Got some issues with engraving consistency,

Got some issues with engraving consistency, and at the same time strange smudges appearing on the lens (bottom side)…

(All 1 ‘document’ in LW4)

Any suggestions?

Also cannot remove the spots (both the lenses I have used so far have it to some extend!) with alcohol…

Do you have the compressor running? even if you are engraving you need the compressor on to keep the lens clean, it will also help keep the engrave clean.
That smudge is odd tho. it is dirt? can you clean it?

If you are trying to Raster engrave there is currently a bottle neck with smoothie-laserweb, try reducing the speed below 40mm/s :frowning:

If you have an SVG the raster fill can operate a lot faster. its really the raster documents and rastering grey scale which is very slow.
Power wise i would have a range of 0-10 maybe less 0-5%

What are the seetings you used?

Yeah, compressor is hooked up and running during engrave!

The spots do not come off with Alcohol (96%) and cotton tips.

Using “laser fill path” because it is al vector so far… Should I use “laser raster” instead? (Not worked with that yet, as I only needed "monochrome’ engraving so far, so no clue on how to set those parameters)

Engraving with “laser fill path” at 2% and 20mm/s right now…

Cleaned the lens as much as possible, will check in once the engrave part is done!

Laser fill path is for closed SVG Laser Rasters is for PNG/JPG/BMP
Erm those dots.
Try turning down the power. the FabKit ill fire at S0 so you dont need to worry about missfire when engraving.
Were those dots there to begin with?

Re the dots: Not that I am aware of! AFAIK those only started appearing once I started firing a laser through them!

The unused lens doesn’t have a dot (yet?).

both lenses have it now? same dot?

2% - 20mm/s and a clean lens… Much better!

Will keep an eye on it though! Your lenses don’t have that issue?

PS: aren’t you getting sick of all these troubleshooting questions yet? :wink:

No never seen a dot like that on a brand new lens, if you dont have the compressor on then dust can build up and then get burnt on etc. But on a clean lens and on two of them? is the dot on the inside or outside?
Keep an eye one it, if its not effecting your cutting and engraving performance then you should be okay. I will enquire with the manufacturer of the lenses tomorrow.

Bottom side (so inside, I guess, in the pressure chamber created by the lens and conical screw)

Testing now with 0% and 20 mm/s, already seeing way less smoke staining around the engraving

Yeah haha its a bit silly it firing at 0% but if you go lower with the trickle power you risk vector engraves missing corners because smoothie adjusts the power to compensate speed change. I think the trickle power is set to 0.07 currently we been playing with it 0.05- 0.06 but 0.07 works for sure :slight_smile:

were the lenses dirty when you opened them? perhaps we should clean them before use too encase there is any dust.

I cleaned them with alcohol pads before mounting in the holders, and cleaned them again before first use, just in case of fingerprints from handling…

There might have been some coating that didn’t come off of course, but hard to tell!

But this has happened on both lenses you have used?

alcohol pads? they dont have a scuber do they, the surface is very fragile?

also @CescoAiel did you adjust your chiller for between 16-17 degrees? just checking :slight_smile:

http://www.iiviinfrared.com/resources/optics_handling_cleaning.html How to clean from IIV infrared

No, I am aware of the surface fragility, these are special optical cleaning pads for lenses (more like very soft pieces of fabric saturated with alcohol)
Aside from the spots on both the lenses, they look completely fine, no scratching, dirt or discoloration (aside from them being yellowish to begin with!) at all