I recently purchased an Alogolaser Delta 40W to try and increase the offerings of my business. I have spent hours trying to get the right settings on the material test for 0.4mm birch ply. I am finally nailing down the engraving settings BUT I cannot seem to get the cut and line settings correct.
I would expect the lines on the material test and words to be straight/smooth as inputted into the lightburn software (Currently on free trial). Unfortunately, the lines have these strange wobbles on both the boes for material test and the text I try engrave.
I have tried tightening the X and Y motors - both tight that I’m concerned if I go further they will break (Needs a decent amount of pressure to turn screw now).
I have done multiple different speeds and power and it hasnt resolved it.
I thought maybe the honeycomb bed was shaking so I weighted it down…no luck.
Could it be the laser frame itself shaking around (table doesn’t shake but I notice the laser can get violent as fast speeds)?
The laser really shakes at high speeds! I tried text at 20000mm/min and it auto turns off with an error 9. Should i be clamping the laser down some how? It’s in a safety box and not sure how I would go about doing that. The table was custom made for it so I can drill holes wherever etc.
Then the laser head looks like a very heavy brick stuck on a rather delicate frame.
Which is where the wobbles you’re seeing come from: the machine is accelerating that massive laser head harder than the gantry and frame can withstand. Tightening the belts (etc) does not help, because you’re looking at mechanical flexing.
With the power off, (try to) tilt the laser head in the Y direction: bottom → front / top → rear, then bottom → rear / top → front. If it moves at all, either something is loose (in which case, find and tighten the loose screws / things) or the mounting / gantry / frame is too flimsy for the forces involved.
What will help, although nobody likes it, is reducing the X and Y axis acceleration enough that the machine no longer overstresses the hardware. Reduce the acceleration for each axis by a factor of 10 and check the results; if it’s still wobbly, cut another factor of 10. The machine will then become less twitchy, with the side effect of more intensely burning the ends of vector lines, because the controller will have trouble lowering the laser power enough to compensate for the slower initial and final speeds.
To put it mildly, OEM settings tend toward the wildly optimistic, perhaps because they were set back in the day when laser heads were much smaller and lighter. Backing them down to meet reality conflicts with the specification engineering that attracts customers, but will make the machine much more useful.
This is incredibly helpful and that is the laser! When I apply force in the Y direction there certainly is movement. I have tried before tightening the 4 screws under the X axis and all the do is constantly spin but I will look to see if there are more. Slowing the speed does not both me as long as the laser works! I will feedback results.