Hi Nina;
I tend to make a jig if the work is repetitive and I use a centering marker to guide me to the set origin point in the centre of the table. It also depends on the shape of the workpiece. My SM1 has only a few holes for clamping so I created a new bed with many more holes. I have almost completed that with my newly constructed clamps. In theory; one ought to be able set the home position and have that setting persistent but SM1/Luban does not appear to have that operator controlled facility. It also is dependent on what you are trying to achieve and whether it is laser, print or CNC.
I have not done any 3D printing so would guess that you must place your design in the centre of the work area. SM1 has a 130mm square bed so locate the centre of your design centrally at 65mm. There is a home position which could be used so a piece of code could be hand inserted for each job. (rather tedious… I know). The jog control moves in known steps so you could (for SM1) move the module on the ‘X’ axis head 6 times by 10mm and 5 times by 1mm. This would bring the head into the centre 65mm from the home position (assuming it is at 130mm at the bottom left) then you would need to repeat the movements and amounts on the ‘Y’ axis. This would always start your process from the centre of the bed.
Marking the centre of the workpiece can be helpful for laser work and CNC. The laser shines when jogging the head and the low power beam allows you to focus and as you bring the beam to its correct point of focus, you know that the ‘Z’ axis height is correct. With a mark showing the centre of the workpiece it is not difficult to align the in focus laser beam to the centre of the job. As long as the design is central in the software, you will be where you need to be to start. After jogging the module head, remember to press the SET ORIGIN control before beginning your work process. For CNC work just centre the tool bit over the central mark or move it according to half the dimensions of known and permitted travel for the ‘X’ and the ‘Y’ axes.
I have no experience of the A350 nor have I seen one. The amount of head travel is a given for ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ axes in each direction and the amount of each jog step is also known. It makes good sense to use these given values to move the module where you want to for your start position. In my opinion, there should be a software provision (like the home control) that centres the module head. You will always have to centre your work if you want to centre the module. In many other softwares, I have seen the provision to determine where the module head starts.
The following image shows a jig I created for carving letters into blocks. The clamps remain flat and out of the way. When using the laser, I would have wanted to centre the module head if I had used the machine for other things so that my set origin was lost. The set origin is lost when turning the machine off (SM1) so I created a block that would assist me to centre the laser beam. The centering gauge I had created is resting in the jig in the picture so I knew that work in this jig would start from a central position.
The image which follows shows the laser beam is very tightly focussed.
I found it necessary to close the aperture ring until it was at its smallest aperture. My method is to focus on a piece of paper taped to the workpiece. I aim to make the beam about the size of a printed text full stop. It should be possible to get a beam width at the point of focus to be around .5mm but the brightness (although attenuated to about 5% of full strength for this process) can make it difficult to assess the point size. You may find it helpful to use a piece of matt and coloured paper to remove the tendency of the beam to appeared flared at the edges. Always wear safety classes whenever the laser beam is on, even at low power it can be dangerous to your eyes. Hope this helps