Hi Guys,
I have been browsing for a while and just got my laser setup a couple weeks ago. I have a lot to learn. So far I have played with a bunch of different speed and power settings with a few different types of low quality plywood just to get me started. I know the plywood I am cutting through is crap so that is mostly why the edges are so badly charred. I cut some higher quality plywood and the edges did look nice.
Questions
1
What psi do you run your air assist at? I am getting a lot of burning and I am guessing it is do to the low air pressure from the supplied air compressor. Do most people just use whatever compressor is in their shop or are their compressors more specifically for laser machines?
2
Do you guys normally run your min and max power percent the same in RDWorks? Why would you ever want the min less than the max? I noticed it doesn't draw nearly as much power when you have the min lower than the max.
3
When I try to use the scan setting to engrave a photo I get basically only two tone black or nothing. How do you get it so you have a range of grey like on every other photo engrave I have seen? My tube seemed to only kick in at about 16-18 percent and 20 percent already seemed fairly deep at 100mm/s speed. On the RayFine website it says my machine has a 100mm/s engraving speed. I tried it at 150mm/s and it did seem to work. What speed do you guys run engraves at? These settings were all with a 2in 50.8mm focal length lens.
IMG_20170606_222025.jpg
4
If the laser is aligned perfectly does your cone ever get hot while running the laser? I think my laser might be hitting the side of the cone a bit as it does get a bit hot. It is hard to tell how to adjust it since the mirrors each have the spot pretty much in the center and the spot shape looks different at different heights. Sometimes it looks almost exactly circular and others it looks more like the sharp ellipse. Do you just guess adjusting the last mirror until the spot is perfectly circular?
Any help would be greatly appreciated! If anyone is in Edmonton area I would love to have a chat too.
Steve