I’m trying to understand the process for finding the appropriate settings for a material. I bought some small wood sheets that I’ve been trying to engrave a photo on. There’s some conflicting information about what settings should be set.
But in the Luban software it automatically set the laser power to 35% for the greyscale image.
The image was VERY light and without much detail. So for attempt #2 I manually set it to 100% and another 12 hrs later got a very burnt image, so much so that it smudges when touched.
What I want to know is there a gcode test pattern for using on a material for the first time to decide what power settings should be used? I don’t want to keep sacrificing material (and a full day) for each 10% power change to find the optimal settings.
I’ve included the original picture (already in b&w), the photo of how it looked in the software, and the two results.
The only difference I had was the movement type, line vs dot. The 35% just didn’t burn enough. How do you try your first setup with a new material? Do you have a standard test image? I’d really like to have something that runs through the power settings to see where the sweet spot is.
Something like this makes sense to me, but I’d want to adjust the actual power settings of the laser? i.e. is the section at 60% equivalent to the laser at power 60% If I were to use this, how would I tell the machine to cut vs engrave the different features?
I’ve found the quality of the line setting to be unusable with photos or drawings.
Always set the density to the highest setting. If you’re burning too dark, reduce power or dwell and/or increase speed.
Every material is different so you really do have to just do some tests.
I’ve found taking a small (10-15mm sq or so) section of the image you’re using and repeating it 5-10 times with different power settings is the best way. Run it and pick the best. Decide if you want to narrow down some more. Or then try a run where you vary the ratio of power and speed according to what you liked from first test: i.e. 40% at 1000, 20% at 500, 10% at 250 etc.
Some people like test charts but they just don’t tell you what the actual image will. And most of the time they’re printing so much extra info I don’t need.
It is just trial-and-error. I run the picture and manually change the power on the controller until I find the power setting I like and set it at that. I do use the line method and have had good success with it but others don’t like it. Unfortunately it is just trial-and-error and it will vary with material and even from picture to picture.
Based on the previously mentioned guide, I am seeing the work speed is marked by “/” so not defined.
What is the meaning of that?
How to interpret the workspeed, jog speed and dwell time? Is there any relation between the dwell and the work speed? Thank you !
