So I need some general advice on printing with a laser. I swapped the DW660 with a Jtech laser, used estlcam to convert a small 4"x4" coaster I had cut with the DW660, and loaded into repetier. I set the laser options in estlcam to start: M106 S150 and stop: M107 S0.
First cut, came out pretty darn good, but I know there are some tricks of the trade.
Do I need to set a clearance plane? I had 5mm for milling, but I’m thinking this is no longer applicable??
I printed a few letters and set the toolpath depth in estlcam to 0.00mm.
When I printed a few letters (especially bold thick lettters), the inside is lighter then the outline of the letter. I may bump the power from S150 to S175 or is it a matter of slowing the print down to get a deep burn.
I have very minor smoke staining. I thought I read, you can wipe the wood down with _________, to get rid of the stains.
Getting so frustrated with Estlcam tonight. I am trying to have the Z axis static throughout the whole cut, but for some reason when I generate the gcode it adds Z movements (see code). I’ve set the clearance plane to 0.0mm and the toolpath depth/start level is also 0.0mm. I can’t figure out where the .5mm is coming from. That minor Z movement causes burn holes when the laser turns back on and moves back to 0.0mm. Any ideas?
I never thought to use estlcam for a laser but it looks like you almost have it working. What if you changed all z movements to something like .01? I honestly have no idea but maybe the zero is freaking it out as I am sure most operations were coded for a non-zero z movement. So maybe something really small will work better?
Why Estlcam? I am guessing for the “infill” you are doing?
Clearance plane = 0.00mm
F(z) = 8.0mm/s (doesn’t matter see below)
Z+ = 0.1mm (doesn’t matter see below)
I even tried disabling the Z axis on the coordinates tab. (Note for some reason this removes the start/stop laser commands from the gcode)
Not the most graceful, but it works and only takes an extra 10 secs…after generating the gcode I just did a find for the following lines below and replaced with a blank line.
G00 Z0.5000 F480
G00 Z0.0000 F480
I never thought to use estlcam for a laser but it looks like you almost have it working. What if you changed all z movements to something like .01? I honestly have no idea but maybe the zero is freaking it out as I am sure most operations were coded for a non-zero z movement. So maybe something really small will work better?
Why Estlcam? I am guessing for the “infill” you are doing?
Tried replacing with .01 and it still generates a 0.500. Ryan, what is the goto app for laser applications, inkscape?
Jim, if I type 0.0 in the F(z) box it defaults to 0.1mm/s. I was able to minimize the black dot syndrome if I sped up the F(z), but completely eliminated it by editing the gcode above.