Settings to cut acrylic

[Marco Carpio]

Hi!
I'm using LaserWorks with the next settings to cut acrylic: Speed: 10, Power 70
The edges of my item are jagged, and I was changing a little the speeds and power used with no better results.
I read in a thread the next recommendations for another laser machine: ".....Run your vector cut at 10 speed, 100 power, 500 frequency."
I'm unable to find "frequency" in LaserWorks. What's missing here?
Marco

[Bert Kemp]

try spd 10 power 60 2 pass's

[Rich Harman]

I'm unable to find "frequency" in LaserWorks. What's missing here?

You don't change the frequency in a DC glass tube, that's only for RF tubes.

[Kev Williams]

to split hairs, "frequency" refers to fiber lasers :D

But-- for C02's, the reference is to dots per inch, or pulses per inch (X axis) or dots per inch for the Y axis, a term that I don't like because the Y axis doesn't work in "dots", in works in "lines per inch". But oh well..

As for the X axis, laser pulses per inch are usually only adjustable with RF metal (or ceramic) tubes. Glass tube lasers are usually just "on" or "off" with no pulsing in the X axis.

For the Y axis, all lasers are adjustable. RF lasers call it DPI, and is entered in lines per inch. 500 dpi is a common 'default' as it's a good compromise of quality and engraving speed. Lower numbers speed up engraving, but at the cost of detail. Large engravings are usually pretty forgiving, small text not so much...

Glass lasers, DPI is usually referred to as "gap" or "scan gap" and is entered in mm...
example, .05mm equals .00196", which is very close to the .002" spacing of 500 DPI.
400 DPI's spacing is .0025", which equates to .063mm... and so on..

[Gary Hair]

According to Merriam Webster, frequency is the number of repetitions of a periodic process in a unit of time. On my Trotec I have a setting that controls Hz, the frequency of the beam pulse, when vectoring.

[Rich Harman]

to split hairs,...

The OP was asking about the frequency setting when cutting. Scan gap, dpi etc. do not apply. Many mainstream lasers have a "frequency" setting to set when cutting, glass tube DC lasers do not have that setting - anywhere.

[Kev Williams]

I did point out there's no pulsing of a glass laser 'in the X axis', when if fact it's ANY axis, which I didn't think about... :)

and, to keep splitting hairs (which gets me in more trouble... ;) ) - as noted, "frequency" refers to reps in a unit of TIME (typically)... But an RF laser's firing frequency is dictated in SPACE. This means the laser's actual pulsing frequency in a given amount of time is always changing with machine speed, pulsing per a given distance remains constant regardless of machine speed... Conversely, a fiber laser's frequency is just the opposite, the laser's frequency in given amount of time never changes, regardless of speed, so changing the machine speed changes the number of pulses per a given distance; faster speed = less pulses per inch, slower = more...

[Doug Fisher]

>>The edges of my item are jagged, <<

A lot depends on what you mean by "jagged." It can mean different things to different people. If you just mean there are vertical ridges visible on the cut, Russ Sadlers' Youtube videos on his attempt to get rid of these may be something you will want to watch. He does some interesting tests in regard to the effects of stepper motors, air assist and cutting speeds.

[Rich Harman]

and, to keep splitting hairs... ...But an RF laser's firing frequency is dictated in SPACE.

This is not consistent my understanding of the Frequency setting of mainstream RF lasers.

Regardless, for the OP's question, there is no setting on a glass tube laser that corresponds to the frequency setting that was given as an example of settings to use when cutting. Speed and power are the only parameters available for the user to adjust. On an RF laser there is one more parameter that the user has control over and that is Hz or Frequency.

[Matt McCoy]

This is not consistent my understanding of the Frequency setting of mainstream RF lasers.

Regardless, for the OP's question, there is no setting on a glass tube laser that corresponds to the frequency setting that was given as an example of settings to use when cutting. Speed and power are the only parameters available for the user to adjust. On an RF laser there is one more parameter that the user has control over and that is Hz or Frequency.

That's my understanding too. I believe Epilog uses the term "frequency" as a parameter for PPI (pulses per inch).

[Kev Williams]

"Frequency" by itself is just a generic term, so referring to the frequency a laser fires in pulses or dots per inch is correct.

But when "frequency" is used in conjunction with "Hz", now it becomes strictly "time" related...


The hertz symbol (Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI) and is defined as one cycle per second.

At 500 dpi, a laser running at 1 inch per second is firing at 0.5 kHz, and at 100 inches per second it's firing at 50 kHz... The pulses per INCH frequency never changes, the pulses per SECOND (Hz) frequency almost always changes...

[Rich Harman]

"Frequency" by itself is just a generic term, so referring to the frequency a laser fires in pulses or dots per inch is correct.

Compare these two settings: Speed 10, Power 100, Freq 500 and Speed 20, Power 100, Freq 500. What changes, the DPI or the frequency?

It's is like you are arguing that a 144 mhz radio frequency isn't actually time based, because it results in a wavelength of two meters.

And this is still totally irrelevant to the OP's question...