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General Discussion / Re: Addons
« on: April 16, 2019, 04:21:48 AM »
I just run mine til the job is done. Technically speaking if you run it at a lower power setting it helps the lifespan of the laser as well as if your project doesnt have a lot of huge solid areas. If you were to cut a box with the laser as the laser will stay on the entire time its doing the box it is more damaging than doing some of the longer projects I do where it takes a long time but as the laser gets to shut off even if its only for a really short bursts.
I have had my 2500mw for several years now and if I have run it for a total of 500 hours of projects if I had to estimate the numbers. I dont run projects back to back though accept in certain cases.
My typical project involves running a "fast light burn" to check on the sizing of said image and location to make sure that the item is going to be where I want it to be etc... Short runs for me usually take about an hour using things like 2000-2500 speed 60% max laser power. This all done on my plywood board
After I am satisfied i usually do the same on a blank of my material I plan to work on only this time I do it a little bit higher so if I know my project is going to need to go at about 1000 speed I change my new speed to 1500-1800 and set power max to 80% using a blank of my material. If all looks good I carefully mark my location and put the final piece I plan to do. Putting my final values I tend to never use maximum on my laser 90% is usually my max if its got a lot of solid spaces where I know the laser will be on for longer periods of time.
Thats pretty much all I can say personally as I never use it to do any cutting dont see a point. I if I wanted to cut materials i would just buy a CO2 40 watt and expand the bed with some of the tutorials out there.
Hope that helps I am sure Zax has more experience as he seems to have all the toys and spend a ton of time with engravers.
Cheers
I have had my 2500mw for several years now and if I have run it for a total of 500 hours of projects if I had to estimate the numbers. I dont run projects back to back though accept in certain cases.
My typical project involves running a "fast light burn" to check on the sizing of said image and location to make sure that the item is going to be where I want it to be etc... Short runs for me usually take about an hour using things like 2000-2500 speed 60% max laser power. This all done on my plywood board
After I am satisfied i usually do the same on a blank of my material I plan to work on only this time I do it a little bit higher so if I know my project is going to need to go at about 1000 speed I change my new speed to 1500-1800 and set power max to 80% using a blank of my material. If all looks good I carefully mark my location and put the final piece I plan to do. Putting my final values I tend to never use maximum on my laser 90% is usually my max if its got a lot of solid spaces where I know the laser will be on for longer periods of time.
Thats pretty much all I can say personally as I never use it to do any cutting dont see a point. I if I wanted to cut materials i would just buy a CO2 40 watt and expand the bed with some of the tutorials out there.
Hope that helps I am sure Zax has more experience as he seems to have all the toys and spend a ton of time with engravers.
Cheers