Hello fellow CNCers and pew pew users. I am having issue with my 24W laser after upgrading from Journeyman to Elite Journeyman. Everything was working perfect prior to becoming Elite (pun intended). Now, the laser is not engraving smooth curves. The curves are jittery. I seen a post by @BrokenLimb talking about the same issue but @OnefinityCNC closed out the topic making it resolved after suggesting to update the resolution.
I have updated the resolution, made sure the laser is fasten security without wobble, and the workpiece is secured without wobble, but the issue continues. Please see pictures below. I have noticed more prominent jitter on larger engraving, although the finer engravings are also noticeably jittered (can’t think of a proper word to describe). The issue is mainly when I do “line” engravings, but the “fill” seems to be ok.
I originally posted the laser jitter question but have been busy with my day job and the CNC machine has had little love lately. Prior to OneFinity putting out that TSB I had already increased the resolution to 2000 based on other posts I read through. Even with the resolution increase the Y movement is unacceptably jittery. To be honest I have not even hooked up the laser lately as the results of the resolution change did not yield better results even with carving. I have watched the machine run, set some practice air carves and tried a few fine carves for projects around the house and the jitter still persists when it is running any Y movements. I tried flattening a piece of wood the other day and if I only ran left to right if ran nice and smooth if I ran the program from to back it looked like it had been sawn on a circular saw mill. I have cleaned everything, lubed the rails with the oil recommended by OneFinity. At this point I and becoming disappointed with this purchase.
I would attach a pen to you Z or a sharpie. This will eliminate if this is the laser. If you replicate this with your router is the cut jittery? If not, I’m guessing the laser is the issue. That said, you mentioned it worked prior to the upgrade so some setting changed. Could also be a software issue so look that that too.
Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately my issue is very similar to yours. I saw that @onefinity had set your post to resolved so I wanted to reach out. Hopefully there is some type of resolve. I was hoping to jump on the rotary, if/when released, but if the laser is not going to work properly then I would hate to waste my money.
Thanks Mick, those are some good points. I’ll run some tests with the pen and also do the same test with the router to see if there are any differences. Any preferred method for attaching the pen/sharpie to the z-slider?
Yes there were absolutely no issues with laser prior to upgrading to Elite. The straight lines seems to laser ok, mostly. Also when I do the fill, it seems to be ok, I guess because the machine only moves on x-axis. But as soon the y direction is added the curves become jittery.
I’ll post results after doing tests with one and router.
Thanks
For a quick test just tape the pen to your dust boot or spindle. Setting Z height will need to be done by lowering the pen until it touches the work surface without pushing the pen up. Not too deep, just to leave a mark on the surface you are drawing on should be sufficient for this test.
