Laser engraving issues

Good day all,

I have just finished installing Light Burn and encountered the following issue the laser will not engrave I verified the following settings $30 which is at 1000 and $32 which is at 1 my laser beam is as small as I can get it still won’t burn. Is it possible I have a defective laser? My settings in the cuts are as follows: Speed - mm/m 1200 Power Max % 100 Power Min % 10 cannot modify this one Material thickness 2.0 mm. My laser is 5.5 watts its approximately 1 inch away from the work surface. I will only use the laser to engrave not burn.

Any help would be much appreciated.

When you say '“will not engrave” how do you mean? Does the laser turn on, but just not mark anything?

Things to check:

  • Make sure you’ve focused the beam to the smallest point you can (you did mention this one)

  • Make sure the $110 and $111 GRBL settings are high enough to allow you to run at 1200 mm/min. (If these are lower than 1200, GRBL will lower the output power to compensate for the fact that it can’t move as fast as you’ve asked it to)

  • Make sure the S-value max in Device Settings is also set to 1000, to match your $30 setting.

The laser does turn on however it does not mark anything. If my current settings are too high what would you recommend I set them at?
Update: When the laser is turned on should it not burn a hole when properly focused if so this is not happening. Therefore I wonder if it’s not a setting issue or a defective laser unit? Laser has never been used.

If the laser is turned on with the “Fire Laser” button and set to 20% power, yes, it should burn a hole. If it doesn’t, it’s either a configuration issue or it’s not working for another reason (wiring, defective, etc).

Check the things mentioned in “short version” here: https://github.com/LightBurnSoftware/Documentation/blob/master/CommonGrblSetups.md#common-grbl-setups

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.