Has anyone experienced pitting with the laser? It seems that the laser hesitates/stutters for just long enough on the edges of a burn that it causes pitting.
I know the attached picture isn’t great, but you can see all the dark spots around the edges of my burn. Easiest to see on the left side of the ring
Am I running my laser too fast? I think on this one I was running at 1,000-1,200 work speed, 2,500-3,000 travel speed, 80% power with the 1.6W laser
When I zoom in on the lightening bolt, it looks like the darker pits line up with the darker grain in the wood. There are not pits along the entire outline of the bolt or ring.
The laser is going to spend a bit more time at the end of a line, as it’s changing directions. This is just a guess, but I would try running the laser at lower power, say 40%, with a slower travel speed, and see if that makes the problem less obvious.
Yeah the picture is poor quality. If I had a better camera it would be more apparent. In my other coasters it is similar regardless of grain. I might just have to slow it down a little like you said. Which kind of defeats the purpose of the 1.6W laser for me. I mostly bought it so I could go faster. But if it makes the quality suffer then I guess I’ll have to just slow it down
There’s a reason the big systems use a laser bounced off a light weight mirror. It’s much faster to change direction than spinning the screws that move the print head and bed.
I’m also just guessing on the 40%, thinking it’s some place to start. It could be that things work well at 75% power.
If it does help, that indicates that the GCode could be optimized to turn off the laser a bit sooner. It might just be a matter of time until they improve this.
Looking through the forums, I seems that everybody is using SnapmakerJS to generate their GCode. I haven’t seen any alternatives, like Cura for 3D printing. Some reviews have mentioned using Fusion 360 to generate GCode for the CNC, so it might be possible to use it for the Laser too. I’m having trouble finding the process for getting CNC & Fusion360 working though.
Makes sense about the direction change. I think I’ll just slow it down.
I haven’t really tried the CNC yet. I’d like to build an enclosure before I start using the CNC
Regarding those potmarks see this post Lasered image has background artefacts
Excellent link @BriHar. The PC/USB difference hadn’t occurred to me.
Adding to this information I found that printing from the PC via a USB connection could cause potmarks when the PC would get busy doing something and momentarily pause sending data to the printer. I found that printing from a memory stick stopped this problem.
Keep having fun.
Doug
