Horizontal lines widen then narrow alternately.

[John Kleiber]

Ran a test today on a scrap piece of SS in the middle of the laser bed for timing a laser job with Cermark.
When the run completed I looked at the Cermark lased on stainless and the technical diagram I marked had alternating width on horizontal lines.

xyz.png

Settings:

Min/Max Power 60
Speed 300
Interval .07

After review of the mfg. website I surmised loose / dirty lens, focus, belts etc. Sent an email to mfg. asking if I was on the right track, but its after hours for them and will have to wait for a response.

At first I searched wavy lines here on the forum. But after a closer look they were more so alternating between wide and narrow and a little wavy in places.

Here is the problem illustrated....
wide_narrow_lines.jpg

Tomorrow I will run various tests using different parts of the bed and vertical/horizontal lines to narrow down the issue.

First thing I will check is the lens because it just seems odd to me that the line is consistently wide then narrow over and over.

[John Kleiber]

ok I figured it out.

I took apart the lens assembly and cleaned everything. Cleaned all rails with DNA and applied a light sewing machine oil to the rails. Ran unit to all extents of rails.
x_axis_line_thickness_03.jpg

Made test x/y diagram and ran test. Test good.
x_axis_line_thickness_02.jpg

Loaded original file with line x axis wavy/thickness issues and job. Fixed it!
x_axis_line_thickness_01.jpg

[Kev Williams]

Chances are your lens or the lens housing wasn't quite tight

[Jeff Body]

Chances are your lens or the lens housing wasn't quite tight

That was going to be my guess.

[John Kleiber]

That was going to be my guess.

Kev/Jeff

The lens housing was super tight. I had to wrap pliers in electrical tap to protect the assembly just to get it apart.
I rarely laser wood or anything that puts out a lot of smoke or residue.
The inside of the assembly did not seem that dirty at all.
But then again, I guess one particle in just the right spot may have an effect.

Unfortunately I did 2 primary things; clean lens and clean and oil rails. I don't know which one did the trick.

You guys are more experienced, so lens cleaning has all the votes as the culprit.