I have a Kale CNC 10W laser, that I got for pretty cheap, and I have it up and running. Here’s a link to the specs:
In your opinion, is this a poor choice for engraving wood? For my tastes, it seems that the beam is to large for detailed work. When I set up a raster cut, in order to space the lines correctly, I have to set the beam width to .8. Is that an excessive size? The other issue I have with this laser, is consistency. If I am engraving single line text, say the word “STANDARD” for example, every letter will look great, except for the N, which will have the center bar over burnt and scorched. I plan to continue tuning and tweaking, I concede that it could be just that it needs more tuning.
If this is not a good laser for precision engraving, do you have a recommendation? I am not looking for cutting, just engraving plywood and solid wood, with as much detail as I can get.
Thanks for any ideas!
Ok, thanks. I guess this is a focus / distance issue then? If I use .2(the default), The lines are so close it over burns a test black square. If I go to .8, then it burns a nice even square. I’ll keep experimenting.
1045 $ for diode laser? It is a little expensive…
Acording to the original instructions, It needs 14 mm of distance betwen laser and wood. Are the diode focused correctly?
Yes, I did not pay anywhere near that! It was $250. I ran some tests to try and find the best focus spot, but I think I ended up closer to 18mm. I will go back to 14mm and try again. I just made a mark on the lens bezel, and ran tests rotating it in and out different amounts until I found what looked the best. Do you have any recommendations as to a method to find the ideal focus?
On my diode focusing is done as follows: use a white cardboard, place the diode at the listed distance. Turn on the sales to a very vey low power and the focus ( rotate ) until it’s shows a very sharp and clear small rectangle
Yes, I have the correct glasses, but I can’t really see the laser focus until the cardboard starts burning. I went ahead and focused it at the point where it starts burning fastest, and I seem to be getting better results. Thanks for your help.
14mm focus distance is very close. This means the correctly focussed spot is very short, so the part has to be in the exact distance for the whole engraving area to get a clean engraving.
Thanks for the webcam tip Claudio, I can see the spot with the webcam. Unfortunately, it really doesn’t seem to change as I rotate the focus tube. There is a small dot all the time, and when I turn the power dial all the way down and press the manual fire button, the picture on the webcam is still to bright to see much of a shape, and focusing doesn’t seem to change the shape. I’ll keep fiddling and see if I get anywhere. Thanks again!
You must keep it on while turning to see the change. Just go to settings and there is a field for the test button. Place a very small value there until http://you.see it
do you have some special protection glasses?