Deep engraving on acrylic with CO2

Lasers
1

I have a Monport 60W CO2 (Ruida controller), with autofocus and air assist. I use Lightburn for the software side.

I’ve been working on creating some leather stamps from acrylic (1/4"). My designs are pretty simple and geometric, so not high detailed at all. I’m able to get a deep engrave with 3-4 passes, but the issue I’m running into is that the engraved areas are very bumpy and rough, like a topographic map, to the point that it ends up showing up in the leather when I use the stamp.

The best results (but still far from good) have been running a speed of 250mm/s and 50% power, with 5 passes. 2 vertical, 2 horizontal, and 1 at a 45 degree angle. Without the last pass, the stamp would’ve been unusable.

I’ve tried running with and without air assist with no real difference.

Any ideas on troubleshooting this?

2

I have a CNC OZO router from Router Options – Depanel Master
They use a mill for routing and depanelling but I use it also for milling. For cutting and engraving, I mounted a 40W laser for cutting and engraving fine lines. There are limits for the laser and limits for the mill. So I suggest you install a small mill with external control and in the g code, replace the laser enable by M15 and M16 so the Z axis will go up and down. the main calibration will be to have no offset or ofset calibration between the G code for laser and the G code for the mill.
Lightburn can export his Gcode and you can edit easy with a text editor.

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