Laser Tests

I noticed the laser just ain’t cutting like it used to, so I did some tests today to quantify a couple issues.

Alignment

It seems the laser is not perfectly perpendicular to the bed anymore. I cut a square out of acrylic to illustrate this.

Side-to-side, it looks like it’s about 6° out.

Top-to-bottom, it looks pretty good.

Power consistency

I find that the power level varies drastically depending on where on the bed you’re cutting. I cut a square in the four extreme corners of the bed, plus one in the centre to illustrate this.

The top left is the most powerful, and the bottom right is the least. This isn’t surprising given the laser’s path through the mirrors, but that it is such a drastic difference is surprising (to me at least).


Dear LCC: I’m interested in helping clean and adjust the lens and mirrors. If I can be of any help to you, consider this my application to be a LCC trainee. :smiley:

4 Likes

Yup, noticed this as well.

Better talk to the LCC, or @garthomite since he did the alignment last.

Thanks for bringing it to the LCCs attention, sounds like it might have gotten knocked out of alignment.

we’ll look into it as soon as possible!

For time lines sake, this issue was happening at least a couple of weeks ago when I was cutting my drying racks, I was new to it so didn’t think to mention it.

We’ve aligned and cleaned the mirrors - should be good to go!

Shortly we need to change the air filters, and possibly the charcoal, as the cutter is smelling more than ideal - please open the window and turn on the fan when cutting.

2 Likes

Also, thanks a ton to @lukecyca for the help diagnosing the laser issue yesterday, and coming up with the hackaround!