IDEX alignment card

How the card works

1. Choose the bed preset of the file you printed and the test (Vernier or Lite). The card knows where every station sits on each published bed preset.
2. Read every station on the bed, before removing the print. Stations are numbered like a phone keypad seen from the front: 1 back-left, 5 centre, 9 front-right.
3. Vernier: write the fine reading in mm with its sign: a labelled tick is that many tenths ("2" = 0.20), the unlabelled tick just beyond a label adds 0.05, and a reading on the "+" side is positive. Fill the coarse box only when the coarse scale reads 6, 8 or 10, or when the fine scale has no clear alignment: the card then picks the right repeat of the fine scale.
4. Lite: type + when T1 moved towards + (X: gap on the left, overlap on the right; Y: gap at the front, overlap at the back), − for the opposite, 0 when both contact lines look the same. Lite gives a sign pattern only, no numbers.
5. The card fits a plane through the readings of each axis, reading = c0 + cx·x + cy·y, with x and y in mm from the bed centre. c0 is the tool offset at the bed centre; the slopes show the mechanics.
6. Each slope is judged by its effect at the outer stations: ok below 0.05 mm (one fine step) or within the reading noise, watch from 0.05 to 0.10 mm, fix above 0.10 mm. The offset is either ok (below 0.05 mm) or worth applying.
7. A station more than 0.10 mm off the plane is flagged: re-read it with a loupe before trusting the result.
8. Fix the mechanics first (any slope marked fix), print again, then set the offset. Every correction is new = old + reading. On RatOS, do the sign check once before trusting it.

Sign: + = T1 prints to the right of T0 (X) or towards the back (Y). Fine scale: label ÷ 10, unlabelled tick + 0.05. Coarse: only if it reads 6, 8 or 10. Lite: + / − / 0.

Bed preset: ________ Test: Vernier / Lite Date: ________ Offsets before: X ______ Y ______

Vernier: type the fine reading with its sign (+0.15, −0.05); the coarse box only when you read the coarse scale. Lite: + when T1 moved towards + (gap on the left for X, at the front for Y), − the other way, 0 aligned. The previous run is kept only in this browser.