So i got my 3.5 watt laser all working. Its able to do a modest job but im sure there is a lot i can do to make it work better. Doesnt anyone have advice on this in general gotchas what have you? Advice welcome!
I’m about to start that myself. I’m excited to try EstlCAM, but I’m not sure it’s the best for freaking laser beams. There are some YouTube vids from tech2c that show use of the jtech Inkscape plugin. There is image 2 gcode. I haven’t tried that though.
EstlCAM needs to turn off the laser at the end of each cut, and it needs to have the clearance plane at 0.0.
Ryan posted a laser focusing script, which tries cutting at different heights in different lines. Once you get your ideal height, you can put it in your starting gcode, like:
G01 Z51.7
G92 Z0
Then you start your script with the lens on the work, and it will move up 51.7mm and make that the new Z=0.
I’m planning on using it for cutting instead of engraving, however that might be part of it. I was worried the laser wouldnt be strong enough but I was proved wrong last night with little tuning I was able to cut an 1/8th inch piece of plywood pretty easily, the thing is epic lol.
I’ll have to find that laser focusing code I’m sure the laser isnt as focused as it could be by far, right now I have the Z-axis completely disable because the mount I designed would catch on the side of the carriage and I dont wanna break it. So today I’m designing a new mount for it.
Does anyone have some project files to start off creating a mount, IE a copy of the section that would attach, so I can just build off that?
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Thanks Ryan, been looking for that all morning!
Oh great, thanks for the link now I dont have to root around for it so once I got my new mount designed I can get it going right away and figure out the perfect focus point of this thing!
Ryan keeps a pretty good tally on the most useful information in these forums in the information page, and this one was in the howto section:
I love estlcam…but I still use the jtech inkscape plugin for the laser. Just seems “easier” for me that way and I’m happy with the results it gives.
Be sure to try some air assist, you’ll be amazed at how much even a little bit of air does to clean up the cut quality and improve the penetration!
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I’ll have to look into that inkscape plugin.
I’m actually designing an air assist mount right now to go along with a mount system for my laser I just finished up the first parts of it (the air assist will attach to the control board)
Here is what I have so far. LA03-3500 3.5 Watt Laser (banggood) MPCNC Mount by SteamPunkProgrammer - Thingiverse
I have a little 5v blower fan, thinking about ordering a 12v one just for a bit more push, maybe two, and point both at the beam. I assume this process works sort of like a forge where the more air you can push in the more heat it will put out and there for effect the power of the beam.
Not exactly how a forge works. The more air you can inject, the more oxygen you can inject, so you get a hotter fire, to a point, too much air and you can blow out the fire. Air assist for a laser blows the smoke and ash out of the cut, it also extinguishes the flame if there is one. The best air assist for lasers is directly in line with the beam.
Alright that makes sense, I’m sure I can come up with a design that will blow directly in line with the beam, might have to reprint that part thats holding the actual laser but thats pretty easy to deal with.
A fan helps with scorching a maybe lets you cut a tiny bit deeper by keeping some of the smoke out of the beam but directed air from like an aquarium pump really can get in there and make much deeper cuts possible.
So if you are just etching or cutting paper and stuff good fans are perfect, cutting thin wood really need directed/focused air.
ah, that was the information I was looking for, I’ll pickup an aquarium pump later today and figure out how to mount it.
So, I’m trying to figure out how deep the laser has cut. It apparently cuts far deeper then it appears on the surface for obvious reasons and I’m trying to determine a good way of figuring out how deep the laser is able to cut per pass, per speed.
Cut the material perpendicular to your laser cuts.
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Yea, I suppose I could do that and put some scrap wood under it to protect my spoil board.
No, like make one cut with the laser, and then cut perpendicular to that with something else.
Also, the spoil board is meant to be spoiled, BTW.
ohhh yea I’ve been doing that, just cutting down the board to see it.
Spoil board is meant for the router to spoil not the laser, seeing as there are metal mounting screws down inside of it (Far enough that the router isnt going to hit them) but i dont want the laser to and turn my workshop into a deadly disco.