Marking Paper or cardboard

[Darren Berrouard]

Hello All,

New to the forum but we just got a 50 watt Chinese laser with RDWorks and have been learning the software etc by searching here and watching youtube videos both excellent resources but I have a couple of projects and was hoping to get some tips here.

We want to mark paper/carboard backer with the laser so we can identify a part without going through and then cut it out where it needs to be cut. I've tried turning down the power but is there an "Etch" setting or something I'm missing?

Thanks in advance and I appreciate you taking the time to answer this.

Darren

[Jerome Stanek]

You use scan instead of cut

[John Noell]

Sorry, no "etch" settings. Higher speed and lower power mean less energy on a spot and less likely to burn through your paper. Unfortunately, the DC tubes (as in Chinese machines and Glowforge) cannot fire if the power is too low (usually about 12+%). But, a 50 watt (and maybe more like 40 in reality - check your tube length and search this forum to see what length tube gives what actual power) can probably go fast enough, with low enough power, to get close to what you want. You also may find the "dot" function (as opposed to scan [engrave] and cut) helps.

[Darren Berrouard]

Sorry, no "etch" settings. Higher speed and lower power mean less energy on a spot and less likely to burn through your paper. Unfortunately, the DC tubes (as in Chinese machines and Glowforge) cannot fire if the power is too low (usually about 12+%). But, a 50 watt (and maybe more like 40 in reality - check your tube length and search this forum to see what length tube gives what actual power) can probably go fast enough, with low enough power, to get close to what you want. You also may find the "dot" function (as opposed to scan [engrave] and cut) helps.

Ok so that explains why it didn't do anything at 5-10% power I will try to up the speed and set the power to 12-15% and try scan again. I tried scan but it seemed to cut as well.

What typically is the max speed for these machines I thought I read somewhere 300mm/sec but I could find nothing in the manual about max speed.

Thanks Again for the fast response

[Brian Leavitt]

Max speed is usually 500mm/sec on basic Chinese machines.

[Keith Downing]

Others are correct, you want 100% speed and the lowest possible power you can get to fire reliably.

If that won't work, you could try using a dashed pattern instead of a solid line. But that would probably only make a difference if you are very very close to a small enough amount of power to begin with.

[David Somers]

If you are still going through the paper even at high speed/low power could you also take it out of focus a bit? Or....possibly go to a heavier weight paper?

For what it is worth, I have "engraved" 80 and 140lb stock with my 80 watt laser without problem. I haven't tried lighter weight paper than 80 though. I am afraid right now I only have standard copier paper at 24lb, and the 80lb and heavier papers. I should be near a store Friday though and will see if I can grab some sheets of a heavier stock between 24 and 80lb.

[Kev Williams]

Just to see, I did this on my 80w Triumph-
3" lens, it was focused for an 1/8" piece of stainless and I didn't change it so it's that far out of focus--
speed = 500mm/s, power = 7% (which has always worked well for me when running tape-tests)...
gap was .08..

337701

[Darren Berrouard]

Wow,

Thanks for the test I will try it tonight I didn't realize I could run it that fast

Thanks Again everyone

[David Somers]

Darren....have you ever run test patterns to determine what your settings should be? Basically a grid pattern with speed being one axis and power being the other. You can quickly test a large number of possibilities in one small area. A search on test pattern in the forum should find you some samples if you need them.

BTW. If you run a test pattern consider keeping it as a reference for later. It can be a big help determining if your machine is showing change over time in its power levels, though it doesnt help you with the causes. And it can be a great reference tool for a given material.

[Darren Berrouard]

Darren....have you ever run test patterns to determine what your settings should be? Basically a grid pattern with speed being one axis and power being the other. You can quickly test a large number of possibilities in one small area. A search on test pattern in the forum should find you some samples if you need them.

BTW. If you run a test pattern consider keeping it as a reference for later. It can be a big help determining if your machine is showing change over time in its power levels, though it doesnt help you with the causes. And it can be a great reference tool for a given material.


I will definitely check the test patterns threads out- thanks

just got done testing all the suggestions and thanks a ton speed at 500 power at 10 did the trick perfectly. Thanks to all that posted with suggestions.

Darren