Engraving Depth Variance

I think this picture shows it well as the letters were painted and then as I sanded the top you can see were the sander touched the higher areas. Essentially what I’m seeing is that the areas that have a shorter engraving distance are much more shallower. We first saw this with the points of stars but now you can see it in these larger letters as well.

Any suggestions on how to get a much more consistent and flat bottom on engravings?

Boss LS3655 150w 350s/20p

Note: This is a new laser which I am only on the second day of using. This is not my first laser though, so my reference is to the machine I had previous (also a Boss Laser brand).

I wouldn’t be surprised if this variance was from the tube itself - you’re running a 150w glass tube, and relatively fast, so the areas where the laser is on longer is “settling in” and producing more power output.

It could also be from heat extraction from the tube. In the runs where you’re spending less time with the tube on, the water will pull heat from the tube faster, compared to when the tube is firing most of the time. A slightly higher tube temperature could produce more power output as well, depending on your temp.

Thanks for the reply and information. What you said makes sense.

I will do some more tests on my own to see if I can figure anything out. I didn’t know if MIGHT be something in the software I needed to change about, but it doesn’t sound that way.

I do have the water in the tube between 55-60 degrees Fahrenheit so I could make some changes to warm it up a little (maybe mid to upper 60s?).

As a test, you could run slower with lower power. If that is more consistent it would point toward the coolant. You could look into increasing the flow rate of the water to see if that helps too. Not sure what you have now, and I don’t know a ton about what the safe range is, but it could be something to look into.

Thanks, I’ll try that.

I have a CW5000 chiller right now.

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