Speedy 400 80 watt

[Ron Sleeman]

Hello all you trotec owners. I am having a big problem getting the right settings for 1/4 Baltic birch in. I know, all birch says 1/4 inch thick. My problem, it will cut through some of the drawing but not other parts. All the wood is flat, so that's not the problem. All I would like to know what the settings, every one else is using. Dam I am down to 15 % speed with 100 % power with a 2.5 lens.

Thanks Ron Sleeman

[Ross Moshinsky]

Slow it down until it cuts all the way through. There's no magic here. Drop it down to 12.5% and see if it fixes the problem without creating any new ones.

[Ron Sleeman]

I know what you mean. I just think for a 80 watts, it is to slow for speed. I like to what everyone else is using for speed.

[Gary Hair]

Ron - Trotecs are so fast that you have to really slow them down for thicker materials. My GCC would run at a higher percentage of speed than my Trotec even though it was only 30 watts, but that was because full speed on it is about 1/4 the speed of the Trotec. It has taken me a long time to get used to speeds with this machine but as Ross said, slow down until it cuts through.

[Ron Sleeman]

So Gary, what speed are you running at 1/4 birch

[Ross Moshinsky]

Trotec has a relatively smart driver. Click on wood under the materials and see what it spits out for your material at that thickness. As long as you're within 15% of that number, you should be good to go. If that number says 15% speed and you're running at 6%, then you need to investigate why the settings are so far off.

[Ron Sleeman]

Ross, all settings are fine.

[Scott Marquez]

Hello all you trotec owners. I am having a big problem getting the right settings for 1/4 Baltic birch in. I know, all birch says 1/4 inch thick. My problem, it will cut through some of the drawing but not other parts. All the wood is flat, so that's not the problem. All I would like to know what the settings, every one else is using. Dam I am down to 15 % speed with 100 % power with a 2.5 lens.

Thanks Ron Sleeman

Let's take a step back and look at the big picture.
Are your final lense and mirrors clean?
Is this material a "ply wood"? If so it could be one of the internal layers or glue that is causing problems.
Scott

[Ron Sleeman]

Scott, all lens are all clean. All plywood is glued together, that is not the problem..I hope...lol

[Gary Hair]

So Gary, what speed are you running at 1/4 birch

I'll check tomorrow when I'm back in the shop. I haven't specifically cut 1/4" birch, but I have cut lots of 1/4" alder and maple, they should be close enough to give you a good starting point.

[Mike Null]

I generally don't cut plywood but I can tell you the speed setting will need to be lower than you have been using. As Gary said, don't be deceived by the number, even if you set it at 2 or 3% it'll cut faster than you imagined.

[Chuck Thomas]

On our Speedy 400 I've taken to play with the vector speeds and recalculate the time it takes to run. It has often showed to run faster when I've slowed down the cuts. As Gary said, the trotecs are extremely fast, but the handicap for vector cutting is the maximum speed of the Y axis. I run usually between 5-10% speed on straight line cuts. Any curves are usually below 5 and often closer to 1 or less for really detailed stuff. I got "educated" on that when a job I ran said 48min at 100% speed, but when I knocked it down to .8% it took only barely over a minute to run.

[Kev Williams]

Anyone who really wants to know how fast a particular material will cut with their laser needs to do 2 things:

1- find out what speed will cut cleanly thru the material in question, and
2- cut a few inches of the material and time it with a stopwatch.

I don't do a lot of cutting, but I have timed 1/4" cuts in plex. I forget the numbers at the moment, but one thing I discovered is that my Triumph's actual cutting speed is very close to the entered speed. That's one of the few benefits of a Chinese machine, entering the actual speed rather than a percentage number that no one really knows what the percentage is based on. I assume the basis is NOT the machine's actual max speed, because if that were the case, a 150 ips machine's 1% speed would be 1.5" per second, too fast for a 'slowest' speed...

Do some time runs

[Greg W Watson]

Slow it down until it cuts all the way through. There's no magic here. Drop it down to 12.5% and see if it fixes the problem without creating any new ones.

This really is the best advice you can follow right here. Plywood can be tricky and no two pieces are the same in my experience.

[Gary Hair]

So Gary, what speed are you running at 1/4 birch

Here are some settings that have worked for me. They may not be optimal, but they work.
Except for the alder they are using a 1.5" lens, all are 100% power and with air assist.
1/2" MDF - .1 speed
1/4" MDF - .5 speed
3/16" Red Alder - .5 speed (with 4" lens)

It's likely you could get away with different numbers than I am using due to variance in the wood, humidity, actual power of your machine vs mine, phase of the moon, etc.

Best thing to do is draw some 1/2" circles and 1/2" squares and test until you find the setting you like - blast through, barely cut through, or somewhere in between.