Needing help with ARTSIGN JSM40

[Robert White]

Hey There,

Will lets see, I have bought a ArtCut M40 Laser Engraving Machine.

Here is link to a picture of machine:http://www.mbkpinternational.com/art...r_engraver.htm

I have tried to do a couple of differnt things, but not good things yet.

Here some of the info:

Laser Power: less than or equal to 40W
Engraving Speed: 0-180mm/s (0-7 in./s)
Cutting Speed: 0-18mm/s (0-0.7 in./s)
Minimum Shaping Character: 1 X 1mm (0.04 X0.04)in.
Resolution Ratio: 0.0254mm / 0.001 in. (1000dpi)
Power Supply: 110V / 60Hz (external)


Ok my first question is this : When I import a graphic of font and hit engrave, why do I only get about less then 10 mA with current regulator turned half way. If you go past half and keep turning up the voltage goes down to almost nothing?

I have tried to laser paper, and can only do One sheet of paper, regular type, and tried card stock. I have tried cheap mirrors and it will not engrave you can see a small markings, tried wet paper towels, and dish soap. Does not help.

I have went back and checked mirrors,cleaned them, again reset mirror.
checked the height from table top to base of mirror.

Second question : I am trying to engrave a font only - converted to black and white and saved as a jpeg- bmp- and when it engraves it does it at a slower speed ? I have went to control panel in Newlydraw and played with the different settings.

I have tried the help section from the website to see if I could read up on this. I guess I am looking for poniters.

I am a newbie with lasers, done the vinyl cutters thing.

I guess I am stuck and have spun my wheels and racked my brain trying to get this thing working correctly.


I know I get what I bought crap-


Can anywho care to help a lost and crazy person ????

[Zachery Thomas]

Hi Robert,

I have the exact same machine, and also purchased from mbkp.

The good news is it's not a case of you got what you paid for. It's a great little machine for the money and once you get it working correctly I think you'll agree.

No, I don't have any connection to the company and in fact when I got mine it was about like yours and I was very disapointed. The support was almost non-existant too, so I am not recommending the source - just saying the machine is good once you get it working right.

I've had great results engraving most materials; granite, glass, acrylic, slate and tiles etc. Cutting is acceptable, but not fantastic due to the software and not the machine.

OK, so the low power could be a few things. Here are some suggestions, starting with the most likely...

1. Mirror alignment (start with the first mirror and get the beam centered, then move on to the 2nd mirror and so on). They should have supplied a CD which contains the videos on how to do this, if not they're on their website http://www.mbkpinternational.com/z_l...er_install.htm

2. Lens is installed upside down. The convex side should be down, and you should have a very small focus point - by the way, the lens is a 2" focal length so using the supplied focus gauge you'll measure from the top of the material to the flat piece of metal that holds the lens assembly.

3. Cooling issue. Do you have good flow through the tube - no large air bubbles trapped etc.

4. Insufficient power to the tube, which could be caused by loss either in the wiring or at the tube, arcing. The 10mA reading sounds about right, so I don't believe this is the case.

If you just place some card or paper on the table and set focus, fire the laser manually with power set at 1 full turn and you shoud make a nice small hole right through it. If it works with a manual fire then the problem is the software settings.

If you just want to engrave text, type it into Newlydraw and then select Mode 1 for filled font and it'll work. The speed is set by the scan speed setting, I usually use 10-12 for most materials and change the power. There's nothing wrong with the method you described, but saving as a jpeg or bmp will reduce the quality. The line gap should be 0.1 on most materials, which from memory is 500dpi.

Hope this helps some, let me know and I will try to help further.

Zax.

Hey There,

Will lets see, I have bought a ArtCut M40 Laser Engraving Machine.

Here is link to a picture of machine:http://www.mbkpinternational.com/art...r_engraver.htm

I have tried to do a couple of differnt things, but not good things yet.

