Aligning head for perpendicularity

There seems to be a lot of information around on aligning the mirrors, but very little on adjusting the head to be perpendicular to the work surface.
I have noticed on some of my acrylic cuts, some edges seem to be slightly offset ie very slightly angled.
I would have thought that if it were a matter of the head not being perpendicular to the work surface that the entire cut piece would have uniformly angled edges right round.
Mine only seems to be certain edges, some of the time. Is this possible just material not sitting flat on the surface and material irregularities?

What methods have you guys used?

Are you taking into account the beam profile? its hourglass shaped with the focal distance being the smallest point. So if your material is higher or lower than this it can lead to the edges looking “tapered”. Considering that your issue seems to be intermittent I would think this may be the main cause.

It is possible - I will be doing some test cuts to see whats up. I usually run the auto focus before every piece. Perhaps I forgot, who knows.

Put a piece of cardboard or paper on the table, focus, and zap it with a quick pulse to make a dot.
Now crank the table down several inches and pulse again. The second dot will be larger than the first because it’s out of focus but it should be concentric with the first dot. If it’s offset to one side, that’s the direction your laser head is pointing.

My Red & Black was TERRIBLE when I got it. The head was angled towards the front of the machine at about a 10 degree angle. :rolleyes:

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