So I’ve had this laser since June of last year. By July I was able to create very nice engravings on stainless and other metals. Then about six weeks ago, I tried very quickly and very gingerly to put on a 300x300 lens. I quickly realized that my machine wasn’t even capable of being set to the height needed so I swapped it back out with my original.
Everything seemed fine. Then after a day or two, no mater what I did my engravings and everything I ran went to hell in a hand basket. I just forced Omtech to replace my entire unit because I was convinced it was a power supply issue. Now that I have a whole other new unit, I’m not certain it was ever the machine at all.
Yes, I made a different machine profile. I copied the old one and made a new one since it’s a different lens. And it’s better, but still. Everything is Rough looking, Nothing is shiny smooth like I would get it to look like prior to this happening. I can’t even achieve a smooth finish at their 333 mm height no matter what even with this new machine. I have to raise it up a few turns for that and then it still will do weird shiitake mushrooms like be fine for 2/3 of the engraving but then the last half will be rough and burnded looking or just way worse quality. I’m starting to think Lightburn is Fudged up or something went crazy. I have been working with cnc’s, lasers and all manner of manufacturing equipment for theirty years. I just don’t get what this could be. I tried uninstalling LB with revo and reinstalling. Didn’t help. I’m going to change out my cable to the lasr this evening but I doubt that will be the issue. Here are samples of what I used to make and a sample or two of the crap I’m getting now. And keep in mind, this is on a brand new laser that I just unpacked two days ago.
What I’ve noticed is Lightburn doesn’t seem to be capturing as much in Stucky on to my material. Way less detail is what i’m noticing with same damn settings
THIS IS THE SAME FILE WITH NO CHANGES RUN SIX MONTHS APART.
Here’s some other samples of my engravings to show I am not joking about having this machine dialed in. Any help would be so appreciated. So much for Valentine’s income at this point.
Also, it seems like lightburn has my omtech galvo running faster at my usual speed and not throwing in as much details. I see alot of white or blank space in my etchings when I didn’t used to. If I make a shape a certain size it tries to print out a different size lately. Weird stuff man. Come on admins or fellow enthusiasts. Show me what you’re working with here…
You probably know most of this, but I’ll put it here just in case.
Lightburn knows surface speed by the focal length of the lens. Same mirror movement with a longer lens produces a higher scan rate.
A long lens, like the F420mm, which I have for 300x300mm coverage has a larger spot on the material. You’d likely have to make a change to the interval to keep all things equal. This, of course, means a greater spot diameter or less detail. It also has much more depth of focus.
If you are saying that the same material is not reacting the same during the run, I’m not sure how you’d figure that out… I’ll have to think about it.
Yes lens is calibrated. My focal point is tested and confirmed at 333mm. I ran a test of a 1x3" rectangle out of black cardstock as well and it measured perfectly on both ends.
So my settings a pretty much always Stucki 375dpi contrast -3 brightness +3 Radius 20 enhance 100. Then for my cutting condition 60 freq. power 40 speed 10ips and I have had the smoothest nicest engravings for over half a year on stainless. Now all I can get is this, and that’s after setting up new machine they sent me. Take a look. It’s like stucki and LB aren’t happy together any more. LOL
You say it is another machine so that is where to start I would say.
There are a million settings and timings not only the few you set for cutting/engraving.
Different material behaves differently. Sometimes. Running into the same thing with the black aluminum cards. Have a great grayscale, started with a new batch, had to run some new calibraton tests. Even 2 brands that look the same will need different parameters.
Not really because they’re both acting exactly the same. The new machine was sent because Lightburn was doing this with my galvo. This machine is behaving the same way. Yet when I do color lettering on stainless it’s nice and smooth just like it used to be. I can even achieve colors. What the hell. It’s like Stucki is F’d up lately. It’s not behaving the same at all. It’s picking up much less detail in the same LB files that it used to output great detail from. Smooth lovely detail. Not this burnt rough looking output i’m getting.