How to Align and Center a Laser Project in 3 Easy Steps - Ortur Laser Master 2

[@richfaraone]

Another tip, burn the square onto your waste board and save the settings in your library. I have over 60 projects in my library that I can repeat without even framing.

[@KristNorsworthy]

How?

[@TheCrawlspaceCraftsman]

Yup

[@fyzobaba]

Exactly save urself all those hassle. Do has rich said! Burn the size of the surface u are mostly going to use for ur work..check the setting speed and power for me on balsa 2000 speed and 30% power when ready click play button and it will burn lightly the periphery of the square or whatever u have.then place ur material on machine within the periphery burnt and secure cos ur done want any movement.

[@karlfriedrich7758]

100% agree. That's by far the easiest way to align this repeatedly. If you set your laser up permanently somewhere and don't move it, you can also burn a square or just the corner of a square onto the spoil board. Glue or screw an L-shaped piece of aluminium or steel or even wood onto that corner and you're done. Butt your object up against it and you'll have perfectly square framing and alignment for engraving every time as long as you set the corner as the corner of your workpiece of course. I believe their new aluminium bed has a metal tab to do just that which makes it even easier to achieve.

[@bradleytrew6422]

I also wish I would have found this months ago! So much easier to centre after seeing this! Thank you so much for sharing your time and knowledge of lightburn and laser engraving and cutting!!

[@bmorlok84]

Your video was the first one I could find, explaining EXACTLY what I needed!! Trying to set up my first burn, and I needed that fire button and move tab!! Thank you so much!! Time to have some fun!!

[@MattWeber]

Also for quick reference, I take the normal size things I use, 4" tile, 6" tile, 4" round mirror, 12" square, draw them all out +1mm (or you cant see when trying to align to the burned line), select and move all to center, and burn them right onto the table. Takes the guess work out and you can just plop down the tile/canvas/project and know your within ~.5mm of perfect.

[@GaryGeddings]

I wish I had found your channel months ago and a lot of money ago!!! you just saved me on time and material! Thank you so much for these videos!

[@totalaccesslocksmithllc3298]

Jim I want to thank you very, very much, you are such an inspiration, you are a excellent teacher you stay directly to the point and don't drift off into a different subject. I've noticed this because I have watched your KZbin video for almost an hour, not videos. 1 Video on centering your Laser. I have been so frustrated listening to other individuals On youtube trying to give instructions on how to center your Laser for alignment. and here you go 3 steps. You were straight to the point 3 steps, wow. No point intended to others. But individuals that are doing KZbin videos on certain things need to take lesson to what you have Just taught an individual that knows nothing about using a laser. So I want to say thank you very, very much. And you have gotten my attention. You will be one of my favorite KZbinr to watch while I learn how to use this particular laser as a beginner.

[@CoastalBachelor2009]

Dude... Thank you. I had the Arturo Master but wanted a larger engraving area. I got this Two Trees, downloaded Lightburn and almost wet myself. I conquered the Arturo without opening a manual. (Ok, I tried, but, no Savy Chinese) but this was like going from a rowboat to America’s cup. You break it down so simple. I hope you continue because the very things I see as potential are just within our grasp with knowledge. I’ve already gotten the hardware, software so, learning how to use them is awesome. Thank you so very much.

[@trentcecrle73]

Thanks, I also use a carpenter square and push it right up to my project. Hold down the square then replace burned tile with a fresh tile for repeat burns.

[@robertarce7272]

Thank you for the video, just what I been looking for. Simple straight to the point. Great job.

[@terrmaso]

Thanks for breaking it down Barney style for the slow folk. I'm new to the laser thing and have managed to not throw the computer across the room. Learning Light Burn and Inkscape has been trying. I love to work with wood and felt an engraver would help me customize items. Thanks for helping me stay sane.

[@gaynorreynolds907]

Exactly how I feel.....so frustrating.

[@marsof2]

I just bought a Longer Ray 5 5W laser, and this has been more helpful than you can ever imagine. thank you so much!! Now I feel like I can really start engraving with confidence and not waste a bunch of material.

[@Noidhole88]

You are amazing! I have learned so much about 3d printing on my Bambu p1s from you so you can imagine how excited I was to find that you have a laser too! Thanks so much for the tutorial it really helped out a lot!

[@citidawgg]

Best lightburn tutorial for me so far. Been struggling with this issue, now I can finally get some real work done.

[@Printsandpours]

Thank you. Excellent video for a noob.

[@marcmclean3049]

Just got my Ortur laser Master 2 a couple of days ago, & your tutorials have been a massive help. There's a lot of stuff out there, but you tutorials are easy to follow & very informative, plus you engage well.... Some guys in tutorials are a bit dreary & make me switch off. Massive thank you Jim, and keep up the excellent work.

[@MichaelDavidHiltner]

Thank you so very kindly for your SPOT ON tutorial on just how to USE that Shift+Framing button! Goodness, it might be almost 01:00, but after more than 100 cuts & engraves, I finally was taught how to FRAME and Center a project tile! Of course, in the morning I WILL review your video once again just to "BURN" it in to the memory banks! Jeez, I've been hunting this information down for a couple weeks now. BIG THANK YOU!

[@keepthemomentum]

I’ve been trying to figure out the material alignment since I got my first laser about a week ago. This is the first video I’ve seen that clearly explains it step by step and solves the problem! Thank you!

[@christine0701]

you are a saviour!! So many videos assume you know what you're doing, to a certain extend, and the laser manual is so basic there's no tips like this in here. yay, I can finally center my projects better than repeatedly using framing and guessing

[@DavidALovingMPF102]

I finally figured out how to burn a grid on the workspace with my Ortur master 2. Thanks for your help. I couldn't see any rows being duplicated because I needed to select the "reverse direction" button! Only took 2 days!!!

[@TheJPo13032]

I'm not sure if this will be helpful or not but here it goes... Once you have drawn your square to the dimensions of your project you can find your center to align your project by selecting the "Move selection to" icon which is the last right most icon in your tool bar that looks like a cross hair. Then choose from the drop-down "Move laser to selection center". You must have your frame or item selected for this to work. This will accurately find the center of your project every time without guess work. then you can use the test fire button to visually see your center and align your substrate as needed also as well as holding SHIFT+FRAME. The snap method of aligning your item to your frame is nice but the original object size may be larger than your framed area and may have a white background area if engraving an image. To save time you can select your item intended to burned or engrave and press the SHIFT KEY and simultaneously selecting your frame. Once both items are selected and you can visually see the marquee around both items you will go to the icon in your tool bar "Align both vertical and horizontal centers" and select it. The icon looks like a circle with a dot in the middle. If your object to be burned is larger than your frame you will deselect both items by clicking in the work area and re-selecting your item to be burned. Once you have the project item selected you can resize from center by holding the ALT KEY and selecting and dragging a corner of the object inward or outward. You will still keep centered without having to realign. I hope that this was helpful.

[@ThysaniaAg]

Your tip was excellent! I have been driving myself crazy hitting frame over and over again because I didn’t know how to find dead center 😂

[@jeffbasham3248]

Thank you for clear instructions on how to enable and use the fire button. This will make things so much easier.

[@andrewhartridge2748]

This really helped me (a newbee) out ! I was wasting so much material before this tutorial ! Thank YOU

[@jacobesho]

This was exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

[@celestebutler2957]

WOW! THANK YOU~! If you are EVER in Puerto Rico, I will take you to dinner and a few drinks. VIDEO is EXCELLENT and just what I needed to get going!

[@MrBears1024]

Thanks for the video I'm currently struggling with my atom stack I've been winging it and haven't been precise with my burns this helps

[@ThysaniaAg]

Thanks for the awesome tutorial! Been watching it over and over as I go through setting my first square template up! 😄

[@turboflush]

The little tips that i had no idea existed. Thank you. I have been using corners and edges. Manually move the laser to a corner. Fire. Align it. And then move to center edge or another corner. Fire. And adjust alignment a bit more. Found it odd there was ni way to laser on frame. Thanks.

[@TeeNMugCrafters6092]

Many thanks your video is fantastic, I got it like a Pro.....

[@Montaden3]

thank you for clear details and explainations! others take forever to show what to do most do not show exactly what needs to be done. I just need to get a camera to help a little more I appreciate you!

[@PileofBrass]

Super informative video. Thank you !

[@chuckstrunk3746]

I just bought a TS2 - 20w and this video helped me immensely!! Thank you!!

[@Army4Life8892]

Thank you for making this video Jim. I have been watching so many videos and learning all that I can before I do my first burn and then I found yours and it was exactly what I was looking for. I have been watching your videos for the Ender 3D printers and now I found you here, AWESOME. Thanks again and keep up the great work and videos as it helps a lot of people.

[@michanisani]

Great lecture. I just got the Aufero laser 1. thank you

[@BRADLEYFREE]

Thank you Jim. Your videos are so informative. Brought my first laser, XTOOL D1 PRO 10W. Learning heaps from your videos. Cheers Brad from Australia.

