Hi
I am having an issue where when running larger jobs of 1 hour+ on 3mm mdf. The cutting power seems very irregular.
when doing test with small squars using different parameters the laser cuts fine and consistently but when doing larger jobs the cutting gets dodgy. some parts are cut perfectly through and others are barely half way through though all cuts use the same parameters.
any idea on what i am doing wrong?
Can you take a high quality photo of the the burn so people can see the problem? Will help with the diagnosis.
here is a front and back foto where the two small squares can be seen on the back side cut through to the point where i can poke them out and other pieces fell out by themself while other lines arn’t cut through at all.
Hard to say for sure but a few things come to mind:
Do one thing. Make sure that S Value Max in Device Settings is set to the same value as what’s in $30 in machine settings. If not, update S Value Max.
thank you Berainlb for replying
I am pretty sure this isn’t the case. as some cuts are so very clean through and others are barely halfway. but quality is consistent for each line, where material variations should vary on a line.
I fiddled around with this but it doesn’t seem to be it as well. the bad cuts can be in between the good ones and the mdf plate isn’t warped.
all cuts are same settings(same layer infact)
the pictures are with a attempt using constant power. have tried without and at varies power, passes and speeds.
Just checked. $30=1000 and device settings have S-value 1000.
machine settings for reference.
$0=10
$1=25
$2=0
$3=3
$4=0
$5=0
$6=0
$10=1
$11=0.010
$12=0.002
$13=0
$20=0
$21=0
$22=1
$23=1
$24=250.000
$25=1000.000
$26=250
$27=1.000
$30=1000
$31=0
$32=1
$100=80.000
$101=80.000
$102=80.000
$110=4000.000
$111=4000.000
$112=4000.000
$120=200.000
$121=200.000
$122=200.000
$130=810.000
$131=460.000
$132=150.000
Could it be possible that it is a temperature problem?, You mention an operating time of over an hour. Although there may be 2 laser diodes in your laser head, they are still only at max 7.5 Watt each. Overpowering could be a problem, at least in length.
@bernd.dk
I think you may be correct. I tried a settings test immidiately after another long job and the settings test wasn’t as good as when I test it in “cold condition”.
I’ll try see if running longer jobs at lower effect wont yield better stability.
You can also install a temperature sensor, as close as possible to the diodes (is it a two-diode system?).
When you can monitor the temperature, it is possible to perform temperature test series and keep an eye on your diode.
Many of the problems we unfortunately read about diode lasers are related to the fact that they are very overpowered to be able to provide more as they are intended for.
My 5.5Watt laser from early 2017 has run at 100% for hours and hours without a break and it never burns out. But cutting 3mm plywood was not really possible, it took many rounds and gave burning edges. - But my diode laser was fantastic exactly, reasonably fast and could make very nice graphics. That was what it was sold and bought for.
This time there was one salesman, if I remember correctly, who showed many videos from his kitchen with overpowered laser. Unfortunately, he has started a wildfire that the Chinese could not resist taking part in and expanding this trend. It’s about money and nothing else.
But the responsibility also lies with consumers. All information about diode lasers is freely available online, everyone can find out for themselves how many watts the most powerful (soho) laser diode has, which can be bought for money. If you know at the same time how many watts and what wavelength it takes to cut wood or acrylic, then there are no secrets hidden away.
I have now tried the job at 75 % power and the cuts seems consistent now.
So conclusion is that the laser cant perform at 90%+ for more than an hour before output drops due to temperature. whether 75% is the highest continuous operating power I am not sure, but some where in between 75 and 90.
