Robin Croen
04-13-2020, 1:24 AM
Greetings all, I hope you can weigh in on a problem I'm having with my new-to-me machine.
I recently bought a used China red, 1400 x 900 130w, Ruida 6442 controller, laser power upgraded to a lightobject PSU by previous owner. I tested it out with the seller and it cut through 5mm ply without breaking a sweat. This was about 4 weeks ago.
Fast forward to this weekend. I'm excited to finally get this thing going after doing some tune-up work and getting my space set up. I've gone through the process of leveling the table, aligning the mirrors and focusing the beam and everything seems spot on. I've calibrated my max power using a newly-installed analogue ammeter; 60% power in the software gives me 28mA on the meter (tube specs called for 30mA max operating power and I figured I'd go a little low).
I fired up a test file from RDworks, a 20mm square on 5mm ply. The resulting "cut" was a disappointing burned outline barely deep enough to snag a fingernail. I've only tried the ply so far but based on that I don't think I'd be able to even cut 1/8" MDF. The settings were as follows:
From RDworks, I made a cut layer with max and min power both set to 100%, which if I understand correctly means I should be getting 100% of the 60% that I set as my software max. I set the max power on the machine control panel to 60% as well, which is the max allowed to me with the current software settings.
Speed set to 10mm/s.
Air assist is on.
Chiller is on and easily holding at 18C.
When cutting, I verified that the laser was firing at my full power setting of 60% via the ammeter which held steady at 28mA during the cut.
I verified that there was a visible purple beam inside the tube, see pics.
I've double checked the mirror alignment and beam focus, made some tweaks to improve conditions.
I double checked the lens orientation, its convex side is facing up and flat side is facing down towards the table.
I cleaned all three mirrors and the lens with DNA. The mirrors have some marks and spots that I was unable to remove, see pics.
Imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/LHfwNgC
What am I missing here? This is a used tube, but considering that the machine has been run less than an hour total since it was last able to cut through 5mm ply would it really go dead on me so fast? And if it was going dead, would the ammeter still be reading my max power setting of 28mA? I'm hoping that this user error and the right settings will solve the problem.
I've spent many hours googling and combing through the forums for answers and I'm at a loss for what to try next. Thank you all in advance for your help!
I recently bought a used China red, 1400 x 900 130w, Ruida 6442 controller, laser power upgraded to a lightobject PSU by previous owner. I tested it out with the seller and it cut through 5mm ply without breaking a sweat. This was about 4 weeks ago.
Fast forward to this weekend. I'm excited to finally get this thing going after doing some tune-up work and getting my space set up. I've gone through the process of leveling the table, aligning the mirrors and focusing the beam and everything seems spot on. I've calibrated my max power using a newly-installed analogue ammeter; 60% power in the software gives me 28mA on the meter (tube specs called for 30mA max operating power and I figured I'd go a little low).
I fired up a test file from RDworks, a 20mm square on 5mm ply. The resulting "cut" was a disappointing burned outline barely deep enough to snag a fingernail. I've only tried the ply so far but based on that I don't think I'd be able to even cut 1/8" MDF. The settings were as follows:
From RDworks, I made a cut layer with max and min power both set to 100%, which if I understand correctly means I should be getting 100% of the 60% that I set as my software max. I set the max power on the machine control panel to 60% as well, which is the max allowed to me with the current software settings.
Speed set to 10mm/s.
Air assist is on.
Chiller is on and easily holding at 18C.
When cutting, I verified that the laser was firing at my full power setting of 60% via the ammeter which held steady at 28mA during the cut.
I verified that there was a visible purple beam inside the tube, see pics.
I've double checked the mirror alignment and beam focus, made some tweaks to improve conditions.
I double checked the lens orientation, its convex side is facing up and flat side is facing down towards the table.
I cleaned all three mirrors and the lens with DNA. The mirrors have some marks and spots that I was unable to remove, see pics.
Imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/LHfwNgC
What am I missing here? This is a used tube, but considering that the machine has been run less than an hour total since it was last able to cut through 5mm ply would it really go dead on me so fast? And if it was going dead, would the ammeter still be reading my max power setting of 28mA? I'm hoping that this user error and the right settings will solve the problem.
I've spent many hours googling and combing through the forums for answers and I'm at a loss for what to try next. Thank you all in advance for your help!