I’m new to the Laser Cut & Engrave business and as I went through various U-Tube videos it seems that I’m missing something regarding cut & engrave speed. I’m using the Atomstack X7 40W Laser and according to about all the suggestions & videos all the people are cutting at speeds more than 300mm/s and engraving up to 1500mm/s and ever more. I’ve tried numerous speed settings without any success. I’ve tried to cut through 9mm MDF Supawood but couldn’t even cut half way through at about 30 passes.
Currently I only work on 3mm MDF Supawood and the only setting that is suitable to cut through is at 3.5mm/s and 90% Energy. I also need to do 4 passes to cut through. Needless to say but to do a gift box of 80mm x 40mm x 30mm took me about 2 and a half hours to complete. The only setting for engraving is at 80mm/s and the Energy between 80% & 100%. It also takes me hours to complete a small task. In all cases, my laser is focused on the plastic glass supplied by Atomstack.
I’m not quite sure where I’m doing wrong but it seems to me that there is certain settings in Lightburn itself that is most probably not correct.
I will appreciate it if you can help me in this regard.
The only difference between an engraving and a cut is one is deeper than the other.
Few of the Chinese co2 lasers will do 1500mm/s. Are you sure it’s not 1500mm/minute?
I have a 40W Neje, but haven’t tried to cut anything… I do that on the co2. I need to do that on the Neje so I can be more helpful here…
Ensure it’s properly focused, might try a ramp test to ensure your focus point.
There are a number of people here that can advise you of starting or expected speeds/power, but each machine is different as is each type or batch of material…
I think Jack is right, switch to mm/min. E.g. Your success with 3.5mm/sec would end up being 210mm/Minute and that seems a lot more like I’d expect to see. I have a 10w OUTPUT (watch that, your 40W is likely really around 5W output) and for 3mm birch I can cut through at 500mm/Minute 3 passes.
Thanx Jack & Atroz. I will most definitely changed my settings as suggested. Last night I made sure that my settings are in fact mm/s. The optical Laser power is in fact 5W. Just a phrase for interest sake as seen in Atomstack advert… Newly upgraded compression laser : Newly upgraded ultra-fine compression laser: The laser adopts 4-fold lens group collimation and focus technology, the optical power is 5-5.5W, and the laser focus area is reduced to 0.08*0.08mm. The high-density laser can easily cut 15mm thick wooden boards, 15mm black acrylic; can directly engrave mirror stainless steel metal and ceramics, and can achieve the effect of a 100W CO₂ laser engraving machine. Thanx once again. I will give feedback as soon as I changed my settings tonight.
Don’t be deluded by these people. The module itself has a 50W input… and a stated optical output of 5W with a square ‘spot’ that is 0.08mm
My co2 can manage about a 0.05mm ‘dot’ with a compound lens.
It has an optical output of 44W. Do you really believe your 5W can do more than twice the damage as my c02?
If so, I’ve got a 12 lane bridge you’d love to own…
You have a very high tech laser that is very nice, so don’t get me wrong.
You just can’t do comparisons like that.
In the end if you measure the speed in mph or kph it’s the same, just a different base, much like F or C temperatures.
I personally run my led and co2 in mm/S … One is I’m used to those speeds and I notice ‘wrong’ speeds or something out of the ordinary much more easily using mm/S.
mm/M are generally for slower machines such as screw driven cnc machine that tend to be slower in their operation. Pick one and use it…
Thanx Jack for your feedback. I only shared that advert as I couldn’t achieve that from the beginning. As I’m no expert in this field I just shared the info for clarification. I also realized that 3.5mm/s vs 210mm/m is the same. I once again played with my settings this week-end and the best that I could do was at 5.0mm/s or 300mm/m with 3 cuts (3mm MDF board). I tried to cut through a 9mm MDF Board without any success. I will however changed my sheets to something else and then I will see which is working the best for me.
