I’m 10 days into learning LightBurn and my first test pieces came out flawlessly. I used it for something more formal I can use, in this case some RC plane parts, and it’s best with balsa to lower the power and speed and do several passes in order to be gentle on the stock.
When I did a run of the parts, each pass shifts. Showing the final pieces I am going for, and did by just bumping up the power, but hardly the quality I was getting by lightening the load of power and just doing several passes on the same stock for a more crisp, less burnt cuts.
I’ve adjusted the speeds and power and it’s not changing anything at all. I would think it’s a hardware issue with the laser, but I’ve literally cut two test pieces flawlessly prior to this, so it’s not been really used enough to change this dramatically.
From this description and the perfectly clear picture I have a pretty solid guess…
The small set screws or grub screws in the pulleys can shake loose and one run is perfect and the next one starts to lose position.
If the offset images are on the x-axis, I would be looking at the x axis motor pulleys and belts. You may not see the loose grub screw, but tightening all the screws with an Allen wrench will let you feel which ones became loose.
This makes sense. Thank you for taking the time out to help! I’ll be going back over both the screws/bolts, but also the tension in the belts, pullies and wheels that are wrapped around the extrusion. You saved me from a lot of headache with this direction!
Sharing the current progress on the plane, where these pieces, in this landing gear fairings are eventually going to be installed in. All hand cut and plans I made for scratch building, slated to be converted into lightburn for free, for others to use.
Update, and it’s sad this thread get’s closed after only 30 days if nobody responds, this has got to be a common thing.
The belts were actually too tight which was causing the motors to have to work too hard which created some degree of binding. I did try out tightening them further to no avail on a different result, but when I loosened both sides/directions of belts and gently pulled them just snug, not any serious pressure, this did the trick. Also, going over the screws/bolts, it was a good idea non the less, they needed some going over, some were very loose from the factory.
I’m taping down the stock to eliminate and movement just for the record and that was not the issue here, still, it’s a good way to go on light balsa at least.
Google isn’t exactly friendly with this place so it showed a few threads that were similarly related, but none were dealing with exactly what I was, same with Youtube.
I am assembling some notes for the absolute beginner to review when using the software, things that do not seem to be covered anywhere, and adding onto this, the physical hardware element is a necessary element to cover. What threw me off, my first few pieces when it was set up in my shop did not at all have this problem, so I wanted to rule out software issues before possibly creating more problems tearing into the physical hardware.
I’m still muddling by with it, there are additional elements such as getting the laser drivers to work correctly, I think I’m stuck with some generic ones, it’s not at all taking advantage of the full rail/work space, so have been moving stock around to work within it’s limited functionality just to get some test pieces done. I should have not ran it without having the laser physically connected and powered up, that may have been what is causing that issue.
Also, as I stumbled through on the search for this solution, there were threads here with questions that were not answered/resolved, but it went past the 30 days so it was closed, and at least on one of them, I indeed did find a solution they were looking for but I can’t post an answer since it’s past the 30 days.
