and I don’t know why but the sm completely ignores what I do in the settings
i do a vektor engrave with 500 mm/min 50% power. I start the job and he’s doing it with 100% and 2500mm/min!! I mean WHY?!?
I’m using this transparent acrylic and I’ve not taken the other backing paper off yet. I’m still extremely new to this, and when I run my project, I can’t get the laser to turn on at all.
I’m using the guide to engrave and then hopefully cut the material out. I’m trying to make stuff for friends and family, but once I start running the program, the laser itself won’t turn on at all.
I noticed that the laser is at 0% here, but shouldn’t the setting in the G-Code override this setting here in the Auto-Mode section? I’m kind of at a lose and can’t figure out what’s wrong. This machine is only a few months old and shouldn’t be messing up already.
So what’s the best method to attempting cutting/etching on something new?
I want to 2 way mirror acrylic that is 1 mm thick. There is a protective plastic cover on the non-mirror side and light blue plastic covering the mirrored side. I don’t want to remove these before hand cause I do not want scratches on the acrylic. I started by creating a small square box in Luban and applying the Acrylic setting according to Snapmaker’s recommendations. I would make small tweaks to the settings and continue to print the squares. It got close to cutting through but not completely. So then, after reading this thread, I added blue painters tape on both sides of the acrylic. Finally I got it to cut like 99% of the way. A gentle push with my thumb and the square popped out.
So now I try to cut a circle and it didn’t work. Like not even close. So back to making small tweaks. I still cannot get it to cut thru 1mm of acrylic. I have no idea what I’m doing wrong. Do I give up and just go to CNC?
As several people have already stated, there are ways to do the engraving. I think what the OP and others are missing is the only reason that the engraving looks like that is because the acrylic is sitting on a white light source. If you look at the wooden base, you can clearly see the electric cable, meaning there is power. Just like crystals that have been etched by a laser, when the light shines through, you see the details because the damage caused by the laser disrupts the natural flow of light. I suggest trying one of the suggestions here to get the clear acrylic to be able to absorb the energy from the laser and then find a base to place the acrylic piece into.