Quote from Paul on April 27, 2022, 7:40 am

I had a customer with some issues to get his engraving to work. This is a complex process and we wrote a blog about it see MG3 debugging – engraving result

However here is a short description to get you on track if you don't want to read the blog. http://Imag-r.com is a great start too with some stunning results (lower the dpi...).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With regards to the engraving, I can provide you with some assistance in the troubleshooting process.

1. What resolution are you applying? Most people use the highest resolution they can imagine, like 1000 dpi (dot per inch). The K40 does have a beam of 0.100 mm which corresponds with a resolution more like 254 DPI.

2. What power do you apply? When engraving on high power say 40% or more, then the beam widens, 0.15mm which corresponds to 169 DPI.

3. What speed are you applying? Engraving or burning wood does take time. If you run at a slow speed, the wood does have more time to burn and you can use less power (sharper picture). Note Birch, Beech and Popular are the best for laser engraving. Some woods are too soft or too hard.

4. What lens are you using? The standard ZnSe lens in the K40 is made of Chinese PVD and is very dark so you lose a lot of energy. I suggest you use USA ZnSe lenses instead. The focus is also important. The 50.2mm focal lens is a compromise between engraving and cutting so you can do both with one. Ideally you use 36mm focal for engraving and 76mm for cutting (sharper edges instead of X shaped edges).

5. I suggest engraving a test pattern on plywood with various resolutions, say 169, 254 and 350 DPI at 100 and 200mm/s (25% power), Greyscale and Jarvis dither.

6. You can even run a dot pattern and look where the dot is round versus a dash. The dot is your resolution at that speed/power.

7. How old is the tube? They degrade and last about 500-1500 hrs.

Note this can be a very elaborate process. A fast track process is to use imag-r.com they allow you to upload a picture and they adjust it to a particular material (demo use 96 DPI). Use "Pass Thru" in Lightburn otherwise you double the dither.

When engraving grayscale, the best results are to play with the Gamma setting in Picture/Shape Properties (Lightburn, right click on the image).

Other tricks are doing multiple pass throughs and setting the "scan over '' setting to get a straight edge, playing with the controller settings if that causes the issue.

Give this a try and let me know where you landed with this and I can direct you a bit more to fine tune the results.