Cutting after engraving acts different then cutting alone
Hi,
I'm new to this forum, not new to laser cutting and engraving. I have been doing this since 2011.
I started with an affordablye Ch laser, now I have a BRM, bigger, stronger, higher quality.
As I mostly cut and engrave parts for modelbuilding, I experienced the following with my new lasermachine.
Example :
Job with 2 layers
Layer 1 engrave bitmap sp 500 power 30
Layer 2 cutting sp 20 power 18
When I only execute Layer 2 : perfect result, material cuts nicely.
When I execute Layer 1 - Layer 2 (cutting after engraving) : material not cut completely. The early cut lines are bad, the later ones become better but not acceptable.
I can work around this by adding an extra layer in between, letting the laser draw some lines, outside the original work I need. But this is not the way it is suppose to work.
My first machine did not behave like this. It seems the laser has to rest a little bit before using lower powersettings after engraving.
I can also higher the power but this means more burning and also cut lines being not as fine as wanted .
Re: Cutting after engraving acts different then cutting alone
Do you need to cut those extra lines outside the work area, or does a simple dwell work the same? If your problem is due to heat and increased electrical resistance somewhere, you might be able to get back to cutting sooner if the laser power is off entirely between etch and cut? I have no experience with these machines personally, just industrial (multi Kw) lasers
Re: Cutting after engraving acts different then cutting alone
Our Chinese laser is very poor at cutting with a power setting in the software of close to 28-30%.
Less than 27% and you're lucky to get a mark at all.
IN your case I'd suggest trying a higher power setting, and going faster. eg 1.5 times the speed, and 1.5 times the power - and see how that appears.