I just purchase a new Omtec 60 watt CO2 laser. I have made several material test from laser tools and they work great but when I use that information in a new project it doesn’t engrave/cut the same. I have to greatly increase power and lower speed to get comparable results. What am I missing?
Physics. If you cut or carve little 5mm squares on your material, the results will match. The laser is not able to get up to full speed to spread out the energy. If you make 50mm squares, you will see a better match in the results.
The Material Test is a guide, not a solution. It is adjustable, so it is up to you to set it up for your application.
Make sure you’re using the same speed units. If the “material test from laser tools” used mm/s (as is recommended for CO₂ laser cutters) and you’ve set LightBurn for inch/s, then their 50 is your 2.
If that’s not it, then upload the offending lbrn2
file so we can look over your shoulder.
Thank you for the reply. I double checked the units and both are using mm/s.
The difference between the test grid and the actual is about a factor of 4. I have to make 4 passes to get close to the same results.
I can try to upload the file but I’m not sure how to do that. I will work on that tonight.
In the Reply
editor, it’s the upward-pointing arrow:
Hidden in plain sight!
Drag-n-drop from the Windows file explorer should work equally well.
As mentioned in the other thread, ensure that all a settings in the edit material settings within the materials test wizard reflect your cut parameters in your project
3 mm birch cut.rd (36.3 KB)
Test square.lbrn2 (36.2 KB)
I double checked everything, I think, and got the same results. The material is 5 mm birch plywood so I am pushing the limits but the materials test cut very well. When I try to duplicate the cut in a test square I had to make 5 passes to make the same quality cut. The test square is 5 mm, just like the grid. I uploaded the files. I really hope you find my error.
I wonder if you have had a chance to look over those files. I still can’t get the laser to cut as well as it will cut in the test grid.