Not sure what i changed but estlcam is doing something bad now with my cuts its sitting on the starting point with the beam on for a few seconds every loop which burns a hole there much faster. Any advice on that? Is it a tool setting? Nothing is moving for about 10 seconds laser is on.
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What does the gcode say it is doing?
I dont see anything obivous like a wait or something but i definitly dont know all the commands.
I canāt actually think of anything that would make it wait, other than a Z move but you would see that happen.
I havenāt used estlcam for laser stuff though so maybe there is something it puts in. I use the inkscape plugin, for vector stuff, quick and easy.
I think there is a pause command. I think EstlCAM also has a setting for how long to wait while the spindle powers on. Try to find that and set it to zero. Can you post the gcode? Iām curious what itās doing.
Aha! G01 Z-1.0000 F6 S24000
It is moving your z axis Ā±2mm at a speed of .1mm/s
yup that was it, messed up a tool setting and the motion was so tiny I couldnt see it.
Making some real progress now!
That is awesome! Where is that bracket for the air assist?
My poor fish will have a bit fewer bubblesā¦
The bracket is on my thingiverse i listed already it needs a bit more tuning but it had a huge impact already!
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I used funky foam to seal the gap fyi
The air assist looks very nice!
Thanks! It took a lot of effort to ensure it could print without supports while still doing the job, it still needs a lot of work the detail is to high in some places and my printer messed it up a tiny bit but nothing that expanding the pipes cant fix!
Iāve managed to cut through 1/4 inch piece of MDF in about an hour. One flare up so I still need to adjust my air assist but I think Iāve almost got this dialed in. pictures soon.
Iāve managed to cut through 1/4 inch piece of MDF in about an hour. One flare up so I still need to adjust my air assist but I think Iāve almost got this dialed in. pictures soon.Wow nice cutting. Looks good.
I think I have the same laser from Banggood, the 3,5 Watt including laser driverboard? Iād like to use the mount you created. Two questions,
Is your laser casing also 4 by 4 cm?
Is the flat surface there to mount the laser driver?
The air support also looks good, however, how do you focus the laser?
It probably is the same one.
the spacing between the bolts on the laser is 20mmx40mm so if you have that, its very likely the same one, given mine is also a 3.5watt banggood laser.
There are three parts, one is to hold the laser, one is to hold the driver board, and one is to handle the air flow.
The two laser and driver board parts are mounted to the tool mount separately there is enough of a gap for airflow.
I focus the laser once, then I keep the distance between the wood and the laser constant which Iām still trying to dial in exactly. Right now I know it starts at 25mm above the material however (with the airflow mount on) I did this by putting the laser very low, like 8 on the controller and adjusted the height till the beam was a very focused beam.
So I tried the Inkscape plugin and realized that you can only cut with it. I then tried Image2gcode but that only lets me raster engrave. I want to do both in one piece of software. Is estlcam capable of both cutting and engraving in a single project? I have estlcam, Inkscape, Artcam, Aspire, and Solidworks. Iām looking into if Artcam, Aspire, or Solidworks can accomplish this but if you have a one shot solution then let me know.
The lighting is horrible but this is what I did with Image2gcode. Back of a Dodge Dart
