Hi! I’m new to laser cutting. I’ve been watching so many tutorials and since everyone has a different machine with a different wattage, they are kind of all over the place. I’m just a little confused at how to adjust settings to my machine. I have an 80w omtech laser. I see tons of helpful videos for 100w machines who show their settings. To adjust it for my machine, do I need to increase or decrease the speed and percentage?
I started with a suggested setting for cardboard and it caught on fire. Then I tried rubber with the suggested setting and it burned through. I tried 6mm birch and some settings burned a hole through and some worked well. Thanks for any help!
In round numbers, 80 W is approximately 100 W.
You may have configured LightBurn for speeds in mm/min rather than the usual mm/sec for CO₂ lasers, in which case the speed will be 1/60 of what you exect:
1 Like
Aren’t we all ?
You will have to test each type/batch/thickness of any materials you use. There are optimum power/speed that work the best with the lowest amount of debris. In other words, lots of combinations will work, but a very narrow group will work the best.
Take a piece of material you wish to use and do some testing on it. You can find starting values around, but you still have to check it with your materials.
I generally start with a strip of something and make cuts across it to see how deep I’m going. This is useful for determining power/speed relationships for any operation with that material, such as engraving depth and where it does a complete cut through.
It’s relatively easy with a Ruida, to send it a straight line and just modify the power/speed from the machines console until I get the results I want.
You might want to examine Laser Tools → Materials test documentation… I use it more than ever now.
What length of lens are you using?
Welcome to the wonderful world of lasers… 
Have fun
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.