Not Cutting Acrylics

[Jazly]

I have a Chinese 50W laser machine.
Everyone I spoke to mentioned that it will be able to cut even more than 5mm acrylics. However, I tried cutting 3mm plastic but failed.
I tried with 50 Power and 30 mm/s as stated in some website. Failed all my attempts and I tried with higher power and low speed which resulted in melting sort of the plastic.
I can't seem to cut wood either. Please help.
Thank you.

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[bratan]

Did you check if you mirrored aligned and clean? Is distance from nozzle to object correct for your lens focal length (on my 50W cutter for example it's about 19-20mm) ?
Try matching your min and max power to be the same. You definitely should be able to cut 3mm acrylic. What's the make and model of your cutter?

[fixtureman1]

30 mm/s is way to fast slow it down to 10 or less at 80% power. then start going up with the speed or down with the power.

[brian257]

First do as Bratan suggested and make sure your alignments and focal length are correct. Keep in mind that the focal length is the distance from the center of the lens to the part, not from the end of the nozzle to the part so you may need to take apart your head and figure out how the thickness of the lens and how far up in the nozzle it sits to get the required distance from the end of the nozzle to the part.

Air assist will help greatly both in keeping the vaporized materials from gunking up your lens and in blowing it out of the kerf as you cut. Get an air assist head if you don't already have one.

What focal length lens are you using? Longer focal lengths give you a cutting beam that is less cone shaped, but shorter focal length lets you focus to a smaller spot so at 3mm you might have better results with a shorter focal length lens than a long one.

[gfacer2]

I agree with all of the above. It's way to fast for a 50w - maybe under the most ideal conditions but that's it.