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Why do you need torque? Shouldn't you just be moving the mirrors?
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Apr 25, 2016 18:58
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Hmm, forgot to mention the bit where I want to be able to swap in a small brushless spindle for light cnc routing.
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Apr 25, 2016 21:29
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Carry on then.
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Apr 25, 2016 21:39
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Oh look, something I can attach to my shapeoko.  http://www.ebay.com/itm/Focusable-h...ScAAOSwxp9W9Uug
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May 4, 2016 02:41
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Comes with good quality safe! !1! glasses? I'm sold 
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May 4, 2016 06:15
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I had posted in the CNC thread about taking my first steps into CNC milling, maybe getting a desktop kit or even build one myself. It was recommended to me that for my needs, I'd maybe want a laser cutter instead. First, here's what I posted in the CNC thread:quote:I've had this project I've wanted to do for years. I "collect" comic books, quoting because I don't care for the collecting part of it. I buy comics to read them. Putting them into longboxes in my closet never interested me. What I've always wanted to do is to put collections of my single-issue comics on my bookshelf, along with my trade paperbacks and hardcovers. My idea is custom-sized magazine holders[url]. The kind you buy at the store, they just come in one size. I want specific sizes for each collection. I have stories ranging from three issues to twenty six and beyond. I made these out of cardboard and duct tape; [url=http://i.imgur.com/lQJQdBG.jpg?1]they came out alright. I wasn't satisfied with the process, though. It took too long to make each one, and they aren't as strong as I'd like. They just don't hold up well. I stopped making them, and have struggled with conceptualizing a new design ever since. The laser cutter does make a lot of sense for me. The main use I'm looking out of this would be to carve wood about 1/4" or so thick, making jig joints. I have a lot of concerns about the laser cutter, though. * The unreliability of the Chinese product. I'm no stranger to buying products from the East, understanding that it could turn out to be a lemon. I jumped on the bandwagon a few years ago when people figured out that Korea was making cheap 28" LCD monitors. But with that I know what to expect, and I know what it would look like if it doesn't work. I wouldn't know how to inspect a laser cutter for damage or defect. My biggest fear is I get the K40, I try to use it, it doesn't work and I am just left clueless as to why. I love the price, but man, I'd love to spend a little more to get a tested product. * I live in an apartment. A desktop CNC machine would have its own issues here too, but with the laser cutter I am worried about fumes. I expect to use this thing beyond my little woodworking project, and get into plastics. I get that I can have the fumes sent to a windows, I think I can pull that off, but that doesn't just make the problem disappear. I have neighbors literally right on top of me. * A laser cutter is similar to a 2.5 axis CNC mill, I imagine. That's all I'd need for my comic book holder project, but again, I'm going to want to expand, and the idea of full 3 axis milling is very interesting. * But it's not true 2.5 axis, is it? One reason why CNC sounds like my solution, and not something hand-made, is the engraving. A laser cutter won't actually engrave, though, right? It doesn't create so much depth, as it scorches or etches the material. The idea I had is that I would carry over what I did with my previous design: using duct tape, I had boxes made of different colors. DC is blue, Marvel is red, Batman is black, etc etc. With engraving, I could keep all the boxes plain wood, but color in the engraving. I think it would look good. Laser cutting etching looks really sharp too, but I think the colors would help each box stand out more in my bookshelf. After all that, there is still a lot going for the laser cutter. It seems like a cheaper point of entry, and it appears easier as well. I'm especially disappointed with the cost of desktop CNC. In my research, I see that the whole point of the first Shapeoko was the ridiculous price that they got it down. Fast forward to now and the current model is about a thousand bucks. I think if I could find a Shakeopo 2 for sale, which originally retailed around $600, I'd jump at it.
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May 4, 2016 16:04
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If you want to carve and cut wood, get something like a shapeoko. If you want to engrave (not carve) and cut thin materials like some plastics and wood, then eye a laser cutter. By engrave I mean mark up by abrading away some material - it's not normally burnt, think more etching. By carve I mean like sculpting out shapes and junk with a blade tool. That's an effect laser cutters/engravers don't normally get without a lot of work, and even then it's limited. Laser cutters need more support infrastructure than a CNC router. A shapeoko might be messy or noisy but it works fine all by itself. A laser cutter needs cooling and airflow / exhaust which usually consists of a good blower fan and some ducting. Cheap laser cutters (40W ish) can do 1/4" but 1/8" is more their speed. Limited working area is a factor for laser cutters (especially cheap ones). Not sure if you can deal with a working area of like a large sheet of paper as a max part size but that's not an uncommon size for cheaper machines. Making boxes will require joining edges, which is more easily done imo with wood and screws vs sheets of thin acrylic. No idea where or how you expect to use either of these tools if you're in an apartment and the patio is off-limits. Unless you're just talking storage between jobs. Just throwing this out there but if you have a Tech Shop in your city it might be worth going there. They'll have access to all that poo poo, that's their whole point.
