helppppp.
I have spent many days trying to get my laser machine to cut through wood, it cuts about half way through but its not a clean cut and is leaving a smokey shadow. I’ve exhausted everything with the speed and power and still not having any luck, any suggestions pleaseeee?
Laura, diode laser machines are engraving machines and not intended for cutting through materials other than very thin and soft things like paper, cardboard and balsa wood. I also sometimes have problems with my 40 Watt co2 laser, cutting through 3-4mm plywood, even though I only buy “laser suitable” plywood. I only use my 5.5Watt diode laser for engraving.
What kind of wood are you trying to cut? What laser module do you have?
I used to have trouble cutting through wood. I could do it with enough passes, but it took a long time.
I have added an air assist Laser Master 2 Air Assist by red_rider95 - Thingiverse and 18L/min aquarium air pump to my laser and can now easily cut through soft woods. Also as a side benefit there is very little smoke with a good air assist.
Now I can get my Laser Master 2 with 15 watt diode to cut through 3.2mm (1/8") basswood in 4 passes at 100% power at 500mm/min.
I can also cut 5mm (3/16) basswood in 4 passes at 100% power at 250mm/min.
I have tried all kinds of wood, I am completely new to all of this so just experimenting
My laser is the ortur laser master 2 20W, I have seen lots of forums online saying to get an air assist, are these easy enough to add to the laser?
Thank you for your help, I will give it a try
Something as simple as just an air hose aimed at your laser spot will help. The stronger the air (within reason) the better for cutting. It blows the junk out of the cut (kerf) and allows the laser beam to reach the uncut wood fibers.
I designed my air assist to also keep any smoke out of the laser beam so there is no lost power before the beam reaches the surface.
I am currently cutting with an Ortur Laser Master 2 20w, and I bought a Hailea 60L per minute air compressor and have 6mm outer (more importantly 4mm inner) silicon hosing that fits in the following air assist nozzle and housing… (whatever you do, find the equivalent for your country, don’t buy one from abroad and put a country adapter plug on it. It uses that much power, it will trip the fuses in your house and become useless).
Tell Matthew that Andrew sent you (I wouldn’t get anything, I just find it amusing!). For the 20w Ortur Laser Master 2, There was a problem with the design he sells stopping the air hose from ‘homing’ (I told him before he ordered it having read so on here) but he fixed the problem. He has turned the 3d printed design around so that the nozzle is in the right place (on the right of the laser if you are facing it from the front), and the bolt it tightens to is not on the same side as the homing switch. the only thing I would suggest to do is when you order the Hailea air compressor, you also order an adapter that fits it to the 6mm outer 4mm inner tube (you need to buy separately)…
You could potentially have a couple of machines running at the same time with the one above, or you could just have the one (it’s chrome finish makes it look cool next to the engraver and compressor!).
Update… go 9 passes at 300 speed and 97 power and you should see the light underneath (obviously because you have the wood you are cutting raised of a flat surface and focused properly). The pieces should drop out.
Also worth mentioning is a did some wooden coins today. I suspended the wood on 5 x coins (2 pence pieces) stuck together with blue tack and stuck the wood to it so it could engrave the other side by popping the piece out and turning it round and popping it back in. Worked a charm!
ortur laser master 2 20W has 5.5W optical power, it should be power enough to cut though 3mm bass playwood by one pass at 2mm/s even with air assistance. why not check with seller about the performance of the laser module, they should be able to point out the issue soon.