Power meter jumps all over the place, laser not cutting
Posted: Wed May 21, 2014 10:54 am
Two days ago I spent hours aligning the mirrors on my 80 watt laser. It was cutting great, 40% power, 10mm per second, and cut through a 1/4" piece of hard boxwood like a hot knife through butter.
Today I tried repeatedly to cut a piece of 1/4" basswood, which is much softer than the boxwood I cut the other day. At 40% power, it barely etched the wood. I went through the alignment process again and found the x axis mirror slightly out of alignment even though I locked it down. I tweaked it and it was hitting dead center of the mirror. I tweaked the lens holder as well using my red dot laser as I had done before.
I tried to cut out a rectangle again at 40% power, then 50%, then 60%, then 70%, and finally at 80% power I gave up.
I watched the power meter as the laser was cutting and it jumped all over the place from 9ma to 14ma and never going over 14ma even when I was up to 80% power. The cut was about 3/16" into the wood which was 1/4" deep.
I'm at a loss as to what to do next. I've checked all my wire connections, rechecked the alignment of each mirror using cardstock targets I printed, everything looks great.
I could sure use some help.
Thanks,
Bob
Today I tried repeatedly to cut a piece of 1/4" basswood, which is much softer than the boxwood I cut the other day. At 40% power, it barely etched the wood. I went through the alignment process again and found the x axis mirror slightly out of alignment even though I locked it down. I tweaked it and it was hitting dead center of the mirror. I tweaked the lens holder as well using my red dot laser as I had done before.
I tried to cut out a rectangle again at 40% power, then 50%, then 60%, then 70%, and finally at 80% power I gave up.
I watched the power meter as the laser was cutting and it jumped all over the place from 9ma to 14ma and never going over 14ma even when I was up to 80% power. The cut was about 3/16" into the wood which was 1/4" deep.
I'm at a loss as to what to do next. I've checked all my wire connections, rechecked the alignment of each mirror using cardstock targets I printed, everything looks great.
I could sure use some help.
Thanks,
Bob