Marco from LO thinks my issue lies between the third mirror and the lens. I’ve only ever checked the third mirror alignment by lowering the head down to a piece of cardboard, tracing around the nozzle, then raising into focus and pulsing to make sure the bean is in the center of the hole.
Is there a better, more sure-fire way to adjust and confirm the third lens alignment?
I found the lens holder on the laser head was loose, dis-assembled everything and tightened. Also found both screws holding the X axis stepper mounting bracket were stripped. I finagled in longer screws with nuts inside the gantry extrusion. The x stepper is solid now!
I have good belt tension and smooth movement along the rail. In fact, my best results in a line test were now at 400mm/S. Before it was unusable at any setting over 200. I have acceleration for X at 500 now. Previously, this topped out at 300.
Cutting is OK, but not terrific. Take a look at this square fill test:
This was done at 400mm/S. Clearly still having wavy lines. But mostly consistent spacing between lines.
Also too clear, the issue engraving text. Notice three attempts at engraving “FOOT SWITCH”. Vertical sections are far thinner than horizontal sections and I’m out of suggestions how to fix this.
It’s something specific to engraving. Marco says it’s not to do with the tube and power supply, but I can’t help but observe this issue started after “upgrading” to the 80W RECI tube. Isn’t it possible that the 150W power supply triggers the 80W tube more slowly?
My old 130W tube lost CO2 and won’t fire, so I can’t re-install it to test this theory.
At this point, I am dead in the water. Unable to cut and engrave the control panels for the products I need to finish and ship. Frustrating how much money and time I have invested in this inferior machine.
Despite my terrible mechanics on this machine, I’ve been reading up. I wonder if the Min and Max settings on my Ruida 6442S may be contributing to the difference between vertical and horizontal engraving?
If you’re engraving, you normally set Min / Max power to the same value, and that’s it. I’m not sure the controller pays any attention to the min power setting when engraving - it certainly doesn’t ramp power during engraving, as the overscan area is used to speed up the head to the proper velocity before firing, so ramping isn’t used.
I’ve had little time to dedicate to this heap lately. But, I did have a mechanical engineer friend stop in and take a look. He was pretty astonished at the construction. The Y axis stepper mount is secured with only two self-tapping screws! Into sheet metal! You can easily move the motor, the sheet metal flexes. Yikes.
Lots of movement in the first mirror mount also. Like the stepper mount, this is simply screwed into the sheet metal with self tappers.
I have some nice parts, maybe I’ll look at a frame kit.
Yeah, I wouldn’t sell it to anyone with these issues. Might as well keep it and use the parts that are good. My Fiance likes to cut wood and acrylic for crafts with it.
Just to punctuate the closing of this chapter, I bought a K40 on Amazon and within an hour of arrival had it engraving better than my 1490 ever did. Oh the time and money lost.
