Issue with lines on tumblers

I have a 55w OMtech and usually get good results. I recently did this tumbler for a client and as you can see in the picture, there are lines throughout the design. I kept my settings the same as previous tumblers. Speed/power is 150mm/20%. Lines per inch is set at 500. Any suggestions from any of you on what I did wrong?

Nice conundrum…

How did you come up with an interval of 0.051mm? Were you using these setting originally?

Most of these are lucky to have a kerf of 0.10mm. I’d attempt this at 0.10mm and see if the coverage changes.

I wrap my object with masking tape and turn the power down. This usually lets you see the image position and other anomalies without throwing away a tumbler.

I thought this looked as if spacing is consistent, but it doesn’t appear to be. More difficult to tell on the curved surface of the mug.

I can’t really think of anything to try… I’ll have to think on it awhile.

There will be others chiming in, so hang in there…

:smile_cat:

I did the masking tape trick and didn’t catch the lines on it. :man_facepalming: I came up with the 0.051mm because I’ve used it before with success. I have some scrap tumblers. Ill give the 0.10mm a try.

I haven’t had a epiphany about what could cause this, yet.

It almost looked like that it’s doing so many scans then skips a couple

I’ve seen similar with steps that don’t mathematically equal out and under/over steps… but I don’t think that’s what’s happening here.

They are equally spaced?

:smile_cat:

Yep. They are all evenly spaced. Didn’t get a chance to mess around any more today. Was heading out of town for the long weekend.

I’ve seen the same thing when doing tumblers. I’m thinking that it is caused by the laser power being high enough that it is not only burning through the powder coating but slightly etching the stainless steel. Haven’t had a chance to try my theory yet by changing power settings when doing tumblers.

Just keeps getting worse. Now I’m getting double images trying to do a normal engraving. Tried doing a set of coasters for someone and getting this.

Went through and doublechecked my mirror alignment, belt tension and lens cleaning. Nothing seemed to work. I know this is a lightburn forum, but I need somewhere to vent about this. Their customer support is definitely lacking!

Are you properly adjusted on the lens height from the product?

From my limited experience it appears to be divergent focus length.

Tell what has helped me. Create a 6mm x 6mm square. Make sure your in focus, your lens is clean and the laser is hitting in the middle of the 3rd mirro.

Burn that image. Document your speed/pwr/freq. Clean the tumbler.

Adjust speed/pwr/freq from there. Rinse Repeat process. Once you have a good engrave, create that profile in the library. 6 x 6mm squares don’t eat up much real estate as well while testing.

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