I had a fire concern on a run (but it went okay) and I’m still in the realms of left side of laser novice. I just started to extend outside of the proofgrade settings and I realized I’m scared due to inexperience.
Clear Acrylic Cast
I cannot for the life of me find any reference here on the forum or anywhere else of suggested cut settings for 4mm acrylic on a 40W machine. I think I can use the same engrave settings, but don’t know how much to bump the power for that extra millimeter. I know it’s trial and error, but I like to base it on someone’s experience to avoid materials scrap (lost money). Anyone has a guide line when gradually increasing power or speed when increasing thickness after 1/8 (my comfort zone). I want to eventually work with half inch materials.
Bamboo Plywood
Also same for 3mm Bamboo plywood (1/8) - which proofgrade would you suggest I start with so I can experiment?
Slow the speed in ten point increments, then five points, until you just cut through the material. Safest way to test it. (And just test with a little half inch square.)
Bamboo is a hard material to cut. For that one, do a search for “Bamboo Settings” here in the Beyond the Manual section.
Whenever I have a new material, I use a small test job that just cuts small rectangles in steadily slower speeds so that I can figure out what cuts through (also helps figure out good score speeds). My current one is based on this one: Cut Calibration Template but I made it smaller (so that it uses less material). As long as the order runs from fastest speed to slowest, I can watch the cut and cancel the job when it clearly has cut through or has too much flame/char. I’ve also used it to test two pass settings by just running the job twice in a row.
Oh my gosh, you are so right bamboo is a pain. This is bamboo plywood too!
My best settings were 125 speed, 75 Power and 2 passes and the char is still pretty bad. Now I need to research how to remove the char residue as these might be the settings for me
Sigh…I’m starting to think bamboo cut projects are not in my near future. I think I’ll have to come back to this when I get more experience with other noon proofgrade materials
When engraving bamboo cutting boards I noticed that the horizontal bamboo strips darkened quite differently. A significant dark and light banding resulted.
Depending on how small a rectangle you cut, be aware that the head may not be up to the request speed before it turns the next corner. So when you start cutting bigger pieces, you may need to slow down.
I am imagining the nirvana version of the motion planner that turns the laser off when it reaches a corner and then comes around and starts back up when it’s at speed.
