Finally jumped in and bought a k40.

Finally jumped in and bought a k40. Has anyone actually had trouble from running at full power? I have 2 fslaser at school with the same tube that we run full power all the time without any issues.

Full power killed my tube fast just be careful

You shouldn’t run the tube over 16mA (I keep mine below 10). Also make sure water is running, no air bubbles in tube and water temps stay below 25c.

Thanks. I’ll keep it low. I’ve only run the laser for about 10min so far (not full power) but it seemed pretty week at 15ma.

Check your alignment, there’s a link floating around here that explains this (it’s linked below in Papi Chulo’s thread). Clean mirrors and lens too.

Also make sure your material is at the right focal length (distance) from the laser head.

I cut the gantry focus tool from thingiverse tonight and discovered that my clamp bed is way below focal range. I shimmed some 1/8" acrylic up above the clamp and it cut clean with two passes at 10mm feed and 15ma power.

Do you have the Thingiverse link for the focus tool?