesn't work.

[Steve Clarkson]

Never mind.....I figured it out.....duhhhhhh!!!!!!

[Frank Corker]

OMG Steve, you read the instructions, bless!

[Steve Clarkson]

I did......but they didn't help!!! They referenced Center-Page engraving, but that's not an option on my Mini...........it looked really interesting too.......

What I came up with, didn't really work.......I realized that when you turn the x/y off.....it shows exactly where the beam is when you move it. So I moved it to (6",12").....then placed my material on the table and lined up the black dot under the red dot pointer.....then hit reset and engraved as normal. But my material was skewed by maybe 5 degrees, so it still didn't cut perfectly.

So I still need a way to mark the material so when I take it off and put it back I can find my exact location........so any ideas are welcome. Cross hairs maybe?

[Dan Hintz]

Two dots? :p

[Steve Clarkson]

Actually, that might work.

[Dee Gallo]

Steve,

I do super tight registration every day using a simple piece of paper or thin shirt cardboard, something bigger than your substrate. Place it in the top left corner, put some square magnets on the outside edges so you can put it right back EXACTLY.

Match your printer page size to the paper size. Print the image using something like 100 speed/20 power, just enough to burn the design on the paper.

Take it out of the laser and draw a rectangle around the image (touching the edges) but extend the lines way out. You can mark the center too if you like. Put some double-faced tape over the design.

Put your substrate down, and look straight down on it to center it. It's easy to see where the design is because you extended the lines way out (don't forget!)

This sounds like a lot of extra work, but it does work every time and since I engrave on people's rare vintage items there is no room for mistakes.

I always use transfer tape to run a test burn at the same 100/20/600 to make sure before I do the real thing.

I know this is low-tech and not very sexy, but! This is actually very fast to do , a lot faster than ruining a few things and doing the job 3 or 4 times over.

:) dee

[Peck Sidara]

Steve,

There are many applications which the XXX/Center feature comes in handy. It doesn't for this application because (if I correctly understand what you're doing) you're using the XXX/Center feature to properly position/center the object, not the text/artwork.

suggestion: You could disable the axis' with the red-dot turned on and use the red-dot to manually trace the outline/edge/reference point of the object AND still use the red-dot, XXX/Center feature and your "dot" to center the text/artwork.

If you don't have page/center, download the latest driver and firmware. It's a great feature for when your text/artwork isn't perfectly round our square.

HTH,

[Steve Clarkson]

Dee, thanks for that tutorial.....that will definitely come in handy for other things, but I was hoping to find an automated way for doing this.

Peck, I thought I had downloaded the latest firmware.....guess not.....but I will now.

You kinda lost me with your suggestion......I thought that was what came up with as my solution.

I'll think about this more and maybe put together a .cdr to more clearly explain my problem.