Issues Laser cutting 6-7 Ounce Veg Tanned Leather

[c2369zulu]

Hello all. I recently noticed that when I cut out 9-10 Ounce Leather, I will set my xTool D1 Pro 20Watt machine to around 4.5 on the focus side and use the little kickstand gauge as well to get correct focal height, etc.  I typicall run the machine on mm/m settings and set to 700mm/m at 100% intensity for 2-3 passes. Most of the time, the laser has burned all the way through. When I do the same steps for 6-7 ounce veg tanned, the first pass seems to really burn the around the line and it takes 5-6 passes , and still sometimes does not cut through all the way. I do use the xTool air assist also. I was thinking that maybe it is just a denser fibered leather and thats why. Anyone else had this issue before?

[ArkieNewbie]

3 hours ago, c2369zulu said:

Hello all. I recently noticed that when I cut out 9-10 Ounce Leather, I will set my xTool D1 Pro 20Watt machine to around 4.5 on the focus side and use the little kickstand gauge as well to get correct focal height, etc.  I typicall run the machine on mm/m settings and set to 700mm/m at 100% intensity for 2-3 passes. Most of the time, the laser has burned all the way through. When I do the same steps for 6-7 ounce veg tanned, the first pass seems to really burn the around the line and it takes 5-6 passes , and still sometimes does not cut through all the way. I do use the xTool air assist also. I was thinking that maybe it is just a denser fibered leather and thats why. Anyone else had this issue before?

That's interesting. To make my duck totes I use 8/9oz harness leather for the main strap and my Atomstack A30 cuts through it in 3 passes at 800mm/min at 80% power. I will usually have to do a little trimming of some fibers but it cuts everything pretty cleanly. I use 5/6oz vegtan for key chains and it cuts cleanly at 800mm/min at 70% power. Where I usually run into issues is cutting softer chrome tanned leather. My hypothesis was that the denser leather and lighter color absorbed the laser light better and then yielded a cleaner cut. I only use the focus piece included with the laser to focus my beam.

Maybe your laser head is too far away. 

[c2369zulu]

On 9/19/2023 at 9:48 AM, ArkieNewbie said:

That's interesting. To make my duck totes I use 8/9oz harness leather for the main strap and my Atomstack A30 cuts through it in 3 passes at 800mm/min at 80% power. I will usually have to do a little trimming of some fibers but it cuts everything pretty cleanly. I use 5/6oz vegtan for key chains and it cuts cleanly at 800mm/min at 70% power. Where I usually run into issues is cutting softer chrome tanned leather. My hypothesis was that the denser leather and lighter color absorbed the laser light better and then yielded a cleaner cut. I only use the focus piece included with the laser to focus my beam.

Maybe your laser head is too far away. 

Very well could be that the laser head is still just a tad far away. I’ll continue to play with it.