Bad Cleaning
of The Hot Tip
on The Ruler
If these stripes appear on your image, this is a sign that the tip is not being cleaned well.
Click to enlarge
Why is this happening?
The wood contains resin and oils. If they are heated with a hot tip, they stand out from the wood, burn and stick to the hot tip. Carbon deposits appear on the edge of the tip.
This carbon does not transmit heat well. As a result, an additional temperature resistance appears between the hot sting and the cold plywood.
Therefore, after each drawn line, the tip returns to the ruler. And on the ruler, it makes short quick movements to the right and left. This is the stage of cleaning the tip from carbon.
If the tip is not cleaned, then after each drawn line on it will be more and more carbon. As a result, the wood on each subsequent line is heated worse and worse. As a result, we see how the picture becomes lighter. Then when the carbon becomes too much, it falls off from the tip. And the next line now becomes a normal dark color. After that, everything is repeated again. As a result, we see the image that looks like “blinds”.
In order for the tip to be well cleaned of carbon, you need to have scratches on the ruler. This is important!
Please note that the ruler from the kit has scratches on one side (the side with centimeters).
How do I solve the problem with cleaning the tip?
1. It is important that the scratches on the ruler are set like this
2. Always place the tip on the right edge of the ruler before starting the burnout. Not further than 1 mm from the edge. Otherwise, the tip will try to clean on the smooth surface of the ruler.
3. Make sure that the spring presses well on the hot tip. Due to the weak pressure, the tip can not be completely cleaned. Read this article to check and fix it.
4. Make sure that the ruler is clean. When you burn on the machine for a long time, especially if you do not remove excess resin from the tree, the ruler gets dirty. This sticks the carbon in the scratches. As a result, the tip is cleaned worse. Please wipe the ruler periodically with a damp cloth or sponge. It is better to wipe the ruler when the plywood for burning is not installed. Otherwise, you may get your plywood dirty.
5. Make sure that the scratches are not worn off. When using the machine for a long time, scratches are erased when they come into contact with the tip. As a result, they do not clean the tip so well. Scratches need to be updated. Just take a construction (or office) knife with a break-off blade (these knives are very sharp). And update old scratches with this knife as shown in the photo. It is more convenient to use a second metal ruler. But you can do without it.
