Is this normal??

[Rick Maitland]

I just got my brand new LaserPro Explorer 30W a few days ago :) . I love the machine so far but I have 1 concern. I am trying to Vector cut 1/8 acrylic. The only way I can get through the material in 1 pass is to do 100% power - 1% speed. No that is not I typo I said "1% speed" :confused: . I have ran MANY test runs at different speeds. When at 100% power and 5% speed I have to run it 5 times!! When I run at 1% speed it gets the acrylic to hot and leaves it frosty looking. I do have air assist on. Is this normal??

[Joe Young]

I also have the 30W Explorer and have cut 1/4 inch acrylic on one pass. If memory serves me correctly, my settings were 100%, .3% speed. What ppi were you using? Have you autofocus and verified with the manual gauge? Is acrylic the only material you're having a problem with? Is your graphic set to hairline and red? I have a problem cutting plywood without resorting to a few tricks but 1/8 inch acrylic should not require multiple passes to cut thru.

[Rodne Gold]

Albeit it sounds slow the explorer is a fast machine and cutting speed is relative to its fastest speed which has no correlation to the speed any other laser uses.
I do think however you might have alignment problems etc as 30w should cut thru 3mm pex a little quicker than 1%. You should have a polished edge , not a frosted one , frosting on the edges of a pex cut can be poor cutting or too much air assist. Have your dealer come out and check the power delivery of the system - should read at LEAST 30w all over the table.
We cut up to 10mm acrylic witha 30w Explorer (25mm per inch)

[Kevin Huffman]

Hello Rick,
I see that you are a customer of ours as far as the cutter is concerned but you bought your laser elsewhere. I am not going to hold that against you (to much anyways). LoL

First of all, we need to ajust your PPI. When cutting stuff like acrylic (a really dense material) you are going to have to turn your PPI way up to get a nice clean and clear edge. I would suggest starting in the 1100-1400 range. But I have seen it where some customers have had to go to the max 1524.

Second of all you need to check all your mirrors and lens. There are a total of 4 mirrors on this machine and one lens. Refer to the manual for the locations of them. If those are dirty or scratched you will see a definate loss of power.

As Rodne was saying you might want to test your alignment. During shipping it does get bumped around and could need a little bit of adjustment. The easiest way to test this is to draw 4 vector squares, one in each corner, and have them cut out. I would do it out of that acrylic, just make sure you have a piece in each corner where the squares are going to be cut. All 4 pieces should be the same if it is alignment. If it isn't in alignmtent the squares will have angled edges and/or not even cut all the way out. What I do is take the 4 cut out squares and stand them up on end on a table somewhere, You will be able to see if they standing straight up and down or not. If they lean it is out of alignment.

That gives you some things to try out.

[Alan Young]

Welcome Rick

I have a Laser pro 30 watt and just cut out a bunch of cast acrylic keychains. I had to use 100p at 1.5s . I could cut it at 1.8 but it sometimes would have to be tapped out. Cast would leave a little bit of a frosty edge and extruded would be polished.


Alan

[Rick Maitland]

Thank you all for your comments. Kevin my 24" Panther Cutter is working great!! I have to also tip my hat to the SignWarehouse website. It is the best information website I have ever seen. www.signwarehouse.com (http://www.signwarehouse.com) I should have added in my last post that I did increase my PPI setting to as high as 1500 and that did not seem to help cut through the material any better. As for alignment the machine is only a few days old and was set up and aligned by the Technician that sold it to use, but I will recheck this again. I will also clean the lens and mirrors again. Kevin when you say cut squares in all corners are you talking about in all four corners of the table or of a piece of acrylic. I will also try turning air assist down to see if that helps. Thanks again for all the help.

[Rodne Gold]

If you have the explorer II with the beam expander and not the collimater you must use "enhanced vector" for the cutting , using this you actually have to reduce your speed to about 1/2 normal BUT this reduction in speed is not a true reduction , it actually cuts at the same speed as without this option
So if you have this checked , then you have to reduce speed in the driver - try with and without this
If you have a built in light in the machine , you have the explorer II (you can also see it at the source , the red beam and expander is just after the source , there is no collimater in the firing tube near the top of the machine)

[Kevin Huffman]

Hey Rick,
I would do it in the corners of the table. Just take some scrap acrylic and put in each corner.

[Rick Maitland]

Rodne I do have the new Explorer II. I do remember seeing the "enhanced vector" box and had not been using it, but im not sure what you mean when you say...... "So if you have this checked , then you have to reduce speed in the driver ". Could you elaborate on this a little more please.
Thanks