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nobody- posted:Does it work well with non-proofgrade materials? Is their web-based software intuitive and reliable? Have you experienced any slowdowns or accessibility issues? How about the laser cooling system? Does it work well continuously, or does it have to stop frequently to cool down? Cardboard and sheet balsa I got from amazon work fine. Haven’t done leather and acrylics yet. I’ve been downloading SVG patterns and using the proofgrade plywood and hardwood they threw in for being patient. Their web based software has been functional for the wood engraving and cutting I’ve done so far and has been getting updated pretty frequently behind the scenes. The longest duration job I’ve thrown at it has been a box cut/engrave that took 40 minutes. No cool-downs noted, but as I’ve said.. I’m just getting started and I’m being careful. Can’t speak for any other owners but I’m happy to talk about mine.
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Jul 31, 2017 08:10
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What's their exhaust system like? I think I remember they have an integrated filter & showed happy people laser cutting poo poo in their kitchen carefree.
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Jul 31, 2017 18:17
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Mister Sinewave posted:What's their exhaust system like? I think I remember they have an integrated filter & showed happy people laser cutting poo poo in their kitchen carefree. Its the same setup as most other laser cutters at the moment. The air filter will be released later this year. vent it out the window or into your own filtering box. quote:
theres like 10+ new threads every time I log in, and a lot of photos, including plenty with non proofgrade materials. Biggest complaint I've seen now is obfuscating the speed / feed settings in the interface, making it more of a pain to experiment with non proofgrade materials (dialing in the settings is still a trial thing for any material you use, but its nice to easily know and input a beginning wattage others have used successfully on another machine) . But that stuff is changing rapidly. moron izzard fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Jul 31, 2017 |
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Jul 31, 2017 20:14
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Dremel announced a 40 W laser today, and there is a 90% chance Dan will announce another delay for glowforges shipping after the makerfaire https://makezine.com/2017/09/23/dremel-announces-40-watt-laser-cutter/
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Sep 23, 2017 18:30
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I think big things are coming at the consumer laser front in the next couple years. I just hope I can get a small cheap reliable laser with decent software and no loving cloud bullshit. I don't want a laser that feels like an apple product.
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Sep 24, 2017 01:53
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I noticed Chinese laser diodes are getting more powerful: https://www.banggood.com/445-450nm-...EgaAoTHEALw_wcB That had me wondering: How much power would it take to penetrate 1/4" acrylic while leaving reasonably clean edges? What it one were to take multiple passes with a motorized Z axis?
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Nov 12, 2017 23:32
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Cockmaster posted:I noticed Chinese laser diodes are getting more powerful: Much more. You'd be looking at around 50w co2 cutter for 1/4" acrylic. CO2 lasers generate most of their IR at 10600nm, which is very well absorbed by the acrylic. >> 90% absorbed power. You can see the blue light of those laser diodes though the acrylic. That means much of the power of the laser is not being absorbed, and won't help cut. I can't tell you how much of the light is passed, but I'm gonna guess 80%. That leaves 20% absorbed (and it's probably lower). That means that a 50W CO2 laser is roughly as good as a 250W blue laser at cutting acrylic. