Laser cutter comparisons

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I finally dialled in my new laser cutter this evening, I had some minor issues with the bidirectional engraving lines not quite lining up. I also spent some time testing out speeds and powers to see exactly what it's capable of, now I just need to figure out how to take better pictures in the evening.

The tile on the left was cut on the old laser cutter (100W glass, 600x900mm) and the tile on the right was cut on the new machine (30W metal, 300x500mm). Both tiles are actually very comparable, the 100W obviously makes deeper and darker lines. The engraving colours are close enough and with a little more effort could be identical. The 100W slightly breaks through the sheet on the corners where the head has to slow down to change directions. There are more cut marks on the underside but that's because the 100W honeycomb is filthy.

Even with these two tiles being so comparable there is one hugely significant difference. The old laser cutter cut the tile in 2 mins 13 seconds and the new laser cutter cut the tile in 58 seconds. That's over twice as fast, tomorrow I shall video a side by side comparison of the two cutting.

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