Introduction: High Precision Table Alignment on Your Laser Cutter Made Easy! Make the Tool.

About: part time robot designer :-)


Hate the Mickey Mouse alignment procedure on your laser cutter? Yep - it's a pain. Quit fighting it and make this simple tool and get .001 accuracy in all four corners of your table!

Dead simple, dead accurate.

Sometimes, well alot of times actually, you can make a far superior tool than what's available for purchase - in this case, you can make a high precision tool that blows away what the manual tells you to do and save TONS of time and frustration in the process.

Epilog.. if you're listening... this instructable is simple, but it is THE BEST way to align a table. I LOVE my Helix, but tell people about a far superior way to align their table over what's in the manual.

Just go to Harbor Freight (or your equivalent) and pick up a dial caliper - digital or steam gauge, doesn't matter. It's just a press fit into the jig, and the alignment jig is held onto the optics carriage by binder clips.

I've included a cut file (CDR and DXF) - it's sized for a Epilog Helix, but should be easily adaptable for other makes and models as well - the concept is the same.

Generally, start at the highest corner and raise the other corners to match.

Here's the details for those who might not have made this adjustment before -

Just clip the alignment jig onto the optics carriage and start at the home position. Zero the tool (press the zero key). Take the optics carriage to all 4 corners and find the highest corner - that's where you'll start the adjustment from, the highest corner. Re-zero the tool ON THE HIGHEST CORNER - now go clockwise around the table to the other 3 corners and make height adjustments on the adjustment screws until each corner reads zero, then just move to the next corner until they all read zero or there about. Should take just a few minutes and even less once you get good at it.


By request... PDF of file posted as well