Adrian Hill
03-24-2011, 1:32 PM
I am running a 70W Chinese laser and the machine is working very well. But I do have a couple of questions:
1. The laser is fitted with a red dot pointer that is pointed at the job from a 45 degrees angled mounting on the side of the head - would it not be better to shine the red dot through the laser optics?
1.1 This would mean that one would need to put the pointer directly in the path of the main laser - any ideas? how do other manufacturers do this?
2. What is the most effective way to focus the laser? I did quite a bit of testwork to determine the point by firing the laser at the same intensity and duration at differnt heights off a test sheet and I got to what I think is the best focus. But isn't there a more scientific way?
3. I find that the spot size is still a bit large for my liking. I would say that the spot diameter is about 0.3mm. I deduce this from the fact that a square of 50mm comes out to be 49.7mm which of course is 0.15mm lost on ether side of the job. Is this size acceptable?
4. Does a lower power laser i.e. 30w have a smaller diameter spot or is the spot size determined purely by the quality of the optics and the correct focal length?
BTW: I must say, I think that the machine software and the machine controller suck bigtime. The software includes some Chinglish which doesn't always make sense (I won't talk about the manual). It also forgets its settings all the time. I would love to be able to save a job and the machine settings in one file. The machine uses Coreldraw with an additional toolbar. I would have though that there would be a bit more integration. with regard to the controller - the thing that erks me the most (probably because I am used to CNC machines) is that I do not have a handheld controller, XYZ DROs and a mechanism to change the jog speed on the fly. I set up jobs on jigs all the time. I set the positioning using a high jog speed at first but as the position becomes more accurate I lower the speed right down. It would be so nice, as in Mach 3, to type G0 X0.01 Y0.2 and know that that is where the laser head is going to go.
1. The laser is fitted with a red dot pointer that is pointed at the job from a 45 degrees angled mounting on the side of the head - would it not be better to shine the red dot through the laser optics?
1.1 This would mean that one would need to put the pointer directly in the path of the main laser - any ideas? how do other manufacturers do this?
2. What is the most effective way to focus the laser? I did quite a bit of testwork to determine the point by firing the laser at the same intensity and duration at differnt heights off a test sheet and I got to what I think is the best focus. But isn't there a more scientific way?
3. I find that the spot size is still a bit large for my liking. I would say that the spot diameter is about 0.3mm. I deduce this from the fact that a square of 50mm comes out to be 49.7mm which of course is 0.15mm lost on ether side of the job. Is this size acceptable?
4. Does a lower power laser i.e. 30w have a smaller diameter spot or is the spot size determined purely by the quality of the optics and the correct focal length?
BTW: I must say, I think that the machine software and the machine controller suck bigtime. The software includes some Chinglish which doesn't always make sense (I won't talk about the manual). It also forgets its settings all the time. I would love to be able to save a job and the machine settings in one file. The machine uses Coreldraw with an additional toolbar. I would have though that there would be a bit more integration. with regard to the controller - the thing that erks me the most (probably because I am used to CNC machines) is that I do not have a handheld controller, XYZ DROs and a mechanism to change the jog speed on the fly. I set up jobs on jigs all the time. I set the positioning using a high jog speed at first but as the position becomes more accurate I lower the speed right down. It would be so nice, as in Mach 3, to type G0 X0.01 Y0.2 and know that that is where the laser head is going to go.