Calibrating the Ray5 20W After Moving or Reassembling

# Calibrating the Ray5 20W After Moving or Reassembling After moving the machine or taking it apart for transport, several things need re-calibration before you get good results. ## What Needs Calibration After Moving 1. **Frame squareness** — gantry perpendicular to rails 2. **Focal height** — correct distance from lens to material 3. **Home position** — electrical home (limit switches) 4. **Software X/Y scaling** — mm/step calibration ## Step 1 — Frame Squareness 1. Measure diagonals of the frame with a tape measure 2. Both diagonals should be equal (±1mm acceptable) 3. If not: loosen corner brackets, adjust until equal, retighten 4. Check that gantry rail is parallel to both Y-axis rails ## Step 2 — Focal Height 1. Home the machine (run homing cycle) 2. Move to center of bed 3. Use the included focal height spacer (or ruler marked at correct distance) 4. Adjust laser head height until spacer just fits under nozzle 5. Tighten the laser head clamp bolt Or run a focus ramp test (see focal height guide) to find the sharpest focal distance. ## Step 3 — Test Square Cut Cut a 100×100mm square in paper or thin wood: 1. Measure cut square — should be 100×100mm ±0.3mm 2. Check diagonals are equal — if not, frame isn't square ## Step 4 — Calibrate Steps/mm (If Off) If cut squares are consistently wrong size: - In LaserGRBL: **Grbl Settings** → check `$100` (X steps/mm) and `$101` (Y steps/mm) - Default Ray5 values: 80 steps/mm (both axes) - If 100mm cut = 98mm: actual steps = 80 × (100/98) = 81.6 → update $100/$101 ## Running in a New Location After any significant move: 1. Run frame squareness check 2. Confirm focal height 3. Cut test square and measure 4. Only then cut production material Takes 10 minutes but prevents a day of bad results.

🔧 Related tool: Laser Focus Calculator