1 Attachment(s)
Problem with align co2 laser cutter
Hello,
Im new to the co2 laser cutter and still testing the machine. It is 140x90 130W chinese red and black box. I do have a hard time with align the mirrors. Went through several videos and it seems that i did everything correctly but i bet i did a mistake somewhere if it does not work as it should be and i need your help. Basically while i hit pulse in all 4 corners i do have same dot spot on the tape on the last mirror whole. In the attachment im uploading the board and the area where laser is going off - basically power is missing (is not able to cut 4mm on 75% / 18mm/sec, the line is off (next to the cut line there is a burn border) as well as i do tape and pulse test the laser is simply going down off the center. Do you have any clue what could be possibly causing this issue and how to solve it?
Re: Problem with align co2 laser cutter
Sorry this description doesn’t clearly state the problem. Maybe someone else understands this?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Re: Problem with align co2 laser cutter
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dean448
Sorry this description doesn’t clearly state the problem. Maybe someone else understands this?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hello,
The problem is that in the read area the laser is loosing its power / hits the last mirror differently than all 4 corners. I did the alignment process, i everything seemed to be OK as all the 4 corners of the laser has the same center spot of the mirror, but only on the red marks (as the picture shown) the laser is off a few mm down and i have no idea what might be causing this situation. On the red spots (as the picture shown), simply laser cannot cut the material as well as, while it cuts, is leaves some type of brown burn border.
My question is how to solve this situation that the laser will have same power along the entire work space.
Re: Problem with align co2 laser cutter
ok. I would recommend not putting tape directly on the mirror. I cut round disks out of wood and place the tape on the wooden disk.
I check for alignment in the four corners and center. It’s not critical that the beam hits in the exact center of the mirror each time, the goal is to hit somewhere on each mirror starting from the laser tube working your way to the last mirror.
This method should work if you take your time and make small accurate corrections
There are a number of problems that cause issues like the x and y slides are not on a flat plane. Axis does not move in a straight line (bent)
There are many reasons why a laser looses power and poor alignment is only one cause.
I would make sure the machine is aligned first.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
1 Attachment(s)
Re: Problem with align co2 laser cutter
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dean448
ok. I would recommend not putting tape directly on the mirror. I cut round disks out of wood and place the tape on the wooden disk.
I check for alignment in the four corners and center. It’s not critical that the beam hits in the exact center of the mirror each time, the goal is to hit somewhere on each mirror starting from the laser tube working your way to the last mirror.
This method should work if you take your time and make small accurate corrections
There are a number of problems that cause issues like the x and y slides are not on a flat plane. Axis does not move in a straight line (bent)
There are many reasons why a laser looses power and poor alignment is only one cause.
I would make sure the machine is aligned first.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Well thats what i did, first of all i set that the first mirror, the one that is next to the tube is centered. Then second mirror that the laser hits in the center - as close as possible to the first mirror and as far as possible to the first mirror. Then third mirror, i made sure that i have same or very close spot at all four corners of the laser. I was able to achive that, however as you can see in the picture that i have attached, there is about 30 cm space where the laser hits the mirror a bit lower than the center what causes that the laser is not able to cut with the same settings and in addition i have side burns - please see the attachemnt.
On the left side you have a cut that is closer to the upper left corner ( the one that is closes to the all 3 mirrors) and the other photo is the cut from the area that is marked red in the first post. You can see that the edges are burned as well as it did not cut on the first ride.
Re: Problem with align co2 laser cutter
It’s not critical that the beam hits the exact center of each mirror as long at it passes thru the lens and out the nose cone without hitting anything. Assuming you have a nose cone. And over the entire range of the laser bed.
That burning comes for lack of air blowing down on the cut. Or possibly your cutting on a solid surface. I’d recommend blowing a lot of low pressure air into the nose cone and cut on something that allows smoke and debris to exit under the wood.
Also it appears you are cutting chip board which is loaded with glue. Lasers don’t cut glue well and may struggle in spots. That material isn’t consistent. High power is also needed.
Test on solid wood and keep the wood around for future power checks.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
3 Attachment(s)
Re: Problem with align co2 laser cutter
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dean448
It’s not critical that the beam hits the exact center of each mirror as long at it passes thru the lens and out the nose cone without hitting anything. Assuming you have a nose cone. And over the entire range of the laser bed.
That burning comes for lack of air blowing down on the cut. Or possibly your cutting on a solid surface. I’d recommend blowing a lot of low pressure air into the nose cone and cut on something that allows smoke and debris to exit under the wood.
Also it appears you are cutting chip board which is loaded with glue. Lasers don’t cut glue well and may struggle in spots. That material isn’t consistent. High power is also needed.
Test on solid wood and keep the wood around for future power checks.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hello,
Im aware that those light burns are pretty much from the air, im using the pomp that was included in the set. Overall im cutting on honeycomb bed, and the material is 4mm plywood. The burn im talking about visable closer to the edge and it seems to not be a air problem but not straight beam, that is a bit off as this burns only appears in a specific spot of the bed.
Re: Problem with align co2 laser cutter
Are you doing a good job managing smoke? The only thing that can cause the right side to not cut is alignment and heavy smoke. The beam is traveling maximum distance at that point.
The beam is always straight but the side of the wood will appear jagged if it struggles to cut. It causes the wood to burns badly as it forms a pocket.
Even if the pump was supplied with the machine I still think it’s under powered.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Re: Problem with align co2 laser cutter
Having a cheap chinese machine is just a beginning of investing some time to make it work as it should.
Chech "Sarbar Multimedia" channel on YT on how to align your optical system.
