setting calculator?

[Gabe Gat]

Does anyone know if there's a calculator out there for setting vs. power vs. substraight? I know in the long run it's all about testing the material and running trials but it would be great to have a decent start point eg

"Cedar - Raster - 50W. laser = %30 power %100 speed."

I'm just pulling # out of the air but it would be good to know that that's the recommended setting then play around with variances of %5 either or until you nail it.

Hope i'm making sense.

Cheers.

[Doug Griffith]

I started creating one but it is a daunting challenge. There are no global settings because each machine is different. Then there's the true wattage of the laser. It decreases over the lifespan of the tube. All that could really be done is a rough starting point to begin experimenting. When I have time, I'll finish my calculator and put it online.

Cheers,
Doug

[Joe Pelonio]

My owner's manual has a chart of recommended settings for a variety of materials, and I have expanded it to include other materials as I go, but then even the same material can vary greatly by brand and color, and when it comes to wood, it seems like no 2 pieces are alike.

[Richard Rumancik]

Your owner's manual is the only practical starting point. There are too many variations between machines to come up with any cross-platform results. With cutting tools you can spec rotational speed and cutting speed, and these parameters are applicable between machines. But there is no readout on a laser indicating true watts being delivered nor is there a true travel speed. For my LaserPro, the spec speed is 42 ips, but that is for raster engraving. The actual vector speed is not even spec'd by the manufacturer. The use of percentages of maximum speed, especially when the maximum speed is not even specified, makes it impossible to compare two different brands of lasers.

[Robert Alexander]

I have some pieces of wood (alder cherry ect.) that are 3 x 24 inches long
On each piece I have engraved the same photo 4 times with the settings for power speed and D.P.I. written below each engraving. It makes it alot easer
to look at my engraving yardstick and decide what settings to use for my next engraving on the same type of wood.