OK, so for going on 5 years I've had issues with my 80w RECI-Chinese Triumph producing grayish rather than blackish Cermark results. My Gravograph 40w LS900 and the 30w GCC Explorer both give me stellar black results. Both have Synrad lasers in 'em...

I just bought a new (to me) Gravograph 35w LS100, which tested at 45 watts.

So it's been much to my chagrin that this new laser is giving me the same exact results as my Triumph rather than my other 2 Western machines!

One difference: Coherent laser this machine, Synrad's the other two.

Since I can't have two machines that don't do stainless, I decide to run some tests at varying power levels, to see if too much power is an issue...

And something really weird and unexpected just happened:

First, here's the test pieces:
lt1.jpg
lt2.jpg
lt3.jpg
first, the two "laser test"s in the middle were done long ago with the LS900 for reasons I forget
The top line tesT(s) were done with the LS100, between 90 and 60% power, same speeds, not much change, but--
In pic one shot straight-on, the top line is noticeably grayer compared to all the others.
The bottom 2 pics show how it gets worse as the plate is angled-- ICK!!

BUT, the tesT's in the very middle, they're nice and black! At all angles! Perfect!
but, how it happened was the weird and unexpected part because--
-- that line is engraved with the same exact settings as the top line!

I made one tiny change, what was it?

(and I'm very much hoping it works for the Triumph!)