Everything has been running so great lately! This week… I’ve had a lot of orders but, nothings changed. Almost out of nowhere My cuts started creating huge amounts of smoke. My cuts aren’t cutting completely through sometimes. It’s strange. I’ve cleaned my mirrors and nozzle.
Help Me! I still have Christmas stuff to complete!
Sounds like laser tube still has plenty of power!
If the laser is not properly focused on the surface, the material will char rather than vaporize. Source: been there, done that. 
Similarly, if the mirrors have become misaligned, the beam can be off-center enough to not emerge from the nozzle opening, so the material chars under a very diffuse beam. You can check for that by sticking masking tape over the nozzle and firing a manual pulse, which should produce a perfectly centered small hole.
The nightmare scenario will be having the tube seem to work, but for some reason the laser beam is not in the correct emission mode. Testing for this uses the same targets you’ll use to align the mirrors: the beam should produce a nice dark disk at the entrance to the first mirror.
If you have these three
- properly working tube
- clean and aligned optical path
- proper focus
It will work, so one of these is a problem. You made no mention of the age of your machine/tube… Tubes are a consumable and will wear out.
@ednisley, must have been typing simultaneously… Here is what he was talking about…
If you are sure your alignment is correct I’d suggest you check the tube at m1 for resonance at TEM0, that will ensure your tube is functional.
Put a target when the tube hits m1. It should show a TEM0 state…
Good luck
Is the air pump working?
Thank you all! It was my exhaust tube. It was clogged.
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