Hey all! So I’ve gotten my first request from a friend to make something for them; a Thundercats poster, and to dial in my print settings I’m trying to find the max speed I can get out of the laser without loosing quality. On my test wood I’ve been able to do a nice looking print at 25% power, 4ms dwell time, 10px/mm. The problem is full-black takes FOREVER. (And the wood has a bit of a charred texture in the full black area)
So right now I’m testing out some 1cm squares at 100% power, but with varied dwell times: 1ms, 2ms, 3ms, 4ms and same dot density.
Is there any limits on how fast the laser can/should be pulsed? Is 1ms too rapid for it’s long-term health?
Similarly; when using vector mode is there any reason to use less than 2500 mm/min feed rate when engraving, so long as the beam output can keep up?
(Bonus question, when you first boot up the machine and it needs to home, is anyone elses plate-moving much more noisy than the other axes? It’s only that loud for a couple seconds while homing, not during prints)