After ortur upgrade to 10w

Hi everyone , I have just upgraded my ortur m2 s2 to the ortur10w laser, I upgraded because i was having inconsistent cuts on 3mm ply no matter what i did. since then i purchased dedicated laser ply 3 mm and have found that the cuts on the laser ply were still inconsistent with one pass running at 280 x 100%, but disappointed and just about to give up I found what i think is the setting for me 400x 100% x 2 passes, nearly every cut is almost spot on just a small spot minor miss here and there. So my question is does anyone have an idea why one pass is so hit and miss and the two passes are so good, i’m thinking the quicker speed and two passes gives the air assist a better chance to blow out the crap ? any thoughts ?

Don’t use my led lasers much anymore, but it boils down to what is happening to the material or what kind of damage is being done. Air assist is generally helpful with wood, but a lower pressure for acrylic actually works better.

In any kind of ‘machining’, subtractive or additive, there is a ‘speed and feed’ that works best for the type of tool, how fast it’s turning, ‘speed’ and how fast the material moves past the head ‘feed’…

Speed, is really related to the lasers power, much like speed for a milling machine is based on the tools rotational speed/tooth configuration. Feed is how fast the material moves past it, so it can be confusing, but it’s power/speed that is the key combination no matter how you slice it.

I can cut through 3mm mdf very easily in a wide range of speeds/feeds. There is only a narrow speed/feed combination that the edges of the cut as so clean I use a tissue to see how close I am to the right combination.

If you’ve ever used a table saw, you can’t just ‘shove’ the wood into it. At a certain ‘feed rate’ it cuts smooth effectively, too slow, burns, and too fast damages the material…

There are programs out there, I have one, that compute the speeds/feeds for a milling machine or something similar. What is constant in most machining is not in lasing. The power of the laser is not an exact science, but is complicated by the lens system. Most ‘metals’ do not very in such a wide range as a piece of mdf. I cut a great toy out, hit a wad of glue in the mdf and it ruined the part. That’s part of life with these.

We usually limit our co2 machines to about 80%. The general idea is the fastest speed with the highest power is usually the best area.

Good luck

:smile_cat:

Thank you very much for your reply, that all makes sense, and yes I do use a table saw i completely understand, so I think I will have to be prepared to change the settings for each type of ply to find the right one for each, as I was thinking it was just a laser power problem , now I understand there are many factors that’s going to affect the results not just power, as I found out when using two passes, at the time I didn’t think it was going to be any better, but i was surprised at the results. thanks Keith