I’m just really starting to get a small understanding of laser engraving and using Lightburn. I have a Longer Ray5 20w with air assist and camera. I am trying to dial in a jig to engrave “dog tags”. I purchased one of the many templates from Etsy and have adjusted the size to match what tags we have. I am trying to figure out placement and its kicking my tail at the moment. In lightburn, everything lines up for the single tag perfectly. I put a dab of Elmers school glue on the back of the tag to secure it to the test masonite (1/8" thick) and framed the work in lightburn. The settings I am using for the layers are 1500 speed and 50% power. When I run the file, it consistently “creeps” up or over (have tried a couple of times now) and am at a loss. I have attached the lightburn pic from my screen and the result . Any help would be appreciated.
It is a bit unclear to me exactly what your problem is, but I will describe how I will approach the matter.
It is important to make a permanent “stop edge” for X and Y on your machine bed. If you have one, you can use and reuse a jig for your project.
Step 2 is to measure and draw your workpiece in LB that will be used as a jig.
The next step is to find a piece of 3mm wood/MDF or similar with a 90 degree angle that you place in your home position, which will use absolute coordinates. Cut your dog tag out of this piece of wood and save the measurements with the template on a separate layer.
Now you can design the actual content of your dog tag and center/position it in the template, on another layer.
Place your dog tag in the template and engrave the layer that you have designed.
You will be able to reuse the template and your project file over and over again.
In this old picture you can see my X-Y 0:0 stop in the lower left corner.
Notice that I have screwed the angle on the honeycomb, this guarantees repeatability.
