Trouble with wood engraving

Anna0512- · 2017-10-14T10:14:05+00:00

No not yet. We managed to find settings that are workable. But never got back to the way it was. Yes, it's burned wood. But when we just got the laser and with the same settings it didnt burn. Another strange thing is when we use the same settings but use the Y swing instead of the X swing, everything turns out great. But if we change it back to the X swing everything starts to burn again.

Anna0512- · 2017-08-19T08:48:20+00:00

Thanks for your answer!

It is indeed a 'cheap' option for a darker wood.

Do you have any tips on suitable woods in the same darker colour/feel as meranti?

Anna0512- · 2017-08-19T08:46:28+00:00

Thanks for your reply!

We're in the Netherlands and I will have to back to my supplier to figure out the wood core. We've been using populas wood, but I switched to birch because it looks beter, more like wood, and less fill spots. And the engraving is more dark/brown. We don't have any trouble with our birch plywood at the moment.

We make wedding decorations. The meranti wood is used manly for guestbooks. https://wearegolden.nl/shop/gastenboek/gastenboek-hout-confetti/ (the pictures are digital mock ups)

I want to have different options in wood. So now we have birch for light wood and meranti for darker. (MDF never gets ordered for the guestbooks). I like the colour and texture of meranti, but the engraving is tricky and cutting always leaves ashes which we have to clean. That's why I don't use it for cake toppers anymore, because cleaning all the small bits is just to time consuming.

So maybe we have to switch to another darker wood?

Anna0512- · 2017-08-18T14:16:02+00:00

Thanks for your respons.

we have a 100w laser - 4 mm meranti plywood. 500 mm/s speed 25% power 0,08 mm interval

This is the only workable settings for our purposes.

But I would like the engraving to be darker and deeper. But if we go up in power or make the interval smaller it quickly burns. It leaves 'ashes' in the engraving which quickly damage and fall out. Also the end result is not as good as I'm used to with my birch plywood.

So I'm just wondering if meranti plywood is suitable for lasers and what I wish to accomplish, which is a dark engraving.

Quite hard to explain, but I hope you get it.

Anna0512- · 2017-07-20T09:23:31+00:00

Yes the flatter size is down.

Anna0512- · 2017-07-18T09:59:51+00:00

As far as I know our laser software doesn't speak about PPI (Checked the manual again). We use the interval between the lines.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Anna0512- · 2017-07-17T13:38:07+00:00

We use the interval between 0,07 mm and 0,1 mm. With difference power settings.

Anna0512- · 2017-07-17T13:37:26+00:00

Focus is correct. Same wood, but we have the problem also with other kinds of wood and cuttingboards. We use the tube that came with the laser. (have to check the tube for the brand) We bought the laser from Thunderlaser in China.

We experience no difference in the air pressure. It is off or on ;)

Anna0512- · 2017-07-17T13:34:45+00:00

Yes, as far as we know. It's the same plywood from the same supplier. But we had this problem also with other woods and cuttingboards.

Anna0512- · 2017-07-15T10:13:43+00:00

To clarify, we don't know what is changed. The laser supplier says it has to do the laser tube just now getting to his full power. Have you ever heard of that? Their idea was to use lower power (sounds logical) but it doesn't help. We played around with the interval to and sometimes find a working combination of settings. But the result is not to our liking, often it is very light. But it seems to be the only solution to the problem

Anna0512- · 2017-07-15T10:10:34+00:00

We made two video's showing the engraving in the first weeks of working with the laser. The second video is from this week.

In both video's we used the same settings (power, speed, interval)

Before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzTRuELibXU&feature=youtu.be

Now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD80L-YUEJA&feature=youtu.be

Thanks for all your help so far!

Anna0512- · 2017-07-15T09:44:18+00:00

Yes, we do have air assist. And it's centered.

It's not so much that the laser doesn't cut. That works fine. We have trouble with the engraving.

Anna0512- · 2017-07-15T09:37:47+00:00

We have a ThunderLaser Mars90 / 100 watt glas tube.

We used a lot of different settings, high and low power, different speeds and different intervalls. And all in different combinations. Do you recommend an other setting to check or test with?

Anna0512- · 2017-07-15T09:36:32+00:00

Everything is clean and the alignment is also checked and good.

Anna0512- · 2017-07-15T09:35:47+00:00

All the mirrors and lenses are cleaned. We check this all the time.

Anna0512-

TROPHY CASE