[@droid0311]

New to the laser game. Just got the Ortur Master 2. Assembled last night.. and I'm trying Lightburn's trial. Great videos man. Thanks for keeping them simple and informative. Keep up the great work!!

[@jdavis6650]

Worth considering. Build a quick jig that registers off of bed walls. Repeatable, inexpensive and deadly accurate.

[@ClanJacobson]

This was excellent. I appreciate the foot stomp on safety...and still able to show the EXACT info I needed. I still think there are so many things in Lightburn I need to learn. Cheers

[@ClanJacobson]

Oh, and it was burdened down with a bunch of information not needed....seriously thanks

[@thebaldconvict]

This has to be the longest way to get it done. Much quicker way: 1) Draw the outline in Lightburn 2) Put some card or other sacrificial material on the bed 3) Burn the outline onto the material 4) Put item in outline 5) Burn item No messing and the right result every time.

[@mretuck]

Using the Fire button at a high %, add a registration dot in the middle of the burnt square to reset laser location in the future between other projects

[@GunnerAl9]

Excellent video. Just did my first project yesterday on a cutting board and I wish I had watched this prior to executing because I was off center by a little guessing on the center and alignment. It's not centered and slightly titled off horizontal level.

[@reddog907]

Placing the item was made easy with this video, I would like to see it done with an oval, I am struggling. Thanks Jim.

[@Inventorsquare]

Thanks. I actually just received one as a gift and happy about it from your videos. Haven’t opened it yet and so aligning it has been the only thing I’ve thought about before falling asleep at night. Anyways, what I’m thinking is set up an origin once, then screw down a semi-permanent square consistent with that, and then before each project, measure whatever the stock size is before adjusting the burn accordingly in the software, then slap the stock into the corner of the square. Possible on Lightburn? Would be fantastic when doing a series of tiles of known dimension. Hell, you could probably create a fixture plate and burn template for nearly a dozen tiles at once and they’d be all perfectly aligned in a moment every time.

[@TheEdgeofTech]

You can definitely do this! I use absolute coordinates and burn a template into poster board. Then I can do many coasters or tiles at the same time over and over.

[@Inventorsquare]

@@TheEdgeofTech I’m getting started late tonight, wish me luck! Your videos got me interested in small lasers. Then you had a video about the painting of canvas and made the Balrog and I couldn’t stop talking about it and showing everyone! So it turns out my parents mailed me one for my birthday, haha, amazing. Thanks for the inspiration!

[@olafb.2929]

@@Inventorsquare It is Jims "fault" too that I bought mine. Cannot wait to get it running!

[@JuanRodriguez-tp7mm]

Great video! Thanks for the advice!!!

[@silentwarrior11six78]

Super awesome, the first video I've seen that explains how to shoot laser while framing. I've been looking everywhere! Thanks! Subbed.

[@AndreChampoux]

OMG, thank you so much for making this video. I was getting pretty upset with the whole thing and wondering how to figure the centre out. Enabling that fire button and outline makes it so much better.

[@bordonaro40]

Thank you for your videos , your so much easier to follow than alot of the other videos I have watched , some of the others are like going to the doctors office you have no clue what they are talking about and leave lost. So thank you for taking the time and making these videos I am now subscrided!

[@darrellbrown9475]

Until you master all these alignment things, easy way is to tape a piece of cardboard down and burn a slightly larger outline. Bam, square and centered. Good video.

[@tonymondoro2916]

amazing video-explained exactly what i needed to know. i cant bear to tell you how much time i wasted watching videos that didnt come close to this one!!

[@bellknapable]

Thanks so much helped me a lot.

[@BuildDadBuild]

I've been powering through your content as I have aOrtur on the way. Great stuff. Subbed fo sho! Good info. Concise and to the point. Cheers

[@SamA-jg8vy]

There's a faster way.... just burn an outline of the square onto your waste board and then just line the tile up on the square. One step... super fast! Great video though.. thanks for sharing!

[@3starsfell]

Also the man. Thanks

[@mmarsha9]

Thanks for this video! I got my Ortur 20 watt the other day and haven't set mine up yet because I wanted to get more familiar with Lightburn. Your vide answered my exact question about how to tell the laser where on the cut surface the material is.

[@TorreyCrabtree]

Put down a layer of painters tape, outline your piece in Lightburn, engrave the outline on the tape, put the piece in the outline. It's a lot faster.

[@litejk01]

About to comment the same, noticed your comment. The same way I do :) You can speed up any process by placing items on the bed.

