Snapmaker 2 cutting with laser

I have now used almost a square mile of plywood trying to cut an ornament. I DON’T WORK – never get through to the back side of plywood.

I use 2.0 mm plywood

VECTOR setup

Laser distance 2.4 mm

Full power

Debth 1.0 mm

2 rounds

I have cut the small box on 1.5 mm plywood – it worked fine – and I can’t see any difference in the set up.

As you’ll see if you check other threads in the forum, plywood is highly variable. How well it cuts changes with the kinds of glues involved, among other factors. Taking the settings from one batch of plywood and applying them to another doesn’t always work even if they’re supposed to be the same thickness. So it would be worth trying more passes with less stepdown, different speeds, etc.

Hi Ellroy

That was just what I did – again and again.

I miss so much some guidance on this matter. Some examples:

How deep can the laser cut in one round – 0.5-0.7-1.0mm?

Laser distance is set to 2.4 mm – right? – if you take more than two rounds the laser hits the plywood. To me it makes two rounds a limit? If I’m wrong that is the correct procedure, when you want more than two rounds.

If you leave it in one spot forever it’ll cut infinitely deep.

It’s not a single answer, it’s dependent on power, speed, material, and focus. You need to test every material to determine these parameters.

Plywood glue does not react well to this blue diode laser. You may never get acceptable results. Try balsa, basswood, or other solid, non-glued materials

It took me 50 passes to go through some 3mm plywood I have because it could not burn well through the glue boundary.

YMMV.

Remove the thread-in shield, it serves no purpose other than to minimize laser exposure for safety. Wear your glasses and it’s a non-issue.

1 Like

Where are you getting this number? Is this the distance between the hood and material?
How did you determine that? Sounds close compared to most peoples experience. Generally this distance is around 5mm, but everyone’s machine varies.
Focus so it’s the smallest dot possible. Sometimes it’s easier to tell using your phone camera to see.
Depending on the plywood (and more importantly the type of glue used) it can easily take 4-8 passes for 2mm ply.
While you can take the lens hood off, as @brent113 says, there’s no reason you should have to on 2mm ply. It shouldn’t be coming anywhere near your work surface.
-S

Hi - thank you for answers

I use Luban. When I define setup – first Toolpath, then generate G-code, then load to workspace, there is a odd thing. The drawing of the ornament has week lines in some places (see picture). The laser height comes from this (see picture).

After your mail I tried once more. This time I calibrated!

Cutting depth 0.7 mm

3 rounds

Full power and printing speed 130

Print get more burned on the top, but didn’t get through the plywood

I can’t find a way to send pictures :frowning:

Best regards

Anders Host

I can confirm that this laser is so difficult to get to cut through ANYTHING but paper. I have been trying to cut 3mm FOAM board, yes FOAM, and I have done 5 passes with depth changes from .125 - .3

Make sure you’re not trying to cut these materials that should never be laser cut.

Depron and some other foams are safe.

However

The assumption made in that document is that the laser being operated is physically capable of interacting with the material being cut. The diode laser wavelength being used on the snapmaker does not strongly interact with all types of foam.

1 Like

Especially if you’re trying to cut white foam.
Simply doesn’t absorb enough energy.
-S

Hi
Thank you for all your helpfull replays. Yesterday I finaly cut through my plywood - I had to use 7 rounds.
I still think that the user guide on this matter is very bad. There should be some exsampels, with detailed decription of ALL paremeters

Thank you for your feedback. I will escalate the feedback and we will optimize the user guide.

Hi Tracy

So nice to see, that you plan to improve your manual – that you.

Best regards

Anders