How can I engrave wood faster

I have an Ortur 10w laser and believe the spot size is .05 x .10 mm. Am I thinking right that if I engrave in the Y axis I will engrave .10 mm worth of material and can make my Line Interval .10 mm and do the job twice as fast?

Regards
Jack

Y axis is usually slower due to extra mass it has to move.
I would defocus and decrease LPI to get faster engraves.
You might also do acceleration tests to make things move faster.

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How long is a string? Make it longer…

Line interval of .1mm is where you want to be on the Ortur 10W (I happen to have one)

X axis is the main axis for engraving.

Post photos of you work, your settings and tell us more about your expectations.

Ok. Is the spot .05 wide (x) and .1 tall (y)? If I am engraving left to right on the x axis.

What do you want to improve?

Where are you starting from?

What is your end goal?

A diode machine is never going to be blazing fast.

Interval works best from .15 to .1mm. Any overlap is wasted. So DON’T go smaller than .1mm

Wider interval can be used to simulate a different color (lighter) engrave. The default X axis is default for a reason. 15+ years of hobby development has established the norm.

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I want to engrave more area per pass and shorten the job.

So if .1mm is optimum that means that the spot is .1mm tall x .05mm wide, correct?

In theory, yes. In reality, it depends on the speed and power and the material you are working with. If you burn basswood at 5,000 mm/min and 20% power the line will be significantly smaller than if you burn the same wood at 1,000 mm/min and 80% power. Repeat the same test on Hickory and your line width wil be different.

The best way to determine what settings to use is to perform material tests and interval tests on the material you will be using.

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…and know what you are engraving. Images are very slow to engrave because the laser head has to cover every line all the way across the image. Objects (vector graphics) the laser does not have to travel over empty (no burned) areas.

Show us a picture of a screen shot and we can help you optimize your projects.

Trying to drive the laser engraver way to fast will add more time to your burn. Ortur LMP2 is happy around 3000mm/m, much faster than that and your frame is not rigid enough to stay square.

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Thank yall for the input. I am working on bamboo today. Did a few material tests with speed and power and happy with the burn.

Didn’t know that about the rigidity of the frame but makes sense. I have King Gubby feet and Legos for height (for tumblers) so pretty stable. I will keep the 3000m/m in mind.

Just for clarity, I’m pretty sure he meant 3000 mm/min.

I thought my 8’ gantry moving for rapids at 50m/min was fast… but 50m/second… wow! :smile:

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Gantry Envy!!

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Yes, stupid phone was fighting me.

~3000 -4000 mm/m for fill

~2400 for offset fill

I would suggest the you test that interval on a metal card to see if the quality suffers - you should be able to do that on wood because the lines bloom.