I got to spend some time with the laser cutter to test the engraving intensity gradient. I threw in some cutting test in the final panel to test the inside dimensions of the cuts as well as the viable thickness of remaining material. This was mainly done as a test of the Cohesion3D Mini upgrade with the LightBurn software. The combination of these two tools is a great addition to Orion K40 laser cutter. I will provide more details on both once on the controller and software in upcoming post, but I like them a lot, and have lots of plans for more upgrades involving them.
I did run into a small issue I suspect is a binding on the X axis, but want to ensure I follow up on all possibilities. The image below shows some X axis dimensions loss in the center and right most panels in the final operations. It is square but looks like some steps skipped and or were lost in the processing due to the testing of increasing mm/second. I hope to find the issue with further testing. Is it skipping steps or binding….
The positive note is that the kerf on a CO2 laser cut is tiny < 0.04. The dimensions of the squares removed from the right most column outside dimensions (OD), and the inside dimensions (ID) of the holes, are all very spot on for size. Much more consistent that 3D printing with filament. The long rectangular cut outs reveal a 0.5 mm, 1.0 mm, 2.0 mm, 3.0 mm, and 4.0mm bars left in the material after the cut pieces were removed. the bars were slightly out of place due to the X motion skips but. still square and strait.
The testing of concentric circles was also very good.