I’m trying to cut a 2mm box out of pine wood. I’ve got the Measurment at 5mm board thickness. Power is at 500 speed and at full power. I’m getting a cut like a staircase and don’t know what to do. Any help is appreciated.
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Are you cutting this box or engraving it? 500 speed is too fast for a good cut, and may be too slow for a good engrave.
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If I am understanding you correctly, you are trying to remove a 2mm “pocket” from the surface of the wood by engraving it away?
The laser is not a suitable tool to do that with a natural product like wood, because one setting will not be appropriate for all of the different levels of density it will have to engrave through.
A manufactured product like acrylic or even MDF would produce more uniform results, but they would still not be visually pleasing. It might be sufficient if it’s for another part to slot into that would cover the imperfect finish.
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Yes, i’m using engraving, should I slow it down, less power or use cut? what would you suggest?
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If you want to engrave a “pocket” you will have to do some tests and a laser might not be the right tool for this for the reason that @eflyguy stated. You can try using auto focus rather than manually assigning the thickness, and make several passes. The focus changes as material is burned away. As for a place to start, speed 1000, power 100. This will not result in a precise depth engrave, but you can adjust as needed or make additional passes.
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You’ve got that speed way too fast. For cutting 1/4th Baltic Birch I typically was at about 160 speed at full power and sometimes had to do two passes if I got a wonky setup from Lowe’s.
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He is engraving.
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If you’re trying to remove a pocket without going all the way thru, you need to use engrave but, again, you’re not going to have much success with a natural product like wood.
If you’re trying to cut a clean hole all the way thru, then you would cut, not engrave.
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