The Usual Suspects and Preparing For Your 1 Hr. Training
Preface: The Usual Suspects are the things that most commonly get overlooked or are incorrect that can burn up training time on things that should already be checked and if not mastered. If you choose to not follow this guide you will likely encounter issues that this guide would rectify for new users, even for those that had another brand laser with Lightburn previously.
The Usual Suspects
Okay, now that is out of the way, here are some of the common things that, if followed, will assure you get the most out of your training:
Scanning Offsets
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Scanning Offsets: Commonly referred to as the Gold Card that was attached to your honeycomb bed. These values are in metric units of mm/s and mm and must be entered into Lightburn. It is important to enter in the offsets while Lightburn is in mm/s mode. It is equally important to also click the Enable slider once you are done entering the offsets.
You can use the Easy Method of setting up your entire device profile which will correctly import the offsets as part of it.
The Offset Adjustments affect your engravings for Fill and Image layers when using Bi-Directional engraving (Typical). If you do not enter and enable them properly, you will have ghosting and poor quality. Here is the complete guide about Thunder Laser Scanning Offset Adjustments |
User entered offsets while Lightburn was not in mm/s mode
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What happens when I get it Right
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You will get ghosting and jagged edges.
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You will get Clean and Crisp Engraves
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Cleaning the Optics
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Cleaning the Optics:
The optics can get a film on them from the environment during transport, etc... as well as other factors so it's critical to inspect and clean them prior to use. Upon delivery there is typically no reason to remove your mirrors or lens from their mounts or even to adjust alignment. In most cases a quick visual inspection, a wipe with the cleaning products provided is sufficient.
More information:
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The initial cleaning is usually is what is missed. If the mirrors and lens are dirty, they are unable to pass the laser power effectively which can lead to reduced cutting power, lighter engraves, burnt up lens and a burnt up mirrors.
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This is what can happen if you don't frequently check your optics: Common Focus Lens Failure & ZnSe Info
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If done right, your mirrors will have a nice shiny surface that will allow your laser to operate at peak power output and your lens will be able to properly focus the laser beam so that your machine will give you consistent and optimal results.
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Air Assist
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Air Assist:
Your Thunder Nova, Bolt Plus and Bolt Pro series are equipped with Dual Air User Selectable Air Assist. Commonly, Low air is used for engraving and High Air is used for Cutting. The air setting is user configurable in Lightburn for each layer in your design.
Please learn the air assist system. The High and Low air knobs do not come at preset flow rates from the factory. You must set up the air with the knobs on the air assist panel.
Each material may need a different Low Air setting or High air setting, adjust as needed. Acrylic for example cuts cleaner with low air.
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For the Bolt Series you have a single stage adjustable knob in the back of the machine. In Lightburn, you should select High air to enable air assist output and adjust the knob accordingly for cuts and engraves.
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What happens if I don't
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What happens if I do it right
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This is what can happen if you don't have adequate air to your optics: Common Focus Lens Failure & ZnSe Info
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You will have your air assist dialed in and selected right in Lightburn so that you can effectively cut and engrave on your materials.
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Exhausting
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Exhausting the Machine:
Thunder includes a quiet in-line fan that must be properly installed on your machine and exhausted outside your space or into an optional 3rd party filter system
The arrow markings on the exhaust point in the direction of air flow and should point away from the machine
When installing the exhaust bracket, if you remove the fan off from the bracket, be sure to re-install with the arrow pointing away from the machine
The exhaust is powered from the Laser Machine and only turns on when processing a job.
The quiet exhaust fan take a few seconds to reach full speed. We recommend taking advantage of Lightburn's START DELAY .
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Be sure to set the start delay up and adjust as needed and pay attention to the Arrows on the body of the exhaust, they should point away from the Laser Machine
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The machine and your workspace may fill with smoke and fumes. You can start to see the Red Dot Laser Beam. You may also set your smoke alarm off.
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The exhaust performs to spec and your machine is properly cleared of smoke while running. Smoke will still be generated but it will be removed.
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Beam Focus
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Focusing the Laser Beam:
The laser beam must be focused to achieve optimal results. Each lens will have a nominal focal length, like 2" or 4", that can be dialed in for each lens using a Ramp Test. Different techniques can be used to focus to the material, and the focal distance can be manipulated to enhance cutting or to change the engraving effect.
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For Nova:
Focal distance of a lens and the distance to the Tip of the Laser Head cone. You will need to understand that a 2" lens will have a nominal focal distance from the Tip of the Laser Head cone to the material of 6mm. The 4" Lens will be ~10-14m and the HR head around 2-3mm.
