Harvey how new is this book.. I have a universal .. and the settings show speeds higher than in my book.. they of course look ok.. just wondering what the pub date is.. and thanks...

Bill

It is an older book for the 40 IPS machines. If you have an 80 IPS machine you need to cut the speeds shown in half, or double the power.

It is a good reference to get you started once you do the math to convert to your machine.

The tubes do vary from the spec-ed amounts, some people get a really hot tube, others just above the rating, so it is a starting point. As someone pointed out with a plotted curve, at least some machines are not linear in the power settings either. (A setting of 10% power might really be 20%, or like on my machine the power in a slow curve drops a bit as it is reduced for the slow speed rather than being higher. This is one more thing that makes finding the right setting a little tough, the fact that machine to machine the tubes vary and the linearity varies.

It makes is an art form, which is both good and bad. Harder to get you operation right, but gives you better results than someone who does not take the time.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

After posting I reread your post and got the reverse information out of it. You are saying that your book shows slower settings. My mind saw the reverse. On my machine I have noticed that I need about 10% slower speeds than in the book, maybe your book is more accurate for the average machine.

I wonder what will be when the manufacturing of the tubes and the driver circuitry becomes an accurate science.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

Something else to consider are the optics. A 2" fl. lens can vary from lens to lens. Anytime you replace the lens, check to see where the true focal point is. If your new lens has a focal point that is 1/16" different from your previous lens' focal point, you will see a tremendous difference in performance. Think of the difference in processing speeds and effect when the spot size at focal point goes from .005" dia. to .0065" dia. And a full 1/16" in difference in focal point could result in a much larger difference in spot size.

On the ULS machines, you can reset your focus guage to match your true focus point. It is pretty easy to find the focal point of your lenses. Place a tongue depressor on the table. Raise one end so it is just below the bottom of the lens mount, and the other end is down on the table top. Run a vector line along the length of the tongue depressor using just enough power to mark the tongue depressor. You should see an hourglass looking mark on the tongue depressor, where the vector mark starts out of focus, goes through the focus point, then out of focus again. Leave the tongue depressor where you marked it and run the head over to narrowist part of the mark and put your focus guage at that point. The focus tool has a set screw in the base, which will allow you to change the length of the focus tool to match the true focus point. Now, if you use autofocus, you will also need to reset the autofocus setting to match the true focal point.

And we won't even get into the difference in mode quality from laser to laser.