Laser cutter advice

[melm]

Hi, looking for advice on the laser cutter.

I want to laser cut on 1/4" birch a larger version of this logo.

Before I attempt the larger version, I laser cut smaller drafts (11x11cm) on 1/8" and 1/4" birch and it took about 4-5 passes on the 1/4" causing some of the the narrow lines to be lost. Just want to ask if there are any adjustments I can make to reduce the number of passes or if it’s typical to expect 4-5 passes to make a cut?

Thanks!
Mel

[lukecyca]

1/4" birch should cut with 2 passes at most. Often 1 pass is enough. Something must be wrong with your settings, focus, or the laser optics badly need cleaning or alignment.

[melm]

Thanks for replying @lukecyca !

Do you see any aspect of my settings I can adjust?
Max power - 55
min power - 45
speed - 15/20
1st pass focus - 4mm

2nd pass focus - 8mm

[TristanL]

I would set max and min power to 60, speed to 12, and focus to 6mm for both passes.

[melm]

I tried those settings yesterday (looks like power is capped at 55%) and four passes later, it still didn’t cut through.

Front

Back

[yeungx]

what speed did you use?

Also that might salvageable, if you take an orbital sander to the back and remove off a thin layer of material.

[melm]

I’ll give that a try! I used 12, and then 10 for the last pass.