Hello!
I’m trying to cut some 1/4" plywood… And can’t get it done…
I was doing some cutting tests on the same sheet of plywood and it went very well. 700mm/min 80%power (as I read 100% could harm the laser due to heat) 14pases.
To cut out my piece I used the same parameters, 1 pass more (15 instead of 14) but the laser just didn’t get through.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
!
Hi Anna,
Cutting thick materials on diode lasers can be a bit tricky, as the usable depth of field (distance that the beam is usable) is rather short. In essence, the beam can be perfectly in focus at the top of the plywood, but diverge and be large+weak by the time it reaches the bottom of the material.
This is often compounded by the plywood itself being of varying density and moisture content across the sheet.
You may need to add a few extra passes to ensure you cut through every time. Alternatively you could also try adjusting the focus of your laser into the material 1mm or so (drop the head down towards the material) to move that usable focal length towards the back side of the material.
hm. I sometimes have the same issue with 3,6mm Plywood. It doesn’t seem so thick…
But I will try giving more passes and maybe change focus.
Is there a way to cut all objects each pass, and not every 15 passes of the 1rst object, then 15 passes of the next…? So I could stop the job when it cut through
Are you using air and is the laser lens clean, just two things that helped me but 1/4 inch on a 5.5 watt laser is pushing it a bit I have trouble with 4mm (about 1/8) I think but keeping the lens clean and using air certainly helps…
I cleaned rhe lens before cutting…
And still I don’t have air assist. I live in Nicaragua and it’s very difficult to get a system here. I’m figuring out if I could run something like an air assist with an aquarium air pump, but I only found some very week, 4-8 l/min. Other compressors I found only for painting, and I’m not sure if I coukd run them for one hour or more?
Yesterday I installed a box with air/dust extraction. Maybe it will help me to keep lens more clean.
I found that for engraving there is an option “fill all shapes at once”. Is there an similar option for cutting, so it would cut all shapes each pass and not seperately all passes of every shape before cutting the next shape?
I found that for engraving there is an option “fill all shapes at once”. Is there an similar option for cutting, so it would cut all shapes each pass and not seperately all passes of every shape before cutting the next shape?
I don’t know any (but I’m no pro expert). The way I would do it is to use “cut selected graphics” and only select the first object. Then check the number of passes and afterwards apply the value to all the other objects.
Air Assist will make a huge difference. I would strongly recommend using the Sculpfun original ones, because the are perfectly fitted. You can nearly cut the number of passes by half.
With air extraction (still don’t have air assist) it worked much better.
I worked with sub-layers. That worked best for me
Still I m struggling around with 1/4 plywood. With 1/8 now Im fine. I installed a homemade airassist (I cant get the professional here right now) and iths working good for 1/8.
At the last engraving I foud that the laser seems to tremble at some parts. Could this have influence on the cutting performance? Which might be the reasons?
Also it seems that the laser in the outer areas is cutting less then in the center
Is the wood lying flat? Here are some additional tips: Settings guide - Diode Laser Wiki and you can check the mechanics as well if it’s related to some locations: Guide to mechanical adjustments and maintenance - Diode Laser Wiki