Based on the results of this test I made a cut design with the size of 300mm by 300mm.
The settings I used were 450mm/90% power making 14 passes, and it didn’t cut, I did 6 more passes making a total of 20 passes and it didn’t cut the wood as you can see in the image:
TY for your reply, yes i have one enclousure with one 130M3 extrator for the fumes, i use stands made in 3d printer to elevate the wood then make the project but you think its possible for me to make one test run and the laser just loose power?
just because i only bought this machine 2 days ago and now i cant cut anything im so confused.
It’s possible but I don’t necessarily think this is happening in this case. There are a number of variables that could be at play.
Example:
was the MDF you tested with vs final project cut from the same sheet? If not, there can be a lof variation in that wood, even some within the same sheet.
even with your stand strategy if there is any height variation of the material this can have a dramatic effect on cut quality
how did you focus this? Any variation in focus can make an impact on the outcome
are you using air assist?
also, check the lens for any debris or residue. It may have gotten dirty from your test.
Yes it was from the same sheet, the focus i use one peace of 2mm acrlic that came with the machine and i just place it betewen the wood and the laser, and now i tested in dif wood that i was able to cut yesterday and made the same setings in lightburn and didnt cut it must be someting in the laser how offten do we need to clean the laser?
(sorry its my first machine and i saw in youtube so many people simply cut stuff with this machine and i cant weird).
This is possible if you overdrove the laser but would be surprised if it dropped off that much overnight.
This is mostly about what types of materials you burn and if you have air assist protecting the lens. MDF is going to be fairly dirty because of the glues in the material, especially on a cut (vs engraving).
Do you have air assist? This is a major factor for cutting.
Sorry no i dont have air assist and glues? im confused that wood that i showed to you dont have glue its just that cheap wood i will send some pictures.
MDF is not solid wood. It’s a composite material made from wood fiber that’s held together with adhesives. The adhesives can make cutting harder and also leave residues when burned. One good thing about MDF is that it’s fairly uniform in structure.
Anything that smokes will leave a residue but MDF is probably worse.
But for cutting with a diode laser in general it’s easiest to stick to single ply solid wood. The lighter the easier to cut. Suggest you stick to 3mm or less until you’re more comfortable. Air assist is critical for cutting so get that setup.
In order of less to more difficult I would say solid wood → plywood → MDF.
I cleaned the laser and the guard and i see the problem now, its that wood its very dense and when burned it send something like glue and its very hard to clean but its done i wanna thank you for your time i will try to choose dif wood, about the air assist i have experience in 3d for more then 3 years i was loking some videos in youtube but the prob is that i need to have one air compressor and i dont know if it will make that much diference you have any opinion about that?
And one more think what do you mean when you say overdrove the laser?
For cutting this is probably the single biggest improvement you can make once you get beyond basic focus and lens selection. It’s definitely worth it. It doesn’t take much air. Any air is better than no air. People often use an aquarium pump so you don’t necessarily need a regular air compressor. The aquarium style pumps are much quieter as well.
The lifespan of the diode is directly impacted by how hard you run it and how hot it runs. Running it at 100% power will dramatically reduce expected life. Try to keep under 85% until you’re comfortable with the laser performance and understand the impact of driving harder. There’s a tradeoff there.
do you have any opinion on one pump that is not that noisy and can help me?because i run the machine at night and the noise is big problem.again ty for your help
A proper air compressor will get you higher performance if you’re okay with the costs and other issues you need to address (e.g. moisture, noise, regulator). If noise is a major concern you can get low noise or ultra quiet models usually at higher cost.
An aquarium pump is fine for consistent low pressure situations. I don’t have a particular recommendation for this. The type many people use look like this:
I would suggest doing some searches on this forum to get a better idea of good air assist setups. My needs are fairly modest for air assist. Yours will vary from mine.
i use that pump for my air assist, is an Hailea ACO 318
if you want to see my DIY laser go there
and here you can see how i cut solid wood in 10 passes (but my laser module is a Neje A40630 with 7.5W of output power)
this is the final result of the video
What is your cutting speed? You say 450 mm but per ? second, minute, hour? 450 mm per second is awfully fast, per minute is moderately fast, per hour is painfully slow. Assuming 450 mm per minute, 20 passes seems excessive, I would rather do fewer slow passes, easier on the machine. Make sure your focus is set spot on, and slow down. With my k40 I slow it down to cut in one pass unless I have reason to do a second pass.
I had a similar problem with my Atomstack A5 Pro, then discovered that the Lightburn toggle to “cut graphic” changed its behavior significantly and remediated the issue for me. I don’t like MDF for a number of reasons, and so my experience is focused on solid wood and MDF core plywood.
How did this change your results? Cut Selected Graphics is meant to limit what objects from the workspace are sent for burning. It shouldn’t change the characteristics of the burn itself. There may be side effects in burn quality from cut path/order but that’s it.
i had to lurn the hard way lol and for me i found that the wood that i was using was not good and i think that i need to make one bed with holes because just using stands i think the wood can warp and the laser cuts bad, my bigest problem is the air assist im trying to look in youtube for some videos with lower noise compressores and most of them is with that compressor but my biggest problem is the noise.
At this point i cleaned all the machine and today or tomorow i will try to make some stuff but im still strigling to find the right wood.
This is definitely possible. And you’ll find that as you cut you may be releasing stress in the wood that will result in more warping.
Are you able to clamp down the wood somehow? A clamp at each corner should be able to reduce warping for most pieces, at least enough to allow for cutting.
