I know Tarkin can cut pretty thick wood, but I have not tried to cut anything more than 1/4" thick on it until now. Is there anything I need to know to make that work? I didn’t find an exact match in the Lightburn settings library, but 3/4" pine plywood, for example, is set to speed=7mm/sec, power=100%. So I’ve tried a few settings in the vicinity of that, but nothing is making a clean cut in a single pass. Multiple passes with identical settings isn’t doing the job either. Do I need to do multiple passes with different settings?
I have one simple design to cut, and I was hoping to finish it during my 5pm-8pm reservation tonight - so just hoping for a quick solution if there is something obvious.
I don’t have actual content, and I know youre getting to the end of your time, but I seem to remember that different glues that the plywood is made from matter in situations like you’re describing. One type of “baltic birch” cuts beautifully, and another …doesn’t
Sorry I didn’t see this message earlier @alan! Those desks were cut on Tarkin using 6mm/sec with 100% power. We did get some weirdness at times where the cut would be at an angle, but @dannym adjusted the head and wasn’t able to reproduce that issue. There are definitely some woods that won’t cut as well and we also noticed the chiller overheating and needing to take a break sometimes.
Edited to remove my question as it is answered in the title! I cut some 1/2" ply on Tarkin Sunday with 15mm/sec and 100% power. I don’t remember the exact name of the material. It was project board from Lowe’s that came as a 2’x4’ sheet.
If it’s not in the library, it would help enormously to leave a small sample with a note on it with a specific product name, such as “1/2in Sande ply”, and I can add it to the settings.
Tarkin wasn’t cutting very well during the Big Lasers class on Monday. The instructor said the “double line” problem was recurring. He was working on fixing it but hadn’t yet when I finished and left. Perhaps there is still an issue there.
“double line” means the beam is clipping the cone. This will also waste a ton of power, readily apparent as the cone will get pretty hot.
I took a look and found the #3 mirror adjustments had been manually forced against its locks and actually damaged. This wasn’t an incidental strike against something. I realigned it and it’s good to go.
I’d really like to get to the bottom of this. This is not a user adjustment, and once it’s set, should not need to be changed.
@dannym you were noting on Sunday that the magnet hold downs are clearly getting head strikes against them. Maybe something more problematic is happening with those that you thought? I can’t imagine anyone is purposefully messing with the mirror.
I did think of that, but I can’t see how a cone strike would affect the mirror. It’s on the other side of the head, and its position is set with locked screws.