Im getting a wide cut now on a 100 watt c02 laser. Ive tried changing heights realigned the mirrors. What else can i check. It starts out good than gets wide. So i stop and change the height just trying things to fix the problem. Thats why it goes small to big.
Hi John
For sanity check, can you run the same path but at the lowest power you can - enough to just score the line but not cut
It almost feels either your machine is slowing down along the path or your power is ramping up. Can you monitor amps to the tube as the machine cuts?
You may be looking at a tube going bad: the beam diameter starts small with cool mirrors and goes bad as they warm up during the cut. Even with good water flow (which might be worth checking, come to think of it), the tube temperature does change as it fires.
You can check with a simple square pattern using various power levels. If higher powers produce poor results, the tube is likely the problem.
You can also test the beam shape at the entrance to Mirror 1 with manual pulses on a paper target. Adjust the pulse duration to produce similar scorches at different power levels: both low and high power pulses should produce nicely round / symmetric scorches.
I have no idea how to monitor the amps. Sorry
Generally people put a 30mA analog meter inline with the tubes cathode (ground end).
Many machines have an lps with a mA meter in it, but it’s digital. Since it samples the current, you have to ensure it gets a complete sample, in other words a longer ON time.
Check your tube for TEM00 resonance or mode. If this varies from TEM00 resonance, it will never align properly.
Here’s a link to a post that is more descriptive.
Good luck
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