Hello,
I’m very new to the hobby of laser engraving and cutting. I have a Comgrow Z1 10w that was gifted to me over the holidays.
I have been able to engrave on the provided 2mm thick 100mm x 150mm wood boards provided.
I am not however able to cut anything out, a square or circle using the following settings of 15 speed and 80 power on the first try.
I realize manufacturers boast claims of being able to do certain things and this unit I believe said it can cut up to 7mm deep. I’m trying to still learn if the speed is too slow or needs to be faster. I have seen some posts online elsewhere that say 450mm a second or higher?
I realize it’s a learning curve but maybe a point in the right direction to at least be able to cut a square out in one go perhaps would be helpful. Thank you.
For cutting, slower is (generally) better. Ie. if too fast, you just mark, not cut.
One thing I learned in this forum: for CO2 / fiber lasers, speed is measured in mm/s, for diode, we use mm/min. Choose your setting.
15 mm/s = 900 mm/min, so a bit too fast. For 2 mm ply wood, I cut in the 200-400 mm/min range with a power between 80 % and 100 % for a 10 W diode laser.
You can do a material test to see the best settings.
main thing is, specially for those starting and looking elsewhere for “settingS”, most peope with diode will share them in mm/min. Say on FaceBook user gruops and alikes. which can cause confusion.
Have you checked that your Device settings in LB are set to S-value max is 1000 and that your $30 is set to 1000 also in GRBL, I’m still pretty new at this but that was one thing that tripped me up initially, someone correct me if this isn’t correct.
Of course, if you have different types of lasers, you might prefer to use always the same units.
My advice was aimed at somebody starting in the hobby…
And this person will mostly find references about mm/min for diode lasers (YouTube, this forum, article, etc.), hence my advice.
I checked machine and device settings. I did not see an option for “best for diode” mm/min. I also did not find the machine speed you mentioned. I’ve provided some screenshots below to better illustrate what I am seeing.
This is for a Comgrow z1 10w laser. And the drivers are installed but lightburn never detected the unit so if there are additional settings to be made, I simply do not know what or where as I am still learning.
I guess you haven’t run across the 70% speed and 10% power option
It would be nice if people would enter the metric they are using, at least once.
I’m suggestion they use whatever they are comfortable with using. I have a hard time switching back and forth between a different metric … if you switch back and forth with no issues, that’s great. I had two cars, one only had km/h, it was a pain converting to m/h and confusing.
Did that with my first ssl, but found I did better to just use mm/s.
Just a follow up, I was able to cut now but it’s merely guesswork with the settings.
I had great engraving success using the initial co2 galvo probably because the unit of measurement. A percentage would be helpful but of course over time and continued trial and error it should hopefully come together. Thanks for the pointers and help everyone!
With a 10w diode you’re most likely going to be cutting 2mm basswood in the 6-8mm/s range at 100% power in one pass (360-480 mm/m range). That is assuming you’re running air assist. If not, you’ll probably need to turn the speed down and little. When cutting on diodes I find it easiest just keep the power at 100% and change the speeds deepening on what I’m cutting. It’s just something you’re going to have to experiment with. I recommend running a material cut test through lightburn to find the settings that work best for you.
Personally I have both diode and co2 lasers and I find it easiest just to keep the speed unit of measurements at mm/s. It’s just whatever you prefer.
Yes I do have air assist. Would the 6-8mm be 6000 - 8000mm/s at 100% power for one pass? And yes I have done a few more passes for just engraving at 1000mm/s at 10% power and 1500mm/s 15% power. Your certainly correct, it’s going to take some time and experimentation, since I had done quite a few engravings with the co2/galvo setting already, so I have to start again
Just pick whichever unit of measurement you feel comfortable with and stick with it. Especially if this is your only machine. I think they recommend mm/m for diodes because typically diodes are slower machines versus a co2 or galvo lasers. mm/m measurements give you a wider range of settings without getting into decimals.
