LaserUser.com Forum (formerly RDWorksLab)

I am totally new to lasers and have no experience with any of this. I've had my laser for three weeks. I have InkScape and Lightburn. I'm only using Lightburn (unless I need to translate something from AI or whatever). I have downloaded the Thunderlaser projects and have cut two Eiffel towers. They are great. I have a Chinese 50watt (40watt) machine, CW5200, installed mA meter and air assist.
When I cut the Eiffel towers, I used 40% and 15mms on 3mm plywood. It was great. My mA was steady at 9mA.
When I try to create a program to cut some 1/4" acrylic, I draw it, make layers, assign power and speed. I select output and show. I preview. I connect, I push start and it goes through the motions. The mA sit there at 3mA. It cuts a little. I'm using 15mms and up to 60% power. It doesn't matter what I change, the mms or power, it just sits there at 3mA.
This morning I went through the tutorial on LIghtburn on making the WiFi sign. I did that and it worked perfectly on 3mm ply. The mA were appropriate for each operation. I think the max mA was 9. Encouraged, I put the 1/4" acrylic back in the machine. I drew a square. Selected 20mms and 60% power. I saved and named it. I clicked on Upload, and Start. Same thing. Going through the motions and 3mA.
What am I doing wrong?

RP

Perhaps someone will chime in and help with Lightburn but the best help with Lightburn is in the Lightburn Forum.
i think it is much better than RDWORKS but I don't use it and I don't use RDWORKS much for that mater except to assign power and layers so I recommend asking at Lightburn. Jason over there is a good guy and working hard to make his software better everyday.

depending on the setting of your power-supply, the percentage indicated in LB is not indicative of the real percentage of the PS. and the power in the power supply is not totally converted in mA, especially if you overrun the tube.

did you try running on plexi at exactly the same settings at plywood (using the same layer/parameters)? you should get a solid 9mA, and see how it cuts.

after that :
if it cuts ok, then fine. you can try upping the speed until it does not cut completely anymore. then, re-up the power so it cuts again at that new speed. rinse and repeat until the mA indicated is at the max allowed for your tube, and this setting shall NEVER be surpassed.

also, have you correctly set the min and max power values for the layer? if you happen to set the max power value at 60%, but the min is at 20% and your speed is slow (for example because the design is complex with lots of direction changes), the real output will be somewhere between min and max. Yes, you may have not noticed, but there are 2 power values!!! the max power value is only applied when the head goes at the desired speed (in you example 15mm/s), but if the head must go slower (for example in the corner of a square), the power is decreased to the min value. if you have a very intricate pattern, the min value is applied in all corners.

I got it cut. I went to LightBurn forum. It was a speed and Min wattage problem. I sped it up a little and set the Min to Max. I ended up getting it cut at 20mms and 55% in two passes. I''m going to try to get it down to less than 50 with the two passes. It pulled 14mA at that setting. The Min speed was the main culprit.
Thanks again for your help.

RP