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Step 5Power And Speed Settings
The Power setting determines exactly that. You can control how much power will be applied to the laser while printing. The more power- the more heat, and the more heat- the greater the chance of fire.
Experiment on whatever you have. Everything is going to be a bit different. Each type of wood is going to be slightly different then the next. A slightly thicker sheet of Acrylic might need just a hair slower speed or a smidgen higher on the power. Test each thing out, and when you find out what works for that specific thing, write it down! Whenever you use that specific thing in the future, you know exactly what to set it at.
It also doesn't help that different laser cutters have different wattage settings, varying what the same power level would do between two machines
The speed you choose, determines how fast the laser will travel while cutting. The slower the speeds, the longer the laser sits in each spot, which yields more heat...and I think you see where this is going. It also means that the slower the speed, the deeper the cut or engraving will be.
In several Epilog manuals, I've found they recommend the following balances.
Acrylic etching - high speed, low power (easy to cut) High power has the potential to distort the acrylic.
Acrylic cutting - low speed, (relatively) high power.
Anodized Aluminum etching - high speed and low power.
Painted Brass - high speed, low power (doesn't take much to get rid of paint)
Glass - medium speed, high power (experiment as there is a wide range of glass)
Plastic - experiment on your type of plastic
Wood - experiment and figure out for each type of wood separately.
Two of the following images are excepts from the instruction manuals available on epilogs website. As you can see, speed and power differ from machine to machine even when you're using the same watts. So please test your material first.
Experiment on whatever you have. Everything is going to be a bit different. Each type of wood is going to be slightly different then the next. A slightly thicker sheet of Acrylic might need just a hair slower speed or a smidgen higher on the power. Test each thing out, and when you find out what works for that specific thing, write it down! Whenever you use that specific thing in the future, you know exactly what to set it at.
It also doesn't help that different laser cutters have different wattage settings, varying what the same power level would do between two machines
The speed you choose, determines how fast the laser will travel while cutting. The slower the speeds, the longer the laser sits in each spot, which yields more heat...and I think you see where this is going. It also means that the slower the speed, the deeper the cut or engraving will be.
In several Epilog manuals, I've found they recommend the following balances.
Acrylic etching - high speed, low power (easy to cut) High power has the potential to distort the acrylic.
Acrylic cutting - low speed, (relatively) high power.
Anodized Aluminum etching - high speed and low power.
Painted Brass - high speed, low power (doesn't take much to get rid of paint)
Glass - medium speed, high power (experiment as there is a wide range of glass)
Plastic - experiment on your type of plastic
Wood - experiment and figure out for each type of wood separately.
Two of the following images are excepts from the instruction manuals available on epilogs website. As you can see, speed and power differ from machine to machine even when you're using the same watts. So please test your material first.
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Apr 9, 2009. 8:37 PM
robomaniac
says:
robomaniac
says:
That is the old driver, I got a other one that was more user friendly for saving and other small detail in the colour mapping. The design is more "blueish" and more esthetic.
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