People want big powerful co2 machines, but IMHO they shoot themselves in the foot for low power jobs doing this… Which is what most of us apparently do.
Lots of power is good for cutting, and that’s pretty much it. I can’t think of where it would benefit you other than a deeper engrave/cut. A larger beam diameter would give you a smaller focus point, but if you can’t control the power where you need it, it’s kind of moot.
Many of the good tube manufactures will list a 120W tube as the minimum of 24W based on where it’s properly lasing, here 20%. I think this means it won’t be valid below that or could damage the tube gas mixture.
My replacement on the 50W China Blue is a 40W and I’m very content with it’s operation. Can’t cut 2X4’s but does well on everything I do.
If you want to take this further one thing we haven’t talked about is potentially getting a different lens. Shorter focal distance lenses are generally better for engraving. What are you using now?
There are other more exotic lens setups that might also prove useful.
I’ve been watching Omtech, they’ve been out of stock on the set I’ve been eyeing. Contacted them and they said end of April. Mine is stock, not sure what the specs are.
Do you have the 80W that comes with an elevated platform or does the laser sit near the ground? If the former I believe you have a 2.5" focal distance lens. “Engraving” lenses would typically be something like 1.5".
If you have the shorter one I believe that comes with a 2" lens.
One other thing I’ve found is doing a fill pass vs offset fill makes the etching a lot lighter, even with higher power on the fill. I used an offset fill on the barbed wire board while using fill on the other cutting board. I used the same speed (200mm/s) and 20% power on the offset fill, 35% power on the fill. They both have their uses… for the barbed wire, the offset fill is gold.
I’ve seen “offset fill” in the drop-down box, but I have, as of yet, not gotten around to playing with it. As I said earlier, I really don’t want to go back to it taking 1.5 hours to engrave a cutting board when I can do it in half the time, and still keep my clients happy. Time to get out the coaster blanks and do some experimenting. Thanks for the tip (your numbers are very close to mine on Acacia).
That Texas board took me 22 minutes to cut. It takes 41minutes on fill mode. A 6" x 9" board takes 16 minutes on fill and 10 on offset fill. If I get to coaster size, Lightburn says it takes less for the offset fill but in reality, the regular fill is slightly faster.
The cutting boards pictured above were done with “flood fill” enabled, otherwise it would’ve taken 3 plus hours. It’s weird how sometimes “flood fill” is faster and sometimes it isn’t. I had a small job yesterday, a little bit of text and a small graphic, and it was 5 min. with FF enabled, 3 min. with it disabled. It’s some kind of sorcery if you ask me . Most of the time FF is the quicker option (as long as you’re not running it too fast).
. Most of the time FF is the quicker option (as long as you’re not running it too fast).