Speed up engraving without changing Scan gap

Laser Cutter Help
#1

Hey All

Just wondering if there is any way to speed up the engraving setting without changing the Scan Gap.
currently I am working on a 0.2mm SG which is just enough quality to get away with for the job I am doing on Birch Plywood.
However I am engraving a full 300 x 400mm sheet with various designs. it takes roughly 32 minutes per sheet.
I am hoping to get this time down but I fear I cannot without burning out the machine.

Many Thanks in advance if there is any sort of answer.

Alex

#2

What software are you using? On mine (K40 Whisperer) the only engrave paramaters I can change are speed and laser power %. Laser power % is changed manually and speed is in software. I’ve found it craps out if I try to go much over 250mm/s but 200mm/s is very stable and reliable. Engraving is painfully slow though :frowning:

For something a bit more upmarket than a K40, I would expect it to be able to engrave faster (and you could crank up the power to compensate) but mine won’t go much above 250mm/s :frowning:

#3

I’m using a Blacknose A3 40w but my tube was tested and is running at 50w I believe. With laser it 5.3 software. I’ve set the speed to 400mm/s as standard with a power of 30. I think the speed is at max capacity here :thinking:Engraving is a slow process I know. I’ve estimated my job to be 40hours!! I guess I will have to either change the design slightly to make it go faster or just suck it up. Thanks for the reply :+1:

#4

Hello Alex

Its great to see you here on the community pages!

Bad news, you are probably getting the best results already and engraving is time consuming and boring! Yawn!

I know you are using Lasercut 5.3 by Leetro on a Blacknose A3 Just Add Sharks laser cutter. It has more powerful steppers than RasPiTV’s K40 and can probably scan a bit faster than 250mm/s but then if that’s where you are getting the best results without slipping.

Things to remember when etching/scanning:

  1. When engraving Because you are mostly moving the flying head/mirror 3/lens part of the cutter side to side along the X axis, and its much lighter than moving the x axis gantry, you can go considerably faster than cutting or moving the laser cutter head in both X and Y directions. I would suggest a couple of test engraves at higher speeds.
  2. If you have an option like scan gap, you can experiment with a larger or small scan gap (the distance travelled along the Y axis after each pass along the X).
  3. Ensure that you lay out your engraving longways along the X axis. i.e. if you are engraving a pencil, you will get a faster engraving left to right by laying the pencil along the X axis than laying it top to bottom along the Y axis.
  4. Remember that the faster your engraving is set the more acceleration and deceleration space it’ll need either side of the engraving.
  5. Can the design be changed to include “kiss cuts” (aka linear engravings) this is the process of drawing lines with a low power higher speed "cut’ beam?

Let us know how you get on or if this helps. Would you consider sharing a picture of the work?

Dominic