So iv had my 100watt 1390 chinese laser for nearly a year. And for the last few months i have had the most inconsistency ever. In the morning, ill turn on my machine, set the water cooler on, lay my job down. Set my feeds and speeds for a specific job. It will always engrave perfect, and for the first 10 to 30 pieces will cut perfectly at the set power % and speed. Then, later ill set another 30 pieces to run, but it will jot cut…id have to go to a % much higher than before and then it will cut but no where near as clean as the first set of 30 odd pieces. The next morning ill do the same, and again…ill do the same dance. I cant figure out where to start looking to figure it out.
Oh man - I’ve been through this myself, and for me at least it ended up being the water circuit. A colder circuit will produce more power. Once a tube is warm, it will remain constant as long as your chiller can keep up.
I actually modified my water loop to include an aquarium hot water heater that I can start remotely via Google Home, along with the chiller itself. That way I can preheat the water to 20C and it will hold it there while I travel to my shop. I turn it off once running production.
I also reduced the temperature swing from +2 to -2 deg to +1 -1 degrees in the chiller controller. Keeping both the focus and tube temperature constant are very important for production work.
I am not sure what type of chiller you are using.
I found the same issues before I changed out my air water chiller Model 3000 witch is really just a radiator on able to obtain ambient room temperature. I purchased a Model 5200 refrigerated chiller I am able to hold much cooler temperatures and my cuts are consistent through out my work session.
For my curiosity, were do you live (temperate climate wise) that you can get away with the 3000 series type ‘chiller’… I’m in the SW desert and it’s a ‘heater’ here…
Mine will lase at 68 F much quicker (lower pwm) than it will at 75 F. I run it in the lower 70 f range.
So i live in Africa, right now our days run around 25-30deg C. Im running a CW 5200 chiller, im not running it on auto anymore as i didnt think it eas keeping up with our ambient temps. Im might need to bring the chiller temps down. Currently max temp i see on the chiller is 24 Deg before it kicks in and starts to bring it back down to about 20 to 21deg. Crazy thing is…weve just come out of winter🤣 its only going to get hotter
