Registration and Epilog

[Doug Fennell]

I've got a helix 45w and I want to get the registration in a bit closer. Jobs are dead on accurate every time and match up without fail, but the registraiton is slightly off to the left side on every one.

What is the best method for calibrating left top 0,0 origin is my question.

[Scott Shepherd]

Doug, there's a file for that. Just call Epilog and they will send you a pdf on how to do it. It's quite easy to adjust. In fact, it might be in the manual, I can't remember, but I do know if you call them, they will email you the instructions which are straight foward.

Only issue to consider is if you move it, every old file you pull up will be off the amount you moved it, so you'll need to pay close attention when pulling in old files to reburn or use as a guide. That may or may not impact you, but it really messed me up.

[Doug Fennell]

Scott, thanks for the info. I've got a few jigs that I'll have to remake, but it'll be worth it in the long run.

[Scott Shepherd]

Doug, I had a lot of problems with my moving around. I've seen some people say that once it's set, it's set and it should never move, but mine moved all the time, which caused me great headaches. My advice, since you mentioned fixtures, is that you need to check this often.

It's a horrible feeling to find it off and know that you've run 100's of files since the last alignment and now you can't use them as templates since you're not sure where/when it shifted.

[Brian Robison]

Doug, I'll try to explain the way I do it with my mini. I VECTOR CUT a piece of acrylic with a 1 inch square in the upper left corner a half inch in and a half inch down from the edges. I measure the 1 inch hole to see the real size. From there I can calculate out the "kerf". Usually about .004" or so. Then I measure from the edge of the plastic to the hole and see how close to .500" it is. It needs to be .498" to be perfect if the kerf is .004". I adjust from there. Like Scott said, make sure to send a new file over and also don't push the buttons for adjusting too fast, give the laser time to receive the data. Seems like I used to push the buttons too fast and the laser would try to start instead of taking the calibration.