[KenR60]

Here is an odd problem, I am running a 100 Watt Laser with around 108 lpm of air assist. Tonight I forgot to turn the air on and while working next to the laser wondered why I couldn't see through the Acrylic Lid, Opened the Lid to be greeted with a huge cloud of smoke, odd thing was the engrave lines ( P=25 S=100 ) were perfectly clean then as soon as I'd turned the air assist on the lines were like I usually see them, slightly burnt around the lines, what surprised me was the lines with the air OFF were perfectly clean. I would have thought the buildup of smoke would have produced a far worse line then it did. Does this sound normal?

[tcorder]

I usually find on wood, engraving better with air off and cutting with air on. Lots of flames otherwise.

[vrc321]

Air assist pushes the super heated vapors from the just-lasered wood back down on to the surface. If you don't have air assist blowing full force but do have good airflow from your exhaust evacuation system, that usually evacuates or dissipates the vapors before they settle down on the wood. I put one of those quick connect in-line air flow valves like Russ showed in his videos. It allows me to turn the airflow down very low to the point there is enough flow to protect the lens but not enough to push the vapors back down on to the wood.

[wmgeorge]

So is this a homemade machine or commercial? Wondering why your exhaust system did not take out the smoke.

[GeneMpls]

Russ' Ultimate air assist system is the [ultimate] answer. When engraving air assist is turned to the minimum and when cutting you get max flow [using a Ruida controller it is set in the layer parameters].

[Nolan Yang]

I think it depends on the materials you used, and you'd better turn on the air assistant for the safe.