Bought a brand new 20W Fiber Laser and feel completely lost - help?

[Scott Shepherd]

This video is more or less exactly what I've tried along with setting speed to 11.81 inches (Gary said 300mm, but I changed my preferences to inches), power to 100, and frequency to 30. I changed the height of the galvo head from as high as it would go to as low as it would go to no avail. Tried marking on 304.

You aren't going to get a mark on stainless at 12 ips and 100 power on stainless at 30KHz. Want to see marks on stainless, where it's actually cutting into the stainless, drop down to 20KHz and 3 ips and you should start seeing some fireworks when you get it in focus. 12 ips is a little fast for what you are trying to do.

I use English too. I don't understand why everyone leaves them machines in metric. It's just one check box and it's all in English.

[Alex Smith23]

<p>

You aren&#39;t going to get a mark on stainless at 12 ips and 100 power on stainless at 30KHz. Want to see marks on stainless, where it&#39;s actually cutting into the stainless, drop down to 20KHz and 3 ips and you should start seeing some fireworks when you get it in focus. 12 ips is a little fast for what you are trying to do. I use English too. I don&#39;t understand why everyone leaves them machines in metric. It&#39;s just one check box and it&#39;s all in English.

Scott, I tried as you suggested and still didn&#39;t get a mark on 304. I attached a picture of my settings. I lowered the galvo from the highest it could go to the lowest (just a few mm away from the material). I can shoot a video of what I did if that helps.</p>

[Bill George]

LaserRuler.jpg

100 Lens 253 mm

150 Lens 326 mm

Ok here is a picture of my fiber laser and focus ruler, notice Ray Fine marked on the head the exact measurement in mm for the lens I am using. The measurement is from the work piece to the center Hoz. line on the Galvo head. Settings, 100% power, 20 kz Freq. and as slow as you want to go around the rectangle or whatever you have for a work design. The two laser dots, one is internal the other is external and YOU need to set so both are one When YOU get the proper focus. You do not need stainless it could be any metal that it will mark, carbon steel will work fine and then adjust as needed for each job. All you want to see is sparks!!

Otherwise contact your vender for support. China does not have Sundays off, maybe the New Year?

Scott, ALL my machines are in mm, I even have a tape measure in mm. Its just easier that way!! Happy New Year.

[Kev Williams]

To (hopefully) help with the confusion, my focus distances are, as I noted above, based on the bottom of the lens collar, NOT the bottom or centerline of the scanhead:
ffocus1.jpgffocus2.jpg

There's several reasons I use the collar as a reference point- for one, I can stand up my focus stick
--another reason, because my scissor table isn't connected to the machine, by using the lens collar I can insure the work I'm engraving is parallel TO the lens collar by checking focus at different points around the collar. Can't do that with the red dots --

Speaking of the red dots, I have mine aligned so they DON'T meet together- I have the dots arranged so that when focused they're about a mm apart horizontally but aligned vertically. So as long as they're dead straight across from each other I'm good.

[Scott Shepherd]

To me, it sounds like this is a bigger issue. Sounds like it's not a focus issue and the laser simply isn't firing at all. The fact that he cannot produce any marks at any focus level tells me that his laser isn't firing at all. I suspect it could be as simple as a switch that's not turned on, or a cable that's not plugged in, or possibly even something in the software that's not set right, but there doesn't seem to be anything but the red dot.

On a different note, what 2 red dots are you all talking about? 2 red dots? Now I'm confused.

[Bill George]

One dot is internal and is like the Red dot on our usual lasers, just to get the center. The other dot is external and adjusted to the location needed. Usually once you get your focus perfect, you align the external dot to line up perfectly with internal dot. So when your in correct focus height both are together. This will need tweaking per job of course.

[Scott Shepherd]

One dot is internal and is like the Red dot on our usual lasers, just to get the center. The other dot is external and adjusted to the location needed. Usually once you get your focus perfect, you align the external dot to line up perfectly with internal dot. So when your in correct focus height both are together. This will need tweaking per job of course.

Ahh, must be a feature of your system. My heat gun has that feature but my laser doesn't

[John Lifer]

I agree Kev, that is why I said Focus DISTANCE, not Focal length..... I tried looking on line for a 175mm x175mm lens and I couldn't get a true focal length listed off vendor sites. I expect he's got something not set up right in the parameters of the machine.
No telling from this distance

[Kev Williams]

....I use English too. I don't understand why everyone leaves them machines in metric. It's just one check box and it's all in English.

not ALL in English I'm afraid, at least for me- I can change EZcad to work on-screen in inches, but the machine sees the numbers as millimeters; a 5" circle onscreen gets me a 5mm circle engraved...

[Scott Shepherd]

not ALL in English I'm afraid, at least for me- I can change EZcad to work on-screen in inches, but the machine sees the numbers as millimeters; a 5" circle onscreen gets me a 5mm circle engraved...

Then you have something set wrong. A 5" circle on screen engraves a 5" circle on my machine. That's why I don't understand why people who have other lasers and are working in English suddenly are doing everything in MM's. I don't have a problem with the metric system, but I don't understand why you'd want to work on two worlds when you can work in one or the other.

[Kev Williams]

...On a different note, what 2 red dots are you all talking about? 2 red dots? Now I'm confused.

These are the 2 red dots -

dots.jpg
--the dot on the right is the thru-the-lens dot, always stationary.

--the dot on the left comes from this red laser mounted on the front of the machine-
dots1.jpg
-because it's firing on an angle, this dot always moves relative to the height of the table (or the work)...
These usually come set up from China to be in focus when the 2 dots converge, right on top of each other.
Me, I kept having to use a loupe to satisfy myself that the dots were in fact equal-
I found it much easier to move them apart, and align them across, so my first pic above depicts IN FOCUS...

These pics depict OUT of focus,
this one, part is too low...
dots2.jpg

this one, part is too high...
dots3.jpg

This is much easier for my eyes, and saves a step in not having to find the loupe!

The 2-dot thing IS a good method of focusing--

[Scott Shepherd]

I can see where that would be helpful. I have a heat gun for applying wraps that has it. When the two dots align, you get an accurate temperature measurement of the surface.

[Alex Smith23]

Spoke with the manufacturer and they are requesting I send the laser back as it appears to be faulty. Will hopefully have an update within the next couple weeks when they send me a new laser and I get it installed. Thank you to everybody who's contributed so far!

[Kev Williams]

Then you have something set wrong. A 5" circle on screen engraves a 5" circle on my machine. That's why I don't understand why people who have other lasers and are working in English suddenly are doing everything in MM's.

Could be I do... funny thing, if I set my 'wrench' icon (system) parameters to INCH, the rest of those parameters and the screen change to inch. But the F3 'configuration markcfg0' parameters DON'T change, everything is still in MM... BUT, running the same EZcad on this computer in DEMO mode, changing the system parameters changes EVERYTHING.

but then, my other Triumph's LaserSoft is strictly metric, so I'm getting used to it. But then, I cheat and keep an INCH=MM converter webpage open all the time

[Bill George]

Spoke with the manufacturer and they are requesting I send the laser back as it appears to be faulty. Will hopefully have an update within the next couple weeks when they send me a new laser and I get it installed. Thank you to everybody who's contributed so far!

Who is paying for the return shipping to China?