Recently, I noticed my XTool D1 Pro 10W laser was engraving with inconsistent shades (burning lighter/darker in areas). I took the laser off and cleaned the lens with 90% Isopropyl Alcohol and put it back on. Now, it looks improved except for the top couple line of the engraving and the far left and right sides.
If you look in the attached photo, the two engravings of directions to one of my projects was before cleaning the lens and the two “Test material” engravings are after cleaning. As you can see, the tops of the letter “t” are cut off and shifted to the left, as are the dots for the letter “i” and additionally, something very strange is going on with the first “T” and last “l” in the words Test material. Everything else in between looks much more crisp than before cleaning though.
Of Note: The Score and Cut functions are completely unaffected and look fantastic- this is only an issue with the Engrave function. I am clueless here…
I would suspect you have some slop going on in your X axis. You can also see that it is darker on each side where the laser is lingering in its path. Check your belt tension and see if there is anything going on with your belts and rollers.
I checked for drag on the gantry power cable going to the laser to see if that were causing the issue- no luck. I also increased tension on both the X and Y belts and cleaned and greased all rollers and rails- no luck there either.
I fixed this issue! It occurred to me that there was indeed a lot more “slop” in the movement of the laser back and forth as it was engraving. There was a lot more noise and “kachunk” sounds when the laser hit its lateral ends before going back the other way. I decided to uninstall my device and reinstall it and, magically, the problem was fixed! Now it sounds soooo much smoother when traversing left to right while engraving and the end result looks flawless as the day I bought the thing!
