New 80W laser much less detail than K40 40W laser

[tjandt]

Hello,

My business has been growing, and I saved up to 'upgrade' to an 80W laser from the 40W I had been using.

I used the 40W to make cribbage boards, and was very happy with the detail level, just unhappy about the size of the engraving area (8"x12").
I bought the 80W in hopes of being able to engrave multiple projects at once, since is has a nice large 20"x28" engraving bed size.

Very dismayed to see that the engrave quality of the 80W laser is unacceptably poor! I've attached pictures of the same engraving from the 40W and the 80W.

The 80W uses RDWORKS8 (which I am quite unfamiliar with) connected via network and sends the drawings through a controller module on the laser. The 40W uses LaserDraw to directly interface with the machine that has no controller.

Can anyone help me understand what the issue could be? I've tried adjusting the speed (300 to 500mm/s), the power (15% to 40%) and the Interval/mm (.08 to .01) ranges, and have not noticed any improvement. Could this be a lens issue? I am really starting to regret this purchase and would welcome any and all help to improve my results!

Thanks
Tim

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[fixtureman1]

Have you run the slant test to see where the sweet spot is for that lens. My new laser was off by almost 1/4 inch from what came from the factory.

[tjandt]

Thanks for the reply! I am not familiar with the slant test. I will do some searching to figure out what it is and try to run it. Are there also troubleshooting links for how to resolve any issues you may find from running the test?

Thanks,
Tim

[fixtureman1]

The test is you put a piece of material with one end higher then the other and run a straight cut and then measure the distance the tube is and make a feeler gauge that length. that will give you the best cut and engrave.

[abyss]

My mate have 3 different laser machines: K-40 40W; 80W red&black and big table with 160W. Even with really well focused 80W and 160W (and short lenses as 1.5") he can't go close to K40 quality of picture. Probably this is related not only to focus, but as well to beam diameter which is going out of tube.

[HalfNormal]

You might want to try LightBurn software. It is easier to use than RDworks and you have more control over the laser. I use it on my 60 watt Chinese laser.
The customer service is next to none if you need help.

https://lightburnsoftware.com/

[cinematic2]

High power chinese glass lasers are not so precise in engraving. Need more time to start. 60W would be better. Or RF laser.

[GerryG]

Having worked with the red and black Chinese lasers for years now (both Leetro and RuiDa), I can absolutely say that there's nothing wrong with their ability to engrave materials neatly. The software is mainly the fault - if there's poor image interpolation, then it's due to the way that the software hadnles grayscale. I know that the software that powers Leetro lasers absolutely cannot handle decent shading, whereas Lightburn for RuiDa lasers can - I've had some very good results from it.
Double-check your focus, and slow the engraving down to 100 mm/s, see if it makes a difference. I tend to not run it much above 250-300 mm/s myself.

[adamz]

I really see a big difference. Maybe it's the software's fault? On the other hand, if it is a Chinese laser, I would recommend replacing it with another one. Laser for engraving must be from a good company.