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May 4, 2016 17:09
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Revol posted:I had posted in the CNC thread about taking my first steps into CNC milling, maybe getting a desktop kit or even build one myself. It was recommended to me that for my needs, I'd maybe want a laser cutter instead. First, here's what I posted in the CNC thread: If you can do all the design work, and you don't have the need to make so much product that owning your own laser cutter makes sense (unless of course you just want to have one for fun), there are a bunch of companies that will laser-cut your design for you for fairly reasonable fee's. An example is - http://modellers-workshop.com/ They'll laser-cut anything you want, and can use your designs, or for a fee do the design work as well.
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May 4, 2016 17:27
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Mister Sinewave posted:Comes with good quality safe! !1! glasses? I'm sold I'm hoping that I can get this shortly and find a way to mount it that still leaves the router on the shapeoko. How rad would it be to be able to laser something and then mill it out? 
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May 5, 2016 00:12
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I kind of like the idea of the first pass being done with the laser only at a high speed, etching a light toolpath line in wood. Then as the router does its job you can see it slowly following that route.
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May 5, 2016 00:20
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Parts Kit posted:So quality! Relatedly I recently picked up a similar laser with the thought of making a simple laser cutter for paper / food. It seems like most of the options / kits for doing an xy gantry are really expensive and / or overbuilt. I don't need something that can support a router chewing through wood, just this laser or maybe a sharpie if I wanted to do pen plotter stuff. Anyone have a suggested starting point, or should I just plan on diying this thing while cloth?
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May 5, 2016 15:58
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Well I don't know of any cheaper gantry only kits but if you look up the info on the old shapeoko 1s and 2s there will be plenty of info on how the gantry works. You should also be able to simplify things since a z-axis won't be required. There's also the cheaper very low power kits like what was linked a page or two, you might be able to find one that doesn't come with a diode.
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May 5, 2016 23:38
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Does anyone know if this laser head is air assisted? It has a little nozzle right at the tip of the head like most air assists are but it isn't mentioned in the description anywhere.
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May 13, 2016 18:41
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For what it's worth it sure looks like it is. The air tube goes in on the side, blowing out through the nozzle. Can't imagine why that end is there if it's not for that purpose.
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May 13, 2016 19:02
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Mister Sinewave posted:For what it's worth it sure looks like it is. The air tube goes in on the side, blowing out through the nozzle. Can't imagine why that end is there if it's not for that purpose. Yeah that's what I thought, I'm gonna go for it. The 18mm ZnSe lens is worth $52 on light object by itself and it comes with a bigger head
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May 13, 2016 20:54
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I'm looking at getting into this hobby. I saw a flux delta 3d printer with it's weak 20mW engraver and realized I just want a laser cutter, not a 3d printer. I didn't know this thread existed when I first posted in the CNC and 3d printer threads. Last year I bought a dangerous Chinese product: an electric unicycle, and have been meaning on posting a megathread about that piece of poo poo, so I fully expect that this thing will not work well. Thanks to the OP I already know how much of an overhaul to expect. I want to build project boxes for small electronics - thank you arduino and small electronics threads, but I dislike dremel's, power tools, and hand cutting acrylic. Can anyone give me a good Taobao link to make a purchase? I'm in Taiwan. Looks like there are a lot with air assist heads already installed. https://world.taobao.com/item/521183792072.htm https://world.taobao.com/item/41165405439.htm
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May 14, 2016 04:31
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I recently picked up a K40 off of ebay and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked right out of the box. Alignment was correct and I was able to use it right way. I'm able to cut through 1/4" plywood at 10ma with the air assist nozzle from light object. The edges are quite charred though.
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May 14, 2016 09:49
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Anyone use honeycomb tables, this looks like it would fit the K40
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May 14, 2016 16:23
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Well poo poo, I had an electrical outlet fixed today in my apartment and found out all the outlets in my building are not grounded. Plus, the guy who wired the place warned me to only use hair dryers on 2 specific outlets. He wasn't speaking English... I assume the wire gauge is too light for the current draw a hair dryer can pull. The power box has the following circuit breakers: double 50 AMP (feed?), double 30 AMP (Hot Water heater), double 20 AMP (Air Conditionaer), and 2 single 20 AMP circuits (lights, outlets). I saw the information in the first post about the loud BANGs of current arcing to the box. This sounds super unsafe without a ground.
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May 15, 2016 13:46
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I keep waffling on exactly what I'm going to stick to my shapeoko, but I think I've finally settled on a jtech photonics kit. Known plus side with it is it will handle PWM for burning photos, and from what little I've been able to find online from folks who have bought it they seem to have really good customer support if something goes awry or is just plain confusing. Now to actually work up the nerve to drop the money on it. 
