I’ve looked through the forums for an answer to this and cannot seem to find one that works for me. I initially setup the 45W laser following Eric’s video on youtube, and everything worked as expected, the Z 0 height was set just above the parts that we were cutting (around 6mm not sure). It has been a few days since we used the laser since then, and we started it up again today, and every file that we load seems to have the same issue, that the laser z axis 0 is above the part we are cutting by about 2 inches. We even went back to the old files we were using a few days ago when things were working fine, but now we are having the same issue with those files too. We use fusion 360 for our design and manufacturing, and we’ve tried changing many settings on there, but like I said, the original files that we used a few days ago were working perfect right after we set the laser up for the first time, and now those same files are having this same issue with the Z height. We have shut down and restarted the machine numerous times, each time we home the machine, do a MTC, touch off on the touch off plate, then use the tool height measuring plate to measure the height of the spoilboard, after that is set, we go through the util menu and set the laser height with the 21mm block on the edge of the laser just like eric’s 2 minute youtube video. As soon as we get done with the process of touching off on the 21mm block, for a split second the Z DRO gets set to -1.9” and then it raises up like normal. Because of this, when we get down to 0 on the Z DRO, we are still up in the air about that 2 inches. After this, we use the util menu again to switch back to previous tool, and we jog the spindle back down to the spoilboard and the Z axis is set at 0 when we are on top of our spoilboard as it should be.
In the acorn wizard, we are setup with the 45W laser, and there are not many options to change other than the “Nozzle Z offset” which we have set at 45w Nozzle.
Also, we wanted to reset and start over again with the initial setup, so I went into the acorn wizard and selected “None” as the laser type. During this the laser was armed, and when I wrote these new configurations to cnc 12, the laser turned on and started burning a hole into the spoilboard. Just a warning thanks.
It sounds like you have calibrated the laser correctly.
Try this:
Put a tool in the spindle and make sure you run your MTC to measure the tool. After you do that use the touch plate to zero to the top of a part, any part, it doesn’t matter.
After you do that drive down to Z zero and make sure your bit is on top of the part. I suspect it will be (if not, we have larger problems!
Now go to the UTILS menu and go to Diode Laser Utilites and then “deploy laser” (I think that’s what it says I’m not looking at the menu at this exact moment)
This should deploy the laser. When it deployed jog down over that same material until the DRO reads Z 0. When it does the nozzle SHOULD be above the material around 6mm (it’s different for every laser but close enough)
If that’s not the case your Z height for your laser is improperly calibrated and that’s where we need to focus our efforts.
Thank you for the quick response, here is what we just did.
Turn on machine, complete homing cycle.
Noticed that the tool was still set to T99, so I went into the UTIL menu → Diode Laser Utilities → Switch to previous tool.
Clicked MTC, did a tool change with a 1/4” bit that we have set as Tool 1. The tool touched off on the tool height setter as usual.
Placed the corner touch plate on the corner of a 1/4” material atop our spoilboard. Then we went through the process of touching off. The spindle raised to a height of 2.000” on the Z DRO as usual.
Brought the spindle down to Z zero, and it is just skimming the work surface as it should be.
Went into the UTIL menu → Diode Laser Utilities→ Deploy Laser. Screen says “X Y offset applied” and then the laser drops down slowly.
Jogged the laser down to the Z zero, and the nozzle sits above the part about 2”. Side note: When I jogged down the laser until the nozzle was just skimming the work piece, the Z on the DRO reads -1.572”.
Ok, this tells me that everything is working except the Z offset of the laser. You need to re-run that again. Be sure to put the little block between the BODY of the laser and the spoilboard, NOT between the nozzle and the spoilboard. That may have been where you went wrong…
I turned the machine back on, homed it, did a MTC with the same 1/4” bit, and then I touched off on the touch off plate onto the spoilboard. Then I took a video from there. The spindle is touching the spoilboard at Z zero, however, after going through the laser height calibration, the laser still rests about 1.5” above the spoilboard at Z zero. Notice in the video, once the laser is done with the height calibration, right before raising back up, the Z gets set to around -1.1920. Is this normal?