[@charlespattison3569]

@@litejk01 I was just thinking, can you laser a .5 in grid down on your wood that your mounted to then you can just set your piece down each time?

[@litejk01]

@@charlespattison3569 I did that with my home made laser engraver. When you change the laser head, you might not be aligned any more. I use blue painters tape myself. Even when I engraved dupont plugs, blue tape in 2 layers, engraved the outline, placed the plug in the opening, and perfect alignment for all the plugs. ;) 😉

[@DavidALovingMPF102]

@@charlespattison3569 I am still trying to figure that out! KZbin videos have people saying," Go here and do xyz." I'm at the level of where is here?? how did you do that..I am trying to burn a grid in my Ortur 20w workspace, using lightburn. I need to write down each step. Only had the laser about a week.

[@donovanpl]

For my engraver, from the bed to general focal point is a significant distance. I have to prop up the target tile with other tiles, then focus. I draw 2 diagonal lines on the target tile, which is the center then focus there. Then I move the laser over to one side of the tile with the fire button on and go back and forth, adjusting the tile until it is parallel to the movement of the beam. Then I go back to the Centre and engrave from there. The Shift+outline was a good tip.

[@RioElMystic-999]

This video compiled compiled all the info I need in one go thank you

[@shelbymorris5531]

Thank you so much I would have never known to hold the shift key then frame!

[@jenniferwendorf9003]

Dude. YOU ROCK. Great video.

[@ASHLEYSMITH0727]

Newbie here ! thank you SO very much for showing me this ! Love it !!!

[@markcook8516]

How about drawing an x-axis and a y-axis on your board, then marking the edge of your piece at the halfway point on adjacent sides. Then set your piece in the center and touch the markings you made. One for the x-axis and one for the y-axis. For circles use a t-square.

[@beetlewing]

Great video, thanks!

[@vk2let]

very informative video. Cheers

[@Monkmandan]

Anytime you have a workpeice with cornera just take a ruler touch two opposite cornersmark line roughly in center,then put the ruler on the other corners and mark a line. this will create an X,the middle of the x is the center of your workpeice.

[@satanspacemakers_theoldfar376]

I am just starting out with my first laser. This is super helpful. Keep it simple and straight. Great Help.

[@jasoncox138]

Great video, is it the same process if you to put multiple tiles down on the workspace? So, multiple tiles, same artwork. How do you know where to place each tile and ensure it's all lined up??

[@DeMzz12]

Great video. So clear and to the point. Thanks so much!

[@curbshooter]

thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!!!!

[@LunarNoire]

OMG thank you for this!

[@fredy0908]

Great tips, thanks

[@davedejager7094]

Thank you king! 💯🙏

[@MartyOfAllTrades]

I watched this a couple of times. Great information man...One thing I wanted to make sure of. Lets say that I have an array of several squares which will be cutout for holding actual items I want to engrave upon. A jig in this case. The squares are just cutouts for later for me to place small wooden items in to engrave the text. To make sure that the framing doesn't capture the squares when trying to put the text in the center should I make all of the squares in the array a "tool" so it will have the text in the center of each square? Hope this makes sense..

[@HCTPIRES]

Many thanks for your information, specially the tip for framing with the laser beam on, that's what I need to know now. Regards and keep rocking.

[@davidcarr5434]

Jim thanks so much for your educational videos. My question: Will this laser burn on blue jeans (Denim)? If you have a video please direct me to it. Oh, the tiles videos are awesome.

[@MattWeber]

Yes.. takes a little testing tho since different brands and denim styles burn differently. Too little power and you do nothing, or just cause frays, too much and well.. you can light the denim on fire..

[@michaladambloch4260]

Awesome, thank you.

[@LaVacana]

thanks so much, help me so much ans easy

[@52joma]

Very well explained, thank you very much! i look for videos where engraving with diodlaser on clear Acrylic is well explained like yours step by step.

[@IanFlyinGremlinRCNZ]

Hi Jim thanks for this video, It has made life alot easier the way you showed. I haven't done the swatch tiles as yet, but plan on doing it when I build a fume box for the laser, so I don't fill the house with stinky smell. One question is there a way to burn the grid that we use in lightburn onto our burn surface, that would make lining up projects alot easier.

[@TheEdgeofTech]

I am glad it helped! There's definitely a way to do that and I will put out a video pretty quickly on that! You can also find it in the Facebook group if you don't want to wait for the video :-) Thanks for watching!

[@kmc8804]

Best tutorial hands down!!

