Struggling with a cut on 3mm Birch

[LaserWillie (Willy)]

How many passes are you making to cut that out? Also, I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t be at 100% power with your laser.

According to your screenshot there is no second hole and it doesn’t appear to even mark the outside which you seem to want to cut out, please show us the number of passes you are attempting.

[Dags75 (David Denny)]

I am not sure in terms of passes, can this be adjusted? Each element has a setting, as I say the second small hole and the outer cut is set. The laser appears to do these on the overall job but does not cut for some reason. Apologies as I say, I am new and learning step by step.

Should I reduce the 100% on cut too? I know it is all of a combination lock to get it just right.

Thanks Willie, Dave.

[Dags75 (David Denny)]

The second hole is C15.

[LaserWillie (Willy)]

Please upload your lightburn file so others can take a look at all the settings. Number of passes is easy to set. Just double click on the layer and adjust the number of passes.

CO2 lasers should never be run at 100%, you should be running it at 70% or less, your tube life will be very short at 100%. There’s more settings on your controller that you need to set and not just the ones in lightburn to adjust to accomplish that.

Double click here:

And change the number of passes here:

Still, even at the settings you have your machine should slice through 3 mm like butter. Is it a new machine or used?

[Dags75 (David Denny)]

Cheers Willie. Here it is:

2 - Button Template (Master).lbrn2 (49.9 KB)

[Dags75 (David Denny)]

Hi Willie it is new.

[LaserWillie (Willy)]

Sorry, I saw that up top. I am not sure what’s wrong here. You have the engrave set to high speed low power and it’s engraving fine, but your line settings should be cutting it out just fine.

EDIT: Just for giggles, have the “line” use the same settings as you used for “fill” but set the number of passes to 2. Try that please. If it cuts out just fine, then it would appear that something is wired incorrectly or being output incorrectly.

EDIT 2: Try the pink tab, C8 for line to cut

[dvdlock (David Lock)]

Assuming you are cutting 3mm birch ply ; The first cut is way too much power and going way too slow for a 50W laser. Try this at say 15mm/s @ 60% power.
The second and 3rd cut min power is set way too low. To start with have them set the same as the max until such time as you gain experience, it’ll not be long.

[Dags75 (David Denny)]

Good news! I set the 3 cuts at what you suggested 15mm/s @60%. It came. I didn’t alter the passes.
Interesting, I need to keep learning the low power versus the cut. I have saved these setting for now as the master, then just play about with the settings and save a new version if I feel they are better.

This is a learning curve mate, thanks so much.

[Dags75 (David Denny)]

Yep, happy with this setting as a master tool.

[dvdlock (David Lock)]

Well that’s good news. Well done.

My recommendation on the learning is to learn your machines capability. Start by researching ‘Power Scales’. Whenever you start with a new material, do a power scale for it. This upfront time will save you hours of frustration trying to sort a suitable speed/power. Believe me, I have the t-shirt

[Dags75 (David Denny)]

Cheers David, thanks for the advice. In terms of research, what do you recommend searching for for this. Just on the Lightburn forums, or outer networks etc?

Thanks make, Dave.

[Dags75 (David Denny)]

Thanks Wilie, I will try your giddle test tomorrow mate, thanks for all your advice and support!!! Speak soon.

[Dags75 (David Denny)]

Hi ya! Ah this is great, thank you so much. I will do indeed.

Looking forwars to saving on post-it notes!!!
Dave.

[Rick (Technical Evangelist)]

@dvdlock

The second and 3rd cut min power is set way too low.

You are using a Ruida control system that uses a ‘Start Speed’ when cutting. When set at or below this setting (default is 10%), the control system will not be able to fire the laser. This helps manage the power flow to prevent over-burning in the corners. When cutting, set both min and max the same.

Start here and read to the bottom of this page. Output issues - LightBurn Software Documentation

And these as well,

Confused about best approach to min power setting

Max/min power settings for cutting through lightburn. Curious what people commonly use for settings on small intricate cuts. I was reading the lightburn manual and it discussed how if you have the min at 10 then it will help minimize overburn - ie “Min Power is used for cuts where the head will be changing directions, slowing down the speeding up again, where you want to not over burn the corners.” BUT, on the other hand, I have issues with cuts where there is a little “gap” on the cut area …

Help with Cut settings

From: RDWorks Wiki - Min/Max Power (cutting) As well as the Min and Max power settings and the speed set for the layer, the Start Speed found in the Cut parameters section of the User Settings comes into consideration. At speeds of Start Speed and below, only the Min power is used. Above the Start Speed, the power is increased linearly until the Max power is acheived at the layer speed. When using layer speeds at or below the Start Speed, there is often confusion if the Min and Max po…

[Dags75 (David Denny)]

Hi Rick - This is extremely helpful, thanks so much. I have also managed to find the Lightburn tutorials on Youtube to familiarise myself!

Much appreciated, Dave.

[Rick (Technical Evangelist)]

Glad to hear this was helpful. Welcome and let us know how you progress.

[Norm (Norman Kirchner)]

Try this file. 2 - Button Template (New).lbrn2 (41.4 KB)

[Dags75 (David Denny)]

Hi Norman

Thanks so much for your suggestion, it really helps. Especially with speed and cut practice!