Results 1 to 6 of 6

Thread: Lots of Residue Buildup All of a Sudden

  1. #1

    Lots of Residue Buildup All of a Sudden

    So I have been happily cutting and engraving for a little while now and all of a sudden my engraving got sort of crystallized and there keeps being a bunch of sticky residue buildup on the cone even after I clean it off. This is all on the same sheet of 1/8in birch plywood I have had many successful cuts and engraves on. I had a pretty nice engrave no problems very little build up and then I switched back to my 1.5in lens and cone and lots of buildup like never before. I switched back to my 2in lens and still lots of buildup to the point on a small job (2inx3in) cutting and engraving it started to rub the piece and shift it. I know pictures would be nice but I am not by my machine tonight. Pictures will come tomorrow night with more troubleshooting myself as well.

    My thoughts are this may be moisture from the air pump (stock from China, the air outside air with the garage door open but not raining outside or from a different part of the material itself). Maybe it is something weird with the laser power doing something weird to the wood... I really don't have a good idea what would cause something like this. Any experience with a sudden surge of buildup would be great!

    By the way the air assist was on and there is no buildup on the lens itself. Mine has a pressurized cone. This wasn't the first time I engraved with the door open. The chiller temp was at 19C.
    80W EFR ZS1250 RF7050 RDWorks 8.1.19 Windows 7

  2. #2
    Is your exhaust working properly. check the exit opening at back of machine. check blower fan blades for build up. check hose for blockage. make sure theres not a lot of build up there that causing less then good exhaust
    If the Help and advice you received here was of any VALUE to you PLEASE! Become a Contributor
    Rabbit RL_XX_6040-60 watt Laser engraving/cutting machine Oh wait its a 3D Printer my bad LOL
    Lasercut 5.3
    CorelDraw X5

    10" Miter Saw with slide
    10" Table Saw
    8" bench mount 5 speed Drill Press
    Dremel, 3x21 Belt Sander


  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    NW Arkansas
    Posts
    1,951
    Blog Entries
    1
    Plus 1 fir checking your exhaust! I have a grate in laser that will stop up.
    Woodworking, Old Tools and Shooting
    Ray Fine RF-1390 Laser Ray Fine 20watt Fiber Laser
    SFX 50 Watt Fiber Laser
    PM2000, Delta BS, Delta sander, Powermatic 50 jointer,
    Powermatic 100-12 planer, Rockwell 15-126 radial drill press
    Rockwell 46-450 lathe, and 2 Walker Turner RA1100 radial saws
    Jet JWS18, bandsaw Carbide Create CNC, RIA 22TCM 1911s and others

  4. #4
    Thanks for the tip guys. I think I have narrowed down the problem a bit more. I noticed the bolts that tighten my belts were all loose and I have tightened those. The same time the excessive smoke started happening I also started to get doubles of letters I engrave about 1mm apart I think. I think the doubling is the cause of the excessive smoke/buildup at higher power since it is burning off way more than it is supposed to on the surface. It would be awesome if a few people could list the causes of any doubling they encountered.

    I cut the little jig for measuring if my laser was perfectly centered in the cone in all 5 positions and it is very close. I was hoping maybe it was as simple as the beam being reflected off the side of the cone. The other problem which may have slowly started a bit earlier but mostly about the same time is that when I cut the .34in circles for my jig the start and end position of each circles cut don't line up as seen below. You can see each time the laser re-positioned to start a new line it is offset. The x-axis was running vertically in this picture.
    IMG_20170621_201845.jpg

    That for sure means I have at least a mechanical problem somewhere right? Doing the large interval square engrave I can also see there is a small offset between my left and right starting engrave lines. Any links to the relevant tutorial videos would be appreciated. I know Russ has at least a video on fixing that small offset but I couldn't find it again. I think I want to try and fix the positioning mechanical problem before I change any software settings for the engraving offsets in case the mechanical solution fixes everything. With the belts quite tight now though what kind of mechanical issues could cause the lack of positioning accuracy? Since it has been slowly getting worse I don't think the positioning lack of accuracy is due to software. Those circle cuts were only about 30 or 40 mm/s I think so it shouldn't be speed related.
    Last edited by Steven Taitinger; 06-22-2017 at 10:21 AM.
    80W EFR ZS1250 RF7050 RDWorks 8.1.19 Windows 7

  5. #5
    Loose lens.
    Chinese 6040 by NiceCut. Originally 60 Watt upgraded to 150 Watt.....I thought I had pretty much every problem in the book of laser cutting. It turns out that there is a set of books.

  6. #6
    Joseph wins It indeed was a loose lens making doubles and screwing up the precision. Thanks guys! I just subscribed to photoshop and will try the gold method and we will see how that goes...
    80W EFR ZS1250 RF7050 RDWorks 8.1.19 Windows 7

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •