I purchased a 350T which arrived in February. I also purchased the 10watt module at the same time. This arrived end of March. To start with I experimented with the 1600mw module. 3 weeks ago I installed the 10 watt module. I have ben away for a week. on my return I resumed a project cutting 5.6mm ply. I used my saved profile for the material in Light-burn and it did not cut the material. I had to slow the speed from 250mm/m and 75% power 1 pass to 150mm/m 75% power 2 passes to obtain a consistent cut.
I have been cutting a fair amount of ply and the bed is sticky with the residue which I am in process of cleaning.
What I have noticed is when the laser fires there is the defined laser point and also there is a blue circle around the laser dot.
Question
Is this normal
Is the Lens dirty and if so what is the best way to clean it
Do I have a misalignment of one of the diodes and therefore producing one beam focused at 5 watts and the second beam out of focus at 5 watts
I have attached an image with the laser firing at 5%
The camera light might be on when running, mine also has an illluminated circle (but not what I would call blue) when filmed with a cellphone camera from exterior to the housing, cutting plywood.
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(I was cutting VERY near the edge of the part here, and trying to focus on how you see the beam on the plate when thru but not when it’s only making it partway, and also how the light scatters laterally thru the adhesive layer in the plywood.)
What MIGHT be happening is that the backscattered light from the cutting focal point is illuminating the whole lens face and ‘re-reflecting’ from it, but now obviously not focused, hence the blue circle??
I too tend to need 2 passes to cut >5mm plywood, and it can seem very inconsistent because plywood is inconsistently dense, and so is the adhesive layer. I think I posted elsewhere settling on like 150-180 speed for 2 full cuts for 6mm and needing a full 3 for 8mm? Basically if I don’t SEE the spot on the plate everywhere my cut is near the edge of the part (esp when running across the grain of the 2 surface plies), and/or a good visible smoke ‘jet’ coming out the channel, I might just queue up the job again for another cut without removing, then cancel at the halfway point (one pass not two for second time).
END NOTE: REALLY, Microsoft? Your One-Drive share link texts are freaking advertisements now and I can’t edit that? Annoying!!
thank you for that I will try it. Like I said I have been cutting quite a lot of 5.6mm ply and was wondering should I think about cleaning the lens. But I am finding conflicting information on the Web
The ‘lens’ you could touch from the outside is really a protective cover I think - just a flat plate there to gather all the smokey ‘goop’ rather than let it get onto the real (optical focusing) lens assembly. Didn’t the manual with the 10W laser say you could clean it and suggested an interval of like months? (Wiping from center to outward was described even I think?)
