I believe it’s you z alignment is to blame. That beam needs to go down the center of the tube. It has to be perpendicular to the table. In the photo, there is a ‘dot’ above and to the right of the half moon on each pulse.
Can’t see that well, but it doesn’t look square in the photo. What are you ‘squaring’ against?
Are you following anyone steps or video on alignment mirror alignment? Stick with the one you choose don’t try and intermix them until you have a good understanding of how it works.
I don’t know how many hours (days?) fiddling with this on my machine. When you’ve done it 1,000 times, it’s a cake walk according to those that lived through it
After less than a month with my machine, I pitched out the factory head and replaced it with one that I can adjust both Y and Z axes.
Need to make a run, so don’t have time to post as thorough idea, but here is my original head. Looking down the beam input the center of the mirror is high. You can see the reflection of the top and bottom of the tube, so I’m pretty straight down it.
Draw a line down the center of the tube and see where it hits M3, not in the center of the axis.
With the mirror and ring removed, does it look centered?
Take the time to really think about it, you’ll nail it… ![]()


