K40 Laser inconsistent beam

[Brent Ramsay-Boyd]

Hi All

My brother has a small 40watt K40 laser cutter which has been down for sometime now and he is wanting to get it sorted out to sell.

The problem we are having is that the laser is producing an inconsistent beam. Its seems to fire at full power for a few seconds and then all of a sudden the power will drop off drastically for the rest of the cut path.

The power drop is showing on the Ammeter. We have replace the potentiometer, so I'm inclined to think the problem lies with the power supply. It also has a brand new tube in. We have got a new power supply for the machine, but it is a newer model with different connectors so we do not want to start cutting wire before we are more sure that the power supply is the problem.

Has anyone else had a similar problem before, or is there someone with a bit more electrical knowledge that could shed some light as to why this might be happening.

Regards

Brent

[Matt McCoy]

Check connection first, but likely the PS.

[Kev Williams]

Do you have 2 power settings for vectoring, a 'high' power and a 'corner' power? If so make sure the low-power isn't REAL low...

My triumph has a weird issue with vectoring rounded corners; depending on the max speeds I have set for radius cutting, the 'curve discrete' setting (which I've yet to understand), and what I'm actually doing (I vector island filled outlines on large operator panels quite often), my laser will fire the lower power on straightaways and HIGHER power on the rounds... Takes a couple of adjustments to get it to do the opposite like it should, but I have to watch it...

Have no idea what controller mine has, the software is LaserSoft/PhCad v7.01...

[Bill George]

With New K40's selling on eBay for under $400 you kind of wonder how much money you want to put into the machine?