Here some of the info:

Laser Power: less than or equal to 40W
Engraving Speed: 0-180mm/s (0-7 in./s)
Cutting Speed: 0-18mm/s (0-0.7 in./s)
Minimum Shaping Character: 1 X 1mm (0.04 X0.04)in.
Resolution Ratio: 0.0254mm / 0.001 in. (1000dpi)
Power Supply: 110V / 60Hz (external)


Ok my first question is this : When I import a graphic of font and hit engrave, why do I only get about less then 10 mA with current regulator turned half way. If you go past half and keep turning up the voltage goes down to almost nothing?

I have tried to laser paper, and can only do One sheet of paper, regular type, and tried card stock. I have tried cheap mirrors and it will not engrave you can see a small markings, tried wet paper towels, and dish soap. Does not help.

I have went back and checked mirrors,cleaned them, again reset mirror.
checked the height from table top to base of mirror.

Second question : I am trying to engrave a font only - converted to black and white and saved as a jpeg- bmp- and when it engraves it does it at a slower speed ? I have went to control panel in Newlydraw and played with the different settings.

I have tried the help section from the website to see if I could read up on this. I guess I am looking for poniters.

I am a newbie with lasers, done the vinyl cutters thing.

I guess I am stuck and have spun my wheels and racked my brain trying to get this thing working correctly.


I know I get what I bought crap-


Can anywho care to help a lost and crazy person ????

[Robert White]

Hi Robert,

I have the exact same machine, and also purchased from mbkp.

The good news is it's not a case of you got what you paid for. It's a great little machine for the money and once you get it working correctly I think you'll agree.

No, I don't have any connection to the company and in fact when I got mine it was about like yours and I was very disapointed. The support was almost non-existant too, so I am not recommending the source - just saying the machine is good once you get it working right.

I've had great results engraving most materials; granite, glass, acrylic, slate and tiles etc. Cutting is acceptable, but not fantastic due to the software and not the machine.

OK, so the low power could be a few things. Here are some suggestions, starting with the most likely...

1. Mirror alignment (start with the first mirror and get the beam centered, then move on to the 2nd mirror and so on). They should have supplied a CD which contains the videos on how to do this, if not they're on their website http://www.mbkpinternational.com/z_l...er_install.htm

Rechecked - Mirrors aligned. Made sure before hand.


2. Lens is installed upside down. The convex side should be down, and you should have a very small focus point - by the way, the lens is a 2" focal length so using the supplied focus gauge you'll measure from the top of the material to the flat piece of metal that holds the lens assembly.

No lens upside down - Double checked again
No focus gauge with mine

3. Cooling issue. Do you have good flow through the tube - no large air bubbles trapped etc.

No water flow problems - cleaned out line, reflowed water to make sure.

4. Insufficient power to the tube, which could be caused by loss either in the wiring or at the tube, arcing. The 10mA reading sounds about right, so I don't believe this is the case.

No arcing- checked all wiring

If you just place some card or paper on the table and set focus, fire the laser manually with power set at 1 full turn and you shoud make a nice small hole right through it. If it works with a manual fire then the problem is the software settings.

SET FOCUS ????? must of missed something

If you just want to engrave text, type it into Newlydraw and then select Mode 1 for filled font and it'll work. The speed is set by the scan speed setting, I usually use 10-12 for most materials and change the power. There's nothing wrong with the method you described, but saving as a jpeg or bmp will reduce the quality. The line gap should be 0.1 on most materials, which from memory is 500dpi.

Hope this helps some, let me know and I will try to help further.

Zax.

[Zachery Thomas]

You may have overlooked the focus gauge, it's a square piece of Acrylic/Plexi. It's not too important as you can cut your own, but it is important that the top of the material (in most cases) to the lens is 2".

What they supply is actually a 2-1/4" size focus gauge that you place between the material and the flat metal piece there the optics assembly is mounted (if this isn't clear I can take a picture and post it). If you measure from there to the lens it's 1/4". You could also make a gauge that is 1-7/8" and measure from the material to the bottom of the lens holder - it's all the same.

You adjust the table up/down to achieve correct focus - they have this in one of the tutorials.

When you do the mirror alignment and have masking tape or card on the mirrors, do you get a nice dark circle at 1 turn on the power? If not, something else is wrong.