I’m fairly new to laser cutting/engraving. Lightburn has been working well and I’m getting a decent grasp of the basics. I’ve been using an older iMac to run lightburn and the laser. It was working great until I decided to change out the older iMac to a new model. Now every time I start to cut or engrave, the laser backs up about 25mm or so and then starts working. It makes it impossible to place a design accurately on the material. I have not been able to find any setting that is incorrect. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.
Do you still have the old Mac available? If so, then try backup and restoring your preferences to the new Mac.
- On old Mac File->Export Prefs
- Save to a file of known location
- Copy file to new mac.
- On new Mac File->Import Prefs
Then test to see if things are as you expect.
Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately, I formatted the hard drive on the old Mac and gave it away. Any other solution?
Will need to resort to the basics in that case.
Can you provide the following to help diagnose?
- Full screenshot of LightBurn with the design loaded and Cut and Laser windows showing
- Screenshot of Device Settings
- Save the gcode by going to File->Save Gcode. Save the file with a .txt extension and upload to the forum
Here are the items that you requested. I’ll break them into 2 replies because I don’t know how big the files can be sending them this way. Again, thank you for your help.l
I’ve added a photo of the latest project showing the problem. The laser was centered on the white x in the middle of the slate. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about the problem, started the etching and walked away. As you can see the laser move about 20mm to the left just before the burn starts.
GCode.txt (272.0 KB)
a ha! I see a pointer offset in your Device Settings. Try switching that off.
@Colin has called out the likely culprit.
Can you confirm you’re not using the red crosshairs for alignment? If so, then that’s certainly the issue.
I just ran a test and it worked. I do not use the crosshairs so that make perfect sense. I saw that and assumed that since I wasn’t using crosshairs, it wouldn’t matter. Wow, thank you for not only finding the issue, but also for the fast and friendly responses.
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I’m going to puck my luck and ask another question related to this project. These are plaques for my brother’s deceased dogs. He glues them to a wall in his backyard. Can anyone explain why etching with the laser on slate cause the etching to raise up instead of etching into the surface?
Are you sure it’s not just an optical illusion? From the photo you attached the etching seems to be recessed. You could run through more passes to make this more definitive.
Also it seems that different slates will react differently when they are lasered. Some slate get darker when lasered, others get lighter. The laser type itself will also affect the outcome.
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It’s definitely a raised almost crystalline sort of look. It looks fine just being curious. I may be back on the above issue. I just started a long burn of the plaque and it looked like the framing was off. I adjusted and I’m giving it a try. If I need to, I’ll come back with more specifics trials.
I’m guess the surface has been polished. The etching may be revealing the various striations in the material. But I’m just speculating.
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