I’m new to laser cutting and tried cutting and engraving on plywood - the first cut came out perfect but then I tried to cut the same thing twice, but both came out wrong. Is this due to the laser getting stuck whilst moving or what might be the issue? Had a similar issue when engraving a photo, where it was fine, but then halfway up the image the laser made a line and cut some of the image of (as if it was stuck). I’ve checked that it moves when I move it by hand but maybe I need to adjust something. I have three layers - one is the image engraving, one is the outer cut line and then a small circe cut at the top.
New machines tend to have loose drive couplings etc. You need to go over all set screws , belts etc. and tighten and tension properly.
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It looks like motion or position may have been lost between the Engrave process and the Cut Process. This can be caused by excessive (or optimistic) values for acceleration.
Do you still have the plywood you cut the pineapples from?
Checking for loose screws is an excellent first step. Please test them with the Allen Wrench or Hex Key.
Thank you so much! I checked all over and tightened one of the belts and the bit where the laser head is attached to and now has been cutting fine!
Thank you! Yes I still have the plywood. Tightening the screws helped, but for future reference are the acceleration values something that I set / can control somewhere?
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If the manufacturer of the laser allows you to adjust accelerations they are assigned to Machine Settings $120 & $121.
https://github.com/gnea/grbl/blob/master/doc/markdown/settings.md
In the Console window in LightBurn, you can request the Machine Settings from the AtomStack engraver by typing the Following:
$$
then press enter.
You can adjust the acceleration settings by typing the new value into the Console Window in LightBurn as follows:
$120=4000
then press enter.
This will change the maximum allowed acceleration along the X-Axis to 4000 mm/s^2 (millimeters per second squared)
If the Pineapples were ‘Right Side up’ when they were produced, you may want to lower the Acceleration along the Y-Axis.
With a well adjusted / correctly tightened machine the factory settings ‘should’ be quite fine. We have seen manufacturers that are somewhat optimistic but Atomstack isn’t guilty of this.