Power level has very little effect to cutting depth

I did some cutting tests with aircraft plywood from local supplier and with some solid pine. Results are little bit puzzling. I hope someone could give me some tips.

My K40 is pretty much stock. I replaced table with something that is more correct level and I also added (really underpowered) air assist. I ran few 20mm lines and sawed material at mid point to see how deep laser really cuts with each power level.
For some reason after 20% there is very little change with cutting depth. Any ideas why this is happening and how to improve results? More powerful air assist help to push burn residues out?

I did these tests because this plywood seems to be really difficult to cut and i assume it has something to do with glue used between layers.

Hi Jansa, I had a similar result when I was cutting cast acrylic, anything over 30% either was the same depth or less up to 80%. I was cutting through 3 mm acrylic at 80% (15mA) @ 5 mm/s and then a few days later it couldn’t do it even after three passes. I found that my back mirror in the tube had burnt. If you have a milli-amp meter make sure you are not going over 15mA.
Also, your focus doesn’t look right.

BurntMirror

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Be aware that the potentiometer % values are completely off! Most machines reach the maximum recommended tube current (15-18mA) at max. 40-50% setting. If you use it with more power, the tube will degrade very quickly.

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Looks like you are using a digital panel?
If so adding a meter will give you more visibility to what is actually going on.

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I integrated this point, expanded to show how to calculate it for other devices, into New to K40: Start Here

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A post was merged into an existing topic: K40 Laser Beginner Insights draft document from FB K40 group