First time laser alignment

[Walt Langhans]

Hi everyone!

This is probably a stupid question but I'm going to ask it anyway ;)

Once you have aligned your laser via the tape on the mirror method, how do you check that everything else is good? Meaning if I cut/ engrave a circle or square in the right bottom corner of my area and it comes out ok is it safe to assume the rest of the bed will be ok or should I engrave some kind of pattern over the entire area?

Thanks

[Rodne Gold]

If you can *just* cut thru the same thickness (lets say 3mm acrylic) at top left , top right , middle , bottom left and bottom right , using the same settings , it's almost 100% guaranteed that you are correctly aligned. However if you can't , it can be misalignment , but could also be the table or honeycomb is not true to the laser head. You need to check that first.

[Walt Langhans]

That makes sense, thanks!

[Mark Ross]

Not sure which machine you have but on Epilogs you put a bullseye marker on the gantry and check that it doesn't move (or move much) at the 4 extremes, UL, UR, LL, LR. If it doesn't you are good to go.

[Walt Langhans]

Not sure which machine you have

It's on my signature line :) I got some little stuff done today, tomorrow is alignment time, hopefully everything goes well.