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May 15, 2016 14:01
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Since I'm also an impulsive ninny, I'm waiting for my shiny new adventure in disaster to show up. It's been a few days with no tracking number, but the seller on ebay marked it as shipped with an expected delivery date of next Tuesday. In the meantime I'm clearing space off and collecting supplies. Of all the goofy tools I own, I think this one has the most capacity to ruin my retinas or set my shop on fire. Or both. I wear fairly large glasses, are there any CO2 laser protection goggles out there that can be worn over glasses? I don't mind paying for PPE when warranted, but all the stuff I've found doesn't look like it works with eyeglasses. edit: politicorific posted:Well poo poo, I had an electrical outlet fixed today in my apartment and found out all the outlets in my building are not grounded. Plus, the guy who wired the place warned me to only use hair dryers on 2 specific outlets. He wasn't speaking English... I assume the wire gauge is too light for the current draw a hair dryer can pull. The power box has the following circuit breakers: double 50 AMP (feed?), double 30 AMP (Hot Water heater), double 20 AMP (Air Conditionaer), and 2 single 20 AMP circuits (lights, outlets). Do you have any coldwater copper pipes near? That may provide a suitable ground in lieu of nothing. I can't imagine that the power draw of the entire laser system exceeds 100W, so you're probably safe there unless you're really pushing 20amps in the whole apt. total, in which case you'll just pop the breaker. If the wires are sized so badly that you can't run a hair dryer on any outlet in the apt. you've got bigger problems. I'm not an electrician though, so somebody else can come by and tell you these suggestions are dumb. Pimblor fucked around with this message at 18:26 on May 19, 2016 |
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May 19, 2016 18:19
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He was working on a live circuit, so his advice is a little suspect. Regardless I'm quite certain there's no ground. Whenever my air conditioner goes into a heavy duty cycle, my electronics go haywire. I haven't seen any copper anywhere. Regardless, I was warned that Taiwan may levy high taxes on co2 lasers. I found a k40 with a huge markup on a local website. I am going to see if I can find more 5.5 watt diode laser information. I found some information about a guy who manually raised his cutting bed and used multiple passes to cut acrylic. I just really want a small box fabrication station I may explore the 5.5 watt diode laser route.So far I am pretty discouraged. politicorific fucked around with this message at 05:35 on May 21, 2016 |
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May 20, 2016 02:37
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politicorific posted:
Fuuuuck it got him 
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May 20, 2016 06:09
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Mister Sinewave posted:Fuuuuck it got him  good thing it hit submit though!
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May 21, 2016 00:40
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My journey into fires and madness has begun! Maybe NSFW for language   The fan was a mess as previously described, the vent hose was garbage which I replaced with a semi-rigid aluminum duct (good to 400F) and vented outside with a super nice all metal dryer vent hood. I sort of half-assed the laser alignment in (it was waaaaaay off), I'll fiddle with that more later. Nothing appeared to be broke, and this seller (rumei-shopping) got it to me for $385 shipped to the door via FedEx home. It came double boxed and a poo poo load of bubble wrap and hard foam. Thanks for the thread OP. I never would have known about these wonder POS lasers. Here's cardboard covered with brown masking tape after being cut and the masking tape peeled. 
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May 23, 2016 12:35
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How does the airflow on the included K40 fan compare to some cheap 80mm pc fans? I have tons of those lying around and was thinking 2 (or maybe doubled up to 4) might be a better fitting replacement. I ordered my K40 on Friday, there were literally dozens of sellers to choose from, all with 99% approval ratings, all within $10 of one another, and all shipping from California (I'm in Vermont), so I picked the only one that guaranteed Thursday delivery instead of Friday/following Monday. Of course Saturday morning I wake up to a out of stock email. Now I re-ordered it from somebody else for $5 less, hopefully it still gets here by Friday. From everything I've read it sounds like over the past 2 years these units have been getting cheaper & quality control (at least as far as packing & shipping goes) has been getting better. I'll bet the importers must have so many of these things sitting around & there is so much competition that they have priced them down to barely above cost and now are trying to distinguish themselves by (gasp!) getting your order delivered undamaged & offing customer service. Hopefully mine arrives undamaged & on Monday I can honor our service members by blasting holes in poo poo with frickin' laser beams.
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May 23, 2016 20:34
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Dialing in the mirrors has turned into a sonofabitch for me. I wish there was an easier way to do this rather than run through packs of post-it notes and trial and error. Confounding this is the terrible fan motor blocking the back panel to access the first mirror. Getting rid of that POS is my top priority. The included LaserDRW software is garbage, but contrary to popular internet wisdom does support vector graphics in the form of your grandpa's favorite vector format WMF. The Corel Laser plugin DOES NOT work in Windows 10. If you plan on keeping stock controller/software, just find a lovely old Windows XP box cause none of this janky rear end Chinese stuff works in 10.
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May 24, 2016 04:20
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PC fans are not very good at moving volumes of air / pressurizing air in my experience, but maybe I've only seen lovely ones. You want some version of a squirrel cage fan or inline duct fan. Those are actually made for shoveling volumes of air; which is what you want for exhaust purposes.
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May 24, 2016 16:42
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My controller computer is running Windows 10 with no real problems with Corel Laser. The only annoying thing is the way the plugin's notifications interact with Windows 10 notifications, causing a million popups.
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May 24, 2016 16:45
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FISHMANPET posted:My controller computer is running Windows 10 with no real problems with Corel Laser. The only annoying thing is the way the plugin's notifications interact with Windows 10 notifications, causing a million popups. The popups were easily silenced but on a fresh install of Win 10 I'd hit the go button and the Corel Laser UI would disappear and the job would crap out halfway through. It was easier to drag out an old XP box than to gently caress with it for more than 20 minutes.
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May 24, 2016 18:03
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Just screwing around with a piece of maple firewood (not my sausage fingers): edit: for shits and grins I'm gonna try and laser engrave bone
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May 24, 2016 23:04
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I'm gonna laser etch a whole bunch of stones with rude phrases and seed them all over the local beaches
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May 25, 2016 01:53
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Have any of you guys with the chinese CO2 lasers tried the inkscape plug in for generating code? https://jtechphotonics.com/?page_id=2012
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May 25, 2016 02:18
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Parts Kit posted:Have any of you guys with the chinese CO2 lasers tried the inkscape plug in for generating code? I looked at that but it doesn't seem like that talks directly to the proprietary controller that's in the laser cutter. You'd need a card that speaks gcode which is all it appears to output. In other news, after using the Corel Laser plugin in Win XP, I noticed that there is a little pink icon that shows up in the notification area that can control the laser plugin after right clicking on it. I'll give it a shot in Windows 10 again (I never saw it in 10 because it auto-hides it.) and see if it will work. Although the crappy old XP box has been working flawlessly for the purpose, so I'm not too bent out of shape.
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May 26, 2016 18:26
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Okay dumb question, the white wire in the upper left would appear to be the ground to my apartment's electrical box, but it isn't hooked up to any of my outlets. Is there a safe way to test to see if this really a ground?  http://i.imgur.com/h6SuaYL.jpg http://www.doityourself.com/stry/how-to-test-for-ground If this is the ground, I'm wondering what the best way to use it would be, attach directly here, or hope I can fish it through the wall to an existing outlet without doing any damage.
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May 30, 2016 06:31
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politicorific posted:Okay dumb question, the white wire in the upper left would appear to be the ground to my apartment's electrical box, but it isn't hooked up to any of my outlets. That bus bar to the left ought to be a ground. That white wire is probably hot if it's going to a breaker. Who knows though, I've never used/seen breakers like that. They could be just the neutral though and I don't know if its kosher to use that as an earth ground or not.
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May 31, 2016 00:52
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politicorific posted:Okay dumb question, the white wire in the upper left would appear to be the ground to my apartment's electrical box, but it isn't hooked up to any of my outlets. What country do you live in? Typical electrical practices are going to vary widely between different nations. I'm not sure what that tan wire is, it looks like a grounding wire for the box but I wonder if it isn't just tied into the line neutral somewhere else in the building. It's also possible that it is a ground wire, but it's pretty small gauge and since you don't know how/where it's tied into 'ground' it might not handle any serious current. I also am not sure what that red jumper wire is doing between the 20A & 30A double breakers. It kind of looks like they didn't have a long enough wire to run another line from the main breaker to the 30A one, so they piggybacked on another hot terminal closer to it.
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May 31, 2016 17:27
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Double posting cause I just got my laser this afternoon!    Surprisingly it's very clean on the inside, doesn't look like any cracks in the tube, the bed looks flat, the controller board has a USB-B connector & the dongle has a Feb. 2016 date on it so it's got to be a relatively recent revision.
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May 31, 2016 21:53
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Sounds like it's already ahead of what some other people find when they open up theirs! Congratulations!
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May 31, 2016 22:04
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I just wish I had time to play with it. It was supposed to come Friday and I'd have had a 3 day weekend to burn stuff with it, but on the last leg of the trip somebody at FedEx got lazy and it spent 36 hours in a warehouse less than 150 miles from me. I've got to work late tonight and I'm leaving tomorrow for a weeklong vacation, so no pew-pew until the 8th at the earliest. 
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May 31, 2016 22:24
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