Burning when cutting fine detail

[northernlaserengravi]

I am using 3mm plywood and cutting things with a lot of fine detail. I seem to be getting a lot of burning. Wondering if I should decrease the power or the speed and if this will help? Thanks for any feedback

[bill.m.davis]

If you are seeing burning, in my experience, the laser is using to much power or not enough speed.

If you are using new material, I would suggest a material test. I learned about it here on the forum and it has really helped me dial in settings for material that is not proof grade.

New material cut test method

Don’t know what settings to use on a material? The only way to be sure is to test. Good news! You can effectively test on a thin strip on the edge of your material, it’s fast and easy. I use this shape to do so (SVG attached): [Material_test] Click here to download/save Or click here for the ZIP: Material_test.zip (3.3 KB) To use: Set the first operation to score (the numbers). You’ll use these to identify your cut pieces later. Set each of the curve shapes to a power/speed combo t…

[northernlaserengravi]

Thanks so much! appreciate the advice

[beerfaced]

@northernlaserengravi

Wondering if I should decrease the power or the speed

Perhaps this was a typo? In case it wasn’t then you must remember you would have to speed up the laser or reduce power to it to get the same effect.

[odzicari]

Spacing can sometimes be an issue too, I’ve found. if the path comes super close to another path, or overlaps, it’s like burning the same area twice, and overlapping cuts can result in more flashback (burning on the underneath side). Learned this the hard way on one of my earlier experimental pieces. Accidentally had some circles duplicated so it cut the same circles twice and BAM, burning on the back from flashback. And boy was it smelly and sticky, too (from the masking I imagine)