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View Full Version : Funny things happening here today and yesterday... heat ?



Ian Stewart-Koster
01-01-2017, 6:35 AM
We've had daytime temperatures in the shade of up over 36 degrees celsius the last couple of days - and in the workshop it's the same.
I went to laser some simple acrylic keyrings yesterday for friends of our kids, and they would not cut!
I changed the power settings and ran the file 4 times, and still managed to break the transliucent red acrylic before I could separate the parts.
In the end, what was more weird was an internal part on all the attempts was the last to cut through peoperlty, despite me orientating it by 180 degrees to try again. The red hairline path just failed to cleanly cut in the same area each time - and the rest took 5 goes.

Today I went to cut some 4.5mm black acrylic for an LED base I was making. I've previously used the same acrylic.
Well I had to run the file six times, and have the power settings as if I was cutting 10mm acrylic, and it was a struggle.
I did clean the lense & mirrors in case there was a problem.

All files created in Corel Draw X3, and with the set appropriate 8 colour palette.

It made no difference - I'm wondering if the daytime heat could have contributed to these oddities?

(45 watt ULS, air-cooled laser - new tube in 2012 - not much work since them, really.)

Kev Williams
01-01-2017, 12:29 PM
I know my glass laser loses power with more heat, not sure about metal lasers.

Best troubleshooting advice I got is to repeat the cuts when it's closer to 22° in the shop...

Dave Sheldrake
01-01-2017, 8:03 PM
Heat will affect it but not to the extent you are experiencing.