I have read through some of the posts and this one reply from Oz strikes me as being most relevant to my question:
Generally you use “Current Position” mode, and just jog the X / Y until you’re at the place you’d like to start.
I would like to avoid the JOG, Is there a way for me to save a start point with the job? What I am finding is that I am OFF in my jogging and the jobs between runs are ending up looking just slightly ‘off kilter’ (maybe a little higher on the glass or lower … I would like to be able to tell the laser “for this job start here” so that if I tear down the rotary for another job and come back to it in 1 month that I know the job will start and run and the graphic will be in exactly the same position every time? Is this possible?
How would the “job” know where the object is on the platform and in the rotary?
If the laser has homing switches telling the controller where the laser head is on the platform, you could use a fixture locating the rotary at a known XY position & orientation. Then you must have another fixture to put the glass at a known position on the rotary along the X axis (the scanning direction = up-down on the object).
Home the laser, set the rotary in the fixture, align the glass with another fixture, then fire the laser using absolute coordinate.
It can be done, but many things can go just slightly wrong along the way.
Thank You for that reply, it is helpful. And thank you for pointing out what I did not include. I do have a template for the rotary - it goes into the exact same position every time as a result of template. But I see your point in relation to the glass. It is the same format of glass on this job and I have to do 350 of them so I wanted to be sure that if I tore down for something else briefly then I could quickly set back up when ready to continue on this job again. Realistically I will frame every glass just to be sure but If I could start the job at he correct height each time that would be bonus
I too am swapping back and forth from rotary to flat plane work. I quick fabbed a jig to make sure the base of the rotary is square to the frame. I have a small orange flange on the bottom of the laser. I line that up with the edge of the plastic coating on the cup (or on this project, aligned with the top edge of the leather patch) and it gives a consistent alignment guide that is easy to see when I use the square “frame” key. I use this command to drive the laser from HOME to the work piece. I set the end job position to just move the laser far enough to get it out of the way to put a new cup in the jig.
