How low can you go?

[berainlb (PY)]

Oz explains this here:

No laser output below 7% power setting

It’s called the ionization point of the tube, and it’s a properly of glass tube CO2 lasers. The minimum firing value tends to be roughly 10% of the wattage of the tube, because bigger tubes need a bigger kick to fire them. There’s a setting called ‘Engraving mode’ in the machine settings that you can change from ‘Common mode’ to ‘Special mode’ - with this setting, the tube is given a higher power kick for just a moment, and then the power is backed off, because it takes less to keep the laser …

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?

@anders_m

Plan B is to use raster engraving to be able to use higher speeds

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.