2 Watt Laser & Vectric Laser Module Photo Toolpath
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 4:36 pm
I have the Shark SD120 that came bundled with a 2 watt laser. I'm trying to use it with the new Vectric laser module photo toolpath. It's moving extremely slow and burning the wood.
I started with Nextwave's recommended settings (kerf 0.01, 1 pass, power 100%, speed 100 inches/min, max burn rate 50). My first try I used a dense raster, 0.003, line spacing. The preview looked too light, but I tried it anyway. The size was 3.5" x 5" and it was estimated to take about 35 min. I let it go for over an hour, but it wasn't making any progress so I turned it off. It only burned the corner solid black and ate into the wood.
Second attempt I adjusted the max burn rate to 700 to try to get a more accurate preview. I also adjusted the gamma of the bitmap to turn the blacks more gray. I decreased the line spacing to 0.01. This time it got a little farther, around 10% finished in an hour, and there was some white left, but I could tell it was way too dark. I haven't tried again, but I'm thinking the max burn rate should be something closer to 2500 to get the preview to match. I also used that 10% in an hour to adjust the machine time scale factor from 2 to 35. I'm not going to wait 10 hours for a 3.5" x 5" photo engraving.
Has anyone had success with this? What power and speed settings did you use? From what I've been able to find, I may need to turn one or both down. It sounds like the cnc can't keep up with the programed speeds, but I don't know what the limits are.
I started with Nextwave's recommended settings (kerf 0.01, 1 pass, power 100%, speed 100 inches/min, max burn rate 50). My first try I used a dense raster, 0.003, line spacing. The preview looked too light, but I tried it anyway. The size was 3.5" x 5" and it was estimated to take about 35 min. I let it go for over an hour, but it wasn't making any progress so I turned it off. It only burned the corner solid black and ate into the wood.
Second attempt I adjusted the max burn rate to 700 to try to get a more accurate preview. I also adjusted the gamma of the bitmap to turn the blacks more gray. I decreased the line spacing to 0.01. This time it got a little farther, around 10% finished in an hour, and there was some white left, but I could tell it was way too dark. I haven't tried again, but I'm thinking the max burn rate should be something closer to 2500 to get the preview to match. I also used that 10% in an hour to adjust the machine time scale factor from 2 to 35. I'm not going to wait 10 hours for a 3.5" x 5" photo engraving.
Has anyone had success with this? What power and speed settings did you use? From what I've been able to find, I may need to turn one or both down. It sounds like the cnc can't keep up with the programed speeds, but I don't know what the limits are.