[@neskovic11]

Thanks man You saved my time and a lot of material😀

[@erdepfel]

Great Video thank you bro

[@dennisdohogne4747]

Well done! I especially like the bonus tip!

[@gpsfitnessrosehill]

Huge help

[@corvettegioarmani]

Thanks for fire button ;)

[@Tony626]

Perfect thank you so much

[@lrhargrove]

This was awesome! I am brand new and just trying to get things set up and this was very helpful!!

[@TheEdgeofTech]

Glad it helped!

[@mpdemo77]

Does the G8 lens make a noticeable improvement over the factory lens? If so, does it improve cutting or picture engraving qualify? Also, which G8 lens do you recommend and how did you mount it in the LM2? I have the LM2 20watt and have heard that the G8 is an upgrade but never any specifics about what it improves.

[@esmith4838]

Super helpful

[@olafb.2929]

Great advice. I will try the bonus one as soon as I can.

[@jaymakesmusic6916]

Thank you !

[@D1PP1N]

You could also burn the square into the spoilboard for alignment. Then if your doing repeat burns with the same objects setup is faster.

[@maximephilippe2781]

Hey thanks so much man!

[@COddietsch]

Have you ever ran into Error 8, Error 9 or Error 18 during your set-up or operating. There are a few of us new users that are having a difficult time and there is no instructions on how to correct these problems. We are consulting with Ortur, just thought since your videos are so good that you might have some knowledge on this area. Thanks

[@jucerago]

Eres un excelente creador de contenido. Gracias. Saludos desde Colombia.

[@mrsdizi1234]

Thank you for sharing, question is there a differance between T1 and T2?

[@zman5970]

Dude you are the best!! Ive learned so much from you!!

[@foxa777]

Thank you 🙏

[@mikelarson-b3g]

Hey, new to the laser engraving game and I've really enjoyed your videos and the way you teach/explain. However in a couple videos you have mentioned how you prefer to use vector files and its explained in a previous video. Well for the life of me I cant find that video you reference. Mind posting a link or pointing me in the right direction to find it, thanks and keep up the great work

[@urbannpa]

Nice video One thing I like to do if I'm doing multiples of the same object is use masking tape to outline one corner 90 degrees.

[@bryanwilson180]

Your tips are awesome! I have a 20w V2 on the way and can't wait to make some coasters! 2 questions, 1 could I just use the squaring layer to burn a template to the sacrifice wood and always use that spot when centering the tile? And 2 do you have a video for multi layer color burning? Thanks and again great videos!

[@aspmos]

Suggestion for good quality glasses? I dont trust the pair that was with the laser

[@richheer6847]

Love your videos. I especially like the fact that you are using the Ortur Laser Master 2 which is what I purchased and everything you have show is easy for me to use because I don't have to try to make adjustments from somebody using a 100 w laser, etc. I have watched a good number of your videos more than once and enjoy watching them time and time again. In one of your videos, you showed how you used a file you generated to find just the right settings with your power and speed to get the results you wanted. could you please tell me once again where I can find and download that file. I know it was used in one of your videos on lasering tile that had been painted with more than on color of paint. Thanks for all you do and please keep the tutorials coming. I just got into this hobby and I certainly have a lot to learn. Thanks again. Rich

[@TheEdgeofTech]

Thanks Rich! That file is in the description of the first laser video I did about finding your magic number! Glad my videos can help and let me know if you can't find it!

[@richheer6847]

@@TheEdgeofTech Hi again, Thanks for the quick reply . Without trying to look stupid, could you be a little more specific to that file location. I have been looking and haven't been able to find out which was the first laser video you did. Thanks for putting up with me. Rich

[@richheer6847]

@@TheEdgeofTech Thanks Jim, It took me a while, but I finally found it. Thanks for not responding sooner to my second request for the file. Who knows, maybe I learned something from having to search a little harder. Take care and God Bless. Rich

[@KevinBritain]

Thanks for these tips.. currently contemplating purchasing this laser..

[@krisknowlton5935]

Kevin Britain, you will not regret buying one. I am retired and have had a blast with this thing. It can not do everything a CO2 laser can do but then it can do some things a CO2 laser can't. It is absolutely amazing what you can do with one. It is probably the best $200 I have ever spent.

[@DavidALovingMPF102]

Are there instructions for beginners on how to use the Ortur 20w with Lightburn to burn a grid in the work space? I need instructions that say, "go here and do this..." not instructions that say Do this and run that, because I don't know where THAT is! I am still searching the software for things. You have been a great help. thanks.