How small are you focusing it down to? If you want to burn things with the diode at .5a the dot has to be around 1.5mm. If your using a regular axiz or g2 lens the dot should easily be able to go down to about .5mm at good focus. Make sure on the lens your using that you look inside around the edge for any plastic that could be getting it the way of the laser. If you turn the laser up it will melt the plastic which could get on the diode lens and cause problems