We have been using the 10W Laser for almost a year. We cut 0.030 thick Polypropylene parts. Recently the laser is not cutting as well and the edges are rough and we have to force pop parts out.
Material is 0.75mm thick, Speed 360 , Power 45 to 50%
Just seems like a sudden change, any thoughts
It seems you are very experienced with the 10w laser.
I am not. - Have it at home but didnt test it yet.
There are just a few things,
If you where cutting a lot, maybe cleaning the lens with (the provided) cotton swap could help. Eventually use isopropyl alcohol for cleaning.
We typically auto focus. Speed and power haven’t change but cutting quality has. And I did do a complete cleaning
If you did a firmware update this could cause a change?
I would suggest to focus manually and try with the same settings as before.
I am no snapmaker staff, only a user like you.
I recently purchased a 10w laser and it came with a replacement lens. Will I need to replace it after using it for a long time?
I haven’t replaced mine but maybe I need to
Do you clean the lens?
Is there any effect of humidity?
I am cutting MDF. When humidity is low, I can cut at high speed, but when humidity is high, I need to slow down.
It is sounding like some sort of focus issue, but it may be related to the enclosure if you have it. They have beefed up the code for checking the doors are closed, and it seems to go a little haywire sometimes.
I recently tried to cut some 3mm acrylic using a file that I’ve used before, and it just didn’t cut all the way through. I also thought it was something to do with the lens etc and tried to clean it (couldn’t see anything there) but still had the problem. I did the magnet trick on the door detection and it went back to normal.
Not saying it is the solution for yours, but it certainly fixed my problem.
Perhaps re-run the autofocus calibration procedure with the target that came with the laser? Or are you doing this in regular intervals anyhow? If you cleaned everything, my bet would be on focus also… Or the raw material you use slightly changed and you need to increase power a bit? All just guesswork…
The door problem that @andyd mentions is real, but I guess it is not the case here - if the door acts up, the laser will switch to power levels where it basically does not engrave or cut anything anymore… Btw.: If you suffer from the door problem, here’s a bit of help: Warning: Security issue - Enclosure door detection not checked at start/not fail safe - #3 by Hauke
The issue I had was that the laser was not at full power but neither was it at the very low power that you get when running boundaries etc. It was as if the door detection was intermittent, resulting in a PWM style modulation. The laser was actually cutting, but where it would normally do the 3mm acrylic in one pass, it was less than halfway through. As soon as I put the magnets in place, it went back to cutting full depth (no other changes). So I don’t think it is just a case of “no door detect, no full power”.
Even while moving it around to set work origin etc I noticed I could get a variation in laser brightness by jiggling the door slightly.
Put it this way - if you have some little magnets lying around, its a really fast test.