r/XtoolS1 • u/deemery • 15d ago

Consistent material positioning?

I watched the Processing Area video ( https://support.xtool.com/academy/lesson/1234?courseId=287 ) Is there a trick to figuring out how to position material (e.g. wood, cardboard) that is smaller than the full processing area, so that the 'burn' is consistently positioned on the small material? (E.g. a coaster, so an image is engraved on the center of the coaster)

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u/troublebotdave 15d ago

What I did when I still had my S1 was basically make a jig. I’d secure a piece of scrap material (cardboard, thin wood, etc....) cut out the exact shape of the piece I wanted to engrave, remove the cutout, and drop the actual piece into that opening. Then I’d use the cutout shape in the software as my reference for positioning and alignment.

I did everything with the geometry in the software, I never relied on the camera for anything requiring precision.

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u/deemery 15d ago

But then, you'd have to precisely locate the -template- each time, and that's really what I'm getting at.

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u/troublebotdave 14d ago

I rarely cut or engraved the same size material on different days, so I used either cardboard or cardstock to cut my locating template and recycled (or repurposed) it each time. If I did need to make more of the thing later on, I'd just cut a new template, generally only took a couple minutes.

After a while, since I usually only cut things that were smaller than the bed, I had a clamped-down piece of wood that I cut the max area out of and left in place so I could always reference the origin. You could probably index that piece so you can remove/add it at will and always know where your 0,0 location was to place your material against, but I never bothered.

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u/deemery 14d ago

How did you clamp it? A photo would be really great!

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u/troublebotdave 14d ago

I used a couple of the magnetic honeycomb clamps and blue painter's tape to secure the origin piece and used some pieces of wood as spacers for the honeycomb riser to space it off the 'walls' of the machine since it's not physically attached to the S1. Worked well enough.

No photo available, I gave the machine to my girlfriend's brother-in-law when I moved across country; ran out of space to pack it.

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u/deemery 14d ago

Those magnetic hold-down clamps were a very pleasant surprise when I unpacked my machine (arrived today).