Settings for 45 Watt Laser

I had my laser working and then I did an configuration refresh and since then the tool height for the laser has been inconsistent. What should be the “Nozzle Z Offset” be set at? Also what should “Z Offset (inches)” be set at? Is the field “Z Offset (inches)” in inches or mm. The configuration video by Eric states it is in milimeters.

Help

You have to use the little calibration block we give you with the 45 watt laser. You follow the calibration steps and the utility will take care of it for you

Follow the steps in the video here, but since you have a 45 watt laser it will ask you to put the block between the laser and the work surface like this:

Your block may look different but does the same thing

Adding to this topic. I haven’t used my Opt 45 watt laser since upgrading to the V5.24 controller software. I just tried to do a simple test cut on some veneer and the laser isn’t dropping down to the set height. I loaded the job and the tool number is 99 as required. I set my x and y randomly over a piece of scrap then clicked Utils and selected option 5, then selected option 2 to set the laser height. I lowered the laser in it’s deployed state onto the 21mm spacer and clicked cycle start. The screen stated tool measured. I tried to run the job and everything worked except the nozzle was not dropping to the calibrated height. It stops approx 1.5” short.

I’m sure this is operator error but I tried everything I could think of.

Does anyone know why the laser is not dropping to the calibrated height from the top of the material?

Note to self. Calibrating the laser height is completely separate from setting the laser height. I knew it was user error.

All is working well now.

Glad you got it worked out…

Basically we need to measure the “height” of the laser as if it’s another routing tool. That’s the reason you use the little block.. The software needs to know how far the laser has to reach to get to the spoilboard.

THEN you set your Z zero on your material. You only have to measure the laser once, and then set your Z zero on your material for each new piece.

If I understand it correctly, calibrating the laser height sets it’s relation to the bit in the spindle for combined router/laser operations?

Not exactly… Each tool is measured independently. Every time you insert a new router tool it’s measured with the tool height setter.

Every time you “insert” the laser it needs it’s length measured. Since the laser always sits on the machine it needs to be measured once.

You Z Zero to your material every time you do a new job.

I have done the spoil board calibration and the laser calibration. I have the 45 Watt laser. I follow the following steps:

  1. Make sure machine is homed
  2. Do a MTC to measure the bit in the spindle
  3. Move the spindle to the desired x,y position
  4. Move the z axis bit to touch the material I want to cut
  5. Make sure that the tool showing is the tool I used for the MTC.
  6. Run the attached CNC file that draws a circle.
  7. When it runs the tool changes to 99 and the laser moves to the correct x,y but the z is around 1 inch above the material.

What am I doing wrong??? See my first post for my laser configuration.

Circle Centered V3.cnc (1.6 KB)

Did you set your Z zero here? So when the bit is touching the top of the material does the DRO say “0.000” for the Z axis? If it says anything else, you’re not zeroed on top of your material.

There are only two possibilities:

1: Your Z zero is wrong. If this is WHILE running this file the DRO for z will read “0.000” but the laser will be above the material as you describe.

To check this, stop the job and go back to a non laser tool (you can do this in the settings cog on the screen under diode laser utilities. There’s an option to quick “switch to previous tool”

Once you do that, jog down in Z so that your Z DRO reads “0.000” (or as close as you can get it by hand jogging)

If the bit truly is on top of the material where you intended, then the laser height is wrong. If it’s ABOVE the material about the amount you saw the laser being off, you know your Z zero is inaccurate. If that’s the case re-set your Z zero, make sure it’s right and then try the laser again.

2: Your laser tool height is wrong. If you’ve done the above and determined that your router bit is in fact sitting on top of your material when you go to z zero this means the height of your laser has been measured incorreclty.

The most common way people mess this up is by using a piece of material to set it and not the spoilboard. The spoilboard is the reference for the laser height so there cannot be any material on it when you use that little 21mm block to set it.

You set the laser height in the settings cog on the main screen, and then under laser utilities. You only have to do this once.

Another wise snippet of information from the great Eric! I have been doing this wrong as well. When I was calibrating my laser height yesterday (instead of actually setting the height) I was using the 21mm block on top of my material as well. Not the spoil board.

I have so much to learn yet in this journey…….

Thanks a bunch for your words of wisdom Eric. I read every post here and usually learn something either related or not. I just need some quality time with the machine and not just a couple of hours here and there.

Glad I was able to help you out!

I checked and while laser was cutting and the z axis showed an offset of 0 in the Z DRO yet the laser was over 1 inch above the material. I stopped the cut and did the “switch to previous tool”. When I did that the laser went up and the spindle went up to some value greater than 6 in the Z DRO. I did the laser height adjustment again and the results are identical.

Finally during the “laser height in the settings cog” I set the laser to be close to the spoilboard (without the 21mm block) and now it worked as expected. Not sure but the Bench Top machine seems to have a problem with the laser height setting task.

Bottom line it works as expected with the work-around.

Benchtops and pros run the exact same software. This sounds like a setup issue.

Did you select the 45 watt laser from the wizard? Are you running new enough software to have that laser as an option?

If you’re an inch above the material and you used the 21mm block sounds like you might have had the 15 watt selected and you offset it 21mm (about an inch) up.

When you have the 45 selected you get different prompts asking you to use the block.

Go into the profile manager and right click on the profile you use and hit export. Take that file and post it on filemail.com and share the link here.

that will allow me to look at your setup