Cut 1/4" MDF on 60 watt

[Bs00497 (Brittany)]

I’m trying to cut 1/4 MDF (home depot bought) on my 60 watt. I used the settings 5 mm/s and 65%. It cuts most of the spots except the smaller more intricate lines, which then ruins the whole design because it wont come apart. What settings should I be using?

[LaserWillie (Willy)]

My apologies, I should have had lightburn opened. I was thinking of a different setting.

[Doug (Doug Fisher)]

Are you using air assist? If so, is it strong enough? With 1/4", you may need the flow provided by a real air compressor versus the standard aquarium pump air assist provided with many machines.

[Hank (Hank Morgan)]

You say it doesn’t cut on the smaller more intricate lines. Your machine may not be able to get up to requested speed on the small stuff so it’s ramping the power down to compensate for slower speed. What is your MIN power set at? Try setting it the same as your MAX setting.

[Rick (Technical Evangelist)]

@Bs00497

I used the settings 5 mm/s

@Hank is on to it. You are traveling below the likely ‘Start Speed’ set in your Ruida.

@LightBurn

On a Ruida controller (and most DSPs) the controller starts using ‘Min Power’, and as the speed passes a setting called the Start Speed (or corner speed), it ramps up toward Max Power. If your cut never goes faster than that Start Speed setting, it only uses the Min Power, not the max. The default for this on a Ruida controller is 10mm/sec, so that’s the most likely reason you’re not getting power.

If cutting slowly, set Min and Max power to the same number.

Help with Cut settings

From: RDWorks Wiki - Min/Max Power (cutting) As well as the Min and Max power settings and the speed set for the layer, the Start Speed found in the Cut parameters section of the User Settings comes into consideration. At speeds of Start Speed and below, only the Min power is used. Above the Start Speed, the power is increased linearly until the Max power is acheived at the layer speed. When using layer speeds at or below the Start Speed, there is often confusion if the Min and Max po…

Over travel/extra travel

Min Power is effectively cornering power, but it’s controlled by a setting called ‘Start Speed’ in the controller (default is 10mm/sec, but some companies change that). When the laser is moving at or below the ‘Start Speed’, Min Power is used. As it ramps up to the requested speed (if higher than Start Speed) it ramps power up to Max Power. When raster scanning horizontally or vertically, the controller automatically inserts extra moves that overshoot the cut, so it can ramp up to the request…