Mirror clouding issues

Community Laser Talk
1

I have a c02 150 watt laser. Right now, I am engraving a lot of wood items. I keep going through mirrors and wanted to hear any tips on how to clean them for longer use. I use gloves to handle them and glass lens cleaner wipes. I clean the mirrors after every half hour of engraving. So sometimes after every piece or multiple pieces depending on how long the machine runs. I do have air assist running so the smoke is being blown out. Is there something else to use to clean them?
I used alcohol and cotton balls at the beginning and they got pretty scratched up from that, so i changed to the above mentioned. Also, do you actually take the mirrors out of the machine to clean them each time or wipe them down while their in the holders…I just know i am replacing them too often…

thanks!
Jennifer

2

Sounds like you need a better exhaust fan. Also, where does your air come IN at? If it’s the front- which is usual- you can add some posterboard in front of it (and on the sides) to direct the air to travel over the surface of honeycomb and work until it reaches the far side of the work and gets sucked out through the uncovered part of the honeycomb.

Molybdenum mirrors have a distinct advantage of being (nearly) indestructible. They’re uncoated, nothing to blister off if they get sooted and heat up. However, they are a bit lossier, about 1.5% per mirror compared to 0.8% for a gold-plated silicon mirror.

I use moly on the #3 mirror, since it gets the brunt of the smoke problem.