I have a k40 with a cohesion board and overall its working great.
One problem I have is the power setting. Sometimes 1% is too much and I cant use decimals like 0.5%.
The powercurve is too steep between say 1 and 10%, its very hard to do fine engravings since 1% sometimes can be too low and 2% too much. Its impossible to mark some thinner materials since it will cut straight through at lowest setting.
Can i change the resolution or flatten the powercurve? Or is there a minimum current that the tube needs to start lasering? Plan B is to use raster engraving to be able to use higher speeds, maybe thats the correct way.
But yes, there’s a minimum power required to kick-start a CO2 laser. I’m actually surprised you can start from 1%. What’s the rating of your tube and power supply?
Does this mean that you burned this as lines? If so, I think you’re onto something trying this as an engraving. You should be able to move more rapidly which will reduce burning.
You’re certainly not doing it wrong. It’s perfectly valid but not getting you the results you want. As an alternative I was thinking you could convert the design to work as a fill which would get you a scanning operation.
As you say, you could also potentially convert this to bitmap and run a raster engraving.
I’m postulating that doing so would allow you to get more control over the speed and thus darkness.
