Boss Laser LS1420 65 Watt, using the rotary for coated tumblers from walmart, just starting and trying to put a G on it, it marks it but doesn’t go down to metal , i started out at 100 speed and 15% power, line .07 and went all the way up to 90% power, not looking much different, the only time i could get to metal was doing a second pass, but that has its issues as the tumbler moves so having repeatably is impossible. I did order the clamp kit maybe that would help, but i did think it should be able to do it in one pass. Any input is appreciated.
Thanks
I have the exactly the same machine and do not have any trouble easily marking powder coated or anodized cups. I have come across some aluminum materials that are plated with another metal (like electro-plated Nickle) and those are impossible to mark. So that may be what you have. Get a powder coated or anodized cup and you will have much more success.
Can you run a test vector cut on a material you have cut before to see if it still cuts that just fine? If so, you probably just have a setting wrong. The most common is incorrectly inputting the low power number for the high power number.
Thanks , you can do 1 pass and take it to metal? can you share the settings and ill try later when i get home.
i have only just done a little wood and it worked great, it could be the walmart cup? ill try a used yetti or something later. is it wrong to put the low and high power to the same? thats what i have been doing. More power 
The low and high power should have the same value
1 Like
Are you sure that you’re properly focused? If the tumbler is tapered, where you focus will have an impact on the power you need.
yep understand, this tumber is actually straight. ill see if i can get pictures on here
But did you do a new test AFTER the tumbler problem cropped up on the same type of wood as before using the same power settings as before to make sure it cuts exactly the same? You have to be methodical. We are trying to determine if your tube has lost power for some reason (tube going bad, power supply going bad or something simple like a settings issue).
If power % settings were the same, then mixing the high and low up was not the problem.
Walmart/Ozark tumblers sometimes have coatings that are thicker than others (it seems to vary by color) so they can take more power to blast through but 90% power at 100 mm/sec on a 65 watt tube should not have a problem blasting through it.
so you can see the 2 pictures where i attempted a second pass, they were off but the metal started showing, the top was 35% the middle @70% and the bottom was at 90%
the other markings on the cup were down with my fiber laser and rotary chuck.
To me, it looks like you got it done the first pass and just need to clean it off. This is common with CO2 lasers. Use a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser sponge (or generic equivalent) with a bit of LA’s Totally Awesome Cleaner from the Dollar Tree Store. I find it works better than DNA and I avoid acetone because that can dull the remaining power coat.
well i was thinking along the same lines, these pictures i atually cleaned with warm water and dawn? but didnt do much good. another tumbler that failed i tried to clean with dry contact cleaner and melted the grey lol , I appreciate the feed back i will have to do more troubleshooting, i was expecting similar finish to the fiber laser.
i havent retested the wood, but i will tonight
Some people just do multiple passes to avoid cleaning but you have to have rotary system that repeats exactly without slippage (as you found out). Even those sometimes need a bit of cleaning. I think it is inefficient and just clean an already finished one while a new one is running.
It looks like you need to go back and dial your power down or up your speed. I think I see some cross hatching in the stainless coating in the x travel direction that appears as cross hatching due to too much power.
You need something more powerful than Dawn in my experience. Again though, the amount of haze left over and the difficulty cleaning it up will vary by color. Some are easy and some are hard. Also, another variable is that WalMart uses multiple suppliers. One black tumbler may not react the same as another just because they came from different suppliers.
No need to redo the wood test. I think you have found the issue. Head to the Dollar Tree for some LA’s and generic magic erasers.
If you have some acetone at the house already, you can try that on the messed up test piece you showed just to see how it can clean up.
1 Like
Thanks, does anyone use the rotary and able to do second passes even with the clamp? or do you use the chuck style rotary? on my fiber thats what i do, if first pass is not sufficient run another and it is spot on with the chuck style. I may have to swap that out until the clamp comes in?
If you can’t find some LA’s, “nourishing” nail polish works pretty well and is less likely than acetone to damage the powder coating. It has to be the nourshing, not regular. Available at WalMart and grocery stores. The cleaning power of nourshing nail polish evaporates fast though so you use a good deal of it.
1 Like
Have you tried filling a small baggie full of sand or lead shot and stuffing that inside the tumbler to give it more weight? This has worked for many people on the forums. Slippage on hot dog rollers is a known issue and why I chose to go with a chuck. Chucks have drawbacks too though.
first go around with this type rotary