Focus Problem? Hey guys,

Lasers
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1

Focus Problem?

Hey guys, I’m currently conducting experiments to find the ideal engraving setting for my K40 later with my grbl board.

The results looked pretty promising and then degraded drastically for no apparent reason.
In the picture below you can see two identical objects. The left looks great, nice linear gradient and good grey at the bottom left tip.
The right one uses exactly identical setting but was cut about 150mm to the right!

0,0 is at the bottom left with my machine.

Could this be a focus problem? Why is it just burned? Why all the black? Fuzzy beam?

3b780c29728fbe358f3b582bbd6a0ed6.jpeg
3b780c29728fbe358f3b582bbd6a0ed6.jpeg4032×3024 1.85 MB

2

This test pattern at almost the same location looks perfectly fine!

ae8be6a4e06404474e62cb3e5654df27.jpeg
ae8be6a4e06404474e62cb3e5654df27.jpeg4032×3024 5.76 MB

3

To me it looks like your scan lines on the rightmost triangle are closer together. Aside from that, maybe the wood composition is slightly different. I think more tests are in order to verify whether that 150mm position is odd.

edit: on closer inspection, the “scan lines” I saw look actually to be the wood grain.

4

I would say yes, focus. You migth have a different distance at that spot.