I’m upgrading from a 10 watt to a 40 watt laser. Both are diode machines. For engraving with the 10 watt on maple hardwood I’ve been getting good results with 1500 mm/min and 30% power.
When I get the 40 watt machine do I keep the same mm/min and just reduce the power x 1/4? That is stay at 1500 mm/min and drop the power down to around 8%.
Or do I take advantage of the greater power and speed capacity of the 40 watt machine and up the speed and power. My limited experience so far seems to show that higher laser power at faster speed doesn’t seem to always give as good a result as the slower speed/lower power settings.
The simple answer is that there is not a direct mathematical relationship between laser power and results on wood. You really need to do testing with the higher powered laser to find the results that work in each situation, sorry.