Nope, im a cross the world from you. Panama
Alternatively the lens could be upside down too. That would cause difficulty in cutting through anything. I’m in Gold Coast, Ariel is overseas somewhere.
Just for confirmation, which way should the lens be? I think I’ve had it right for the last 6 months, but just want confirmation.
The lens should be with the convex (bump) facing upwards & either flat/convex (bowl) downwards.
If I remember correctly bump goes up
Are all your mirrors clean and your lens?
for the instability, my bet would be the gaz in the tube is braking down. after some rest it restabilize (a bit less each time) -> your power is too high, and I don’t think it’s the PSU.
The cut result is an other matter and could be impacted by ray path. (mirrors/lens quality, alignement/clean)
Perfect. That’s for your advice everybody.
I agree with Stephanie. The power is too high. For a 30W tube (that’s what these are - you’re overpowering to reach 40W) running at more than 90% power is going to shorten the tube life. You shouldn’t run these more than about 18-20 ma for very long or you’re running it at over 100% of the power that it’s designed for. That works, but at the expense of the tube. Might be a reason your first tube died on you. 28ma is more in the 60W (real) tube power level for a CO2 laser. I never run any of my lasers at more than 95% power to help maintain good tube life.
Thanks for the advice Jim!
Hi team,
Just an update to this machine state. I have tried to realign the machine, didn’t fix the issue. Turning the power down to 20mA doesn’t fix the issue, it still runs out of power before the end of a line.
The other thing I’m finding is that when I do a short cut, if I repeat the same cut in the same spot at the same speed and power, the cut depth is different.
Very strange.
Here is a video of the laser losing its puff, you can see that by the end of the line there is no cutting, just marking the material.
Let me know your thoughts.
20mA is still too much, for some tube the max is more 15/18mA, and your could be already weaken so your new max could be 12 or less.
Some tips to find out:
- find out for any inscription on the tube to find specs.
- short tube length(=<700mm) is more likely to be 30 or 35w than 40. (so max mA is less)
The plate badge on the tube says peak power 40w, ‘agreement power’ 37w.
I’m not too sure what they mean by ‘agreement power’.
Would 18mA be better?
any brand ? tube length?
you will find some post here where some buyer found a 35W label under a 40W one.
May I suggest you do the opposite, make your same line at low power, again and again increasing power (10, 12, 14, 16), and look if your loss of efficency still happen.
You will learn about your tube.
I agree with Stephane. Start with low power (10 or less mA) to test marking & see if it dies off by the end of the line. If it marks fine at 10mA, increase to 12/14/16/18 & see at what point does the power issue reoccur.
My tube is maxing out at 13ma when I press the test fire button on the PSU 
time for a new one.
@StephaneBUISSON would you be able to email me your smoothie config file ? I’d like to compare it to mine. I don;t think my power control PWM is working properly.
Now the new machine isn’t even firing! Everything is powered on, laser switch active, I press the test fire button or run a cut and there is no laser fired at all. 0mA, no matter what I try!
I am going to try to get some kind of refund from the seller, poor quality machine! My first K40 machine had none of these issues.