Hi! Question. My engraving is shifting to the right. It started this morning and it was fine on the first sheet except of the file in the picture, so was thinking it was a file thing, even though I have cut this design many times.
Checked on that and reloaded it to another sheet and it did it again plus with some other designs, so I thought when I had grouped them all together in lightburn that I shifted them by accident, but no.
Everything else is cutting, scoring where it is placed, it is just the engraving. Any suggestions why it is doing this and what can I do to fix it. I am not sure if it is a Lightburn issue. I have had my Mira 9 for 3 years and never had this happen. I have also messaged support on my machine for assistance.
Was all the engraving done first at the very start?
If so, the engraving could be correct, and all of the cuts wrong… do all of the cuts look correct relative to each other?
For instance, if after the engraving was done, a rapid move to the right was inhibited or not performed correctly causing “skipped steps”, then from that point on all subsequent cuts would be also be not far enough to the right.
Those are clues that the machine has a mechanical problem, most likely in the X axis, and almost certainly a loose setscrew holding a pulley or coupling to a shaft.
Get out your set of metric hex wrenches, strap on a good headband light, and go hunting in places you’ve never seen before.
Start at the X axis motor, find each setscrew, and try to loosen it with a gentle counterclockwise turn: if it wasn’t tight to begin with, it will be very easy to loosen.
When you find the loose screw, loosen it by one turn, then rotate the pulley or coupling around the shaft while tightening the screw. Finish tightening it so it’s centered in the flat part of the shaft and firmly snug.
Given its age, the machine may also have a worn belt or crud built up in the motor pulley that can cause skipping. Those should be easy to find while you’re examining all the setscrews.
Putting threadlocking compound on the screw threads would be a good idea, but hold off on that until you’re comfortable crawling around inside the machine.
This happens enough that searching the forum for “setscrew” will bring up relevant discussions & photos:
The engraving was done first, followed by scoring and then cutting. Everything else about the file was cut properly, it is just the engraving that is doing this
I’ve got a Jackson in my wallet saying the engraving is in exactly the right place and subsequent cuts go awry.
Lay down some cardboard (because cheap) and run just the engraving layer. When it’s done, don’t move the cardboard.
Use the Click to Move tool to position the laser at some obvious feature on the engraving, then fire a manual pulse to mark that spot on the cardboard. The cursor in the LightBurn workspace and the laser dot should match up exactly on the same feature. If the dot is in a different location on the cardboard, then the error happened while engraving.
Turn off the engraving layer, turn on the scoring layer, and run it. Use Click to Move to put the laser head at the same spot on the engraving layer and fire another pulse. If the error happens during marking, the laser dot will be in a different location on the cardboard.
Turn off the scoring layer, turn on the cutting layer, reduce the power so it doesn’t cut completely through (but don’t change the speed), and run it. Again, Click to Move to the same spot on the engraving, and fire a pulse. If another error happens, the third dot will be in a third location.
If all three dots fall in the same hole, then the error occurred while engraving and no more errors happened while cutting, in which case I’ll send you the Jackson.
The reason I’m so sure: engraving uses very carefully controlled motions with a few high-speed moves, but vector cutting / marking involves many speed & direction changes at the full machine speed that tend to twist the shafts loose.
