Help needed with 45W to 35W Settings

[Paul Proffitt]

I'm going to be engraving pens at the Woodworking Show in Atlanta this weekend. The local rep is letting me use his 35 watt demo laser. Mine is 45 watts. I don't want to have to do a lot of testing to adjust my 'normal' pen settings to a 35 watt machine. Any suggestions would be much appreciated?

I've only used the 45 watt machine so I don't have experience in moving between different power levels.

Paul Proffitt
Suwanee, GA
Epilog Legend 24TT 45W, Corel 12 & X3, Illustrator, and other stuff.

[Joe Pelonio]

The Legend manual shows 30/35 watt setting on the page before the 45 watt settings.

[Paul Proffitt]

Ok. Fair enough. I didn't look in the manual first. But, in my manual anyway the 35 watt page and the 45 watt page under wood (all the pens will be wood) give exactly the same power and speed settings.

Since these are pens some will be thicker and some thinner. I'm only concerned here about not engraving all the way to the brass tube. Most will be made from a relatively small selection of local hardwoods. I have no idea at this point whether they will be light (maple) or dark (walnut for example).

I'll probably just start with my 'typical' pen settings (speed 40, power 80, at 600 DPI) and adjust the power up if needed to account for the 22% lower (rated) power on the 35 W machine.

Paul Proffitt
Suwanee, GA
Epilog Legend 24TT 45W Corel 12 & X3, Illustrator and other stuff

[Joe Pelonio]

I didn't notice that. Maybe take a long some scraps of wood to test it on first,
it shouldn't take that long and worth it to save waste.

[Richard Savidge]

I have a 35 watt Helix and I use 40 speed 100 power at 400 DPI. We've had some pend burn through at the recommended 35/100 400 dpi.