So I’ve been using a neje laser for a couple of month and although it been a fantastic engraver,. I am starting to cut 3mm plywood,. Although the untying jobs will hopefully be few and far between,. To cut a 2cm circle it take over 50 passes
Unfortunalty amazon don’t have any technical service for this and are issuing me with a refund.
Before I go and buy one I was hoping you wonderful group of people can point me in the direct for one that can cut 3mm plywood without as much trouble.
I have the Atomstack A5 M30 and really struggled. Like you I was doing 30 passes to get a cut. I played with the settings and power and got it down to 11 passes. If you are wanting to use the cutting option on wood regularly I think you may burn out your laser head. I have to have mine at Speed 10mm/sec and 100% power. I am a beginner though so others might be able to give you better advice. I wouldnt recommend the Atomstack for cutting wood regularly although its good for engraving and cutting card.
There are a number of topics on cutting with a diode laser. Plywood is a challenging material for diode lasers and an especially hard material choice and operation to start as a beginner.
Hi, I understand it is difficult for diode lasers to cut through wood,. And at the time of ordering I was expecting cutting through plywood to be taking 10 passes, but I’ve just done one that took nearly 24 cutting hours to get it all done as it was taking in my mind too many passes.
When ordering their was a particular video on the model I bought showing that it cut through 3mm ply wood in 1 pass, yes it has air assist, so I’d imagine that same setting would easily cut through in 5 passes or at most 10. But it is still take 50 plus and leaving horrible scortch marks.
I am debating going omtech co2 40w laser, but I am sacrificing bed size.
@Laserengravingstokesley, what specific laser module and lens are you using? Hard to infer performance expectations without knowing those things.
24 hours seems excessive and dangerous in any case but I’ve seen low powered diode lasers not be able to cut through at all. But frankly, if you’ve already run the laser for 24 hours straight at 100% power the diode is likely already damaged or significantly diminished from excessive load.
Can you describe your focusing process a bit? There might be something to be improved there. A photo of the focused dot would be useful. Please incldue an indication of scale.
This laser should be perfectly capable of making it through 3mm plywood in a reasonable number of passes (3-4) but will depend on other factors and conditions being met. I hope you’ve read over the other topic I listed earlier on this.
One note on your laser module is that it comes with a lens intended more for engraving than cutting. You should have still been able to make it through the wood with the existing lens but something to consider.
Can you describe the air-assist setup that you have? This doesn’t have to be crazy but it needs to be effective. How and where are you aiming it?
As for the 24 hour burn cycles and your description of the results it’s almost certain that the laser module is degraded. I recommend your run a burn pattern test to see how it performs.
If your primary intended usage is for cutting 3mm+ plywood I’d suggest that a diode laser is not ideal and move to a CO2 laser. Alternatively you could switch materials. Solid wood cuts much easier and typically cleaner and offers you a variety of choices. If you’re mostly engraving or cutting light-duty materials with the occasional plywood then still potentially within the realm of diode lasers.
Again my intended use when buying the laser was engraving, with a future of cutting and buying a 2nd laser but co2
I am experienced with lasers to a degree but I’ve used a big universal one ina secondary school I have quickly learnt that their is different lasers diode and co2 when I bought this one,. So I am slowly learning the diodes laser capabilities.
I think reading the article you had posted @berainlb I think the biggest issue is the type of plywood I am actually using . Here are 2 images
I think one is hardwood ply and other is single ply softwood, so I need to research Into wood
Or do people have know of UK suppliers that they use for everything laser?
As for air assist, I’m in process of creating my set up, I’ve had some parts 3d printed and attached to my laser need to source thenparts to connect up to my compressor and to be able to adjust the air flow correctly
I had the same issue. I dont know much about woods but the one you are struggling with looks like Hardwood Ply which is what I was using. I then bought a softer ply and can cut through that.