Autofocus only works with the 2" Head that is seated back up against the stop ring. Do not use AutoFocus with the HR Head, 4" Head or a Rotary or other odd shaped object.
For Odin and Bolt Series: You can use the auto focus function or manual T-Bar focus for all 4 lens. The nominal distance from the head is the same since the lens physically moves as its focal distance rating is changed.
You can run a ramp test for each lens if you would like optimal results. |
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A head crash can happen. Information on how to correct the machine if it does can be found here.
Thick Kerf for cutting, Cuts do not completely penetrate the material. Excessive smoke and charring to the material Engraves are washed out, small details are erased. Engraves may be darker in color as well.
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Crisp cutting lines and Crisp Engraves
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Use Send or Shift + Send
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Using Send or Shift+Send:
To correct a number of communication, file transfer, and air assist inversion issues, we always prescribe using SEND or SHIFT+SEND when running a job.
WE DO NOT RECOMMEND USING START. We advise removing the Start button using this option in Lightburn(see image below). Upon a fresh restart of Lightburn the Start button will be removed.
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User does not Disable the Start Button and still tries to use it.
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Skips and shifts will occur. Most common in MacOS over USB but other communication methods like Wireless can introduce it as well and even on Windows.
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Files will transfer and you will avoid having skips, line shifts and errors in your output
Picture credit to Thunder Laser User Stephanie Button, used with permission.
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Using Job Origin and Start From Correctly
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User Job Origin and Start From:
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Just about everything is missed on this topic as it can be quite a confusing topic.
Please review this video in its entirety:
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Material placement, job origin and laser head origin must be set up correctly or you can encounter these 2 common errors:
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Job processes as expected and work is lined up on the material properly.
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Rotary Considerations
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Rotary Considerations:
The rotary control on a Thunder Laser is a bit different than what is common on other brands and types. The Thunder Laser Nova series uses the U axis channel versus repurposing the Y axis channel. This allows for simultaneous adjustment of the rotary and the Y axis which eases in setup. It comes with a few considerations
-Start From Origin must not be Absolute coordinates and it is highly recommended to use User Origin
-Cameras and Rotary jobs do not mix
-Rotary and Nova Series Auto Focus do not mix
-All rotary jobs are Framed at the laser, otherwise the Y axis will frame from Lightburn
-All rotary jobs are run using the SEND button in Lightburn, never the START button.
-Rotary Axis Settings (Steps and Roller Diameter) affect how the rotary spins and are saved in the Controller, not with the project file
-Circles will look like Ovals and Squares will look like Rectangles if you do not adjust your artwork properly. Learn how to correct them here.
-A step setting of 360 often indicates the steps are not set right or Lightburn is not communicating with the machine
-The "Rotary Enable" button is not needed to be used
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Rotary settings for Steps and Roller Diameter are often missed since they are a machine setting and not a project setting. You can use the NOTES feature in Lightburn to save notes of your settings with each project.
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The rotary (no matter the brand or configuration) will not run as expected if you do not follow the considerations laid out in this article. You will ruin tumblers and waste time.
Errors such as having steps set to 360 can cause wasted tumblers and time.
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You will have great success and be making full wrap tumblers in no time
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Layer Min Power Setting for Cutting and Scoring
This is only relevant to the Nova and Odin Series.
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Layer Min Power Setting:
When setting up your Line cut\score layers in Lightburn, you need to be aware of how the min power setting is used. Any time that the laser head is traveling at under 10mms (even if your layer set speed is 100mms) the laser will output the Layers min power setting instead of the max power setting. This is because the head is moving so slow, it does not need as much power to cut\score and the excessive heat in the area can cause corner damage or blowout.
Typically the machine runs the slow speed at tight corners, sharp turns and on small artwork. Think of the Layer Speed as a Speed Limit and the laser is always trying to speed up to it but if it is on a curvy mountain road, it never has the straight sections like on an interstate.
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On slow speed cuts where the set speed is 10mm/s or lower, the Laser will only run the layer Min Power %. In this case, it would be 1%.
If the user was also scoring but had the speed set to 100mms, Max Power % to 20 and Min Power % to 1, when the Laser Slows for tight curves it will likely not even mark the surface since it will be going under 10mm/s and outputting 1% power
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Skips in your cut and score lines
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Complete cuts and Scores
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Download your Material Library
Use this link to find the Lightburn Library for your wattage machine. Having the library loaded will help you understand speeds, powers. It will provide a great start point
when finding the correct setting for your materials. Also in this article are resources to find safe and unsafe materials.
Now that you are ready let's get trained...book a 1 Hour Nova Series Training Below:
If you need help with setup or have any issues, just email support@ThunderLaserUSA.com and we will assist. All other training can be selected and booked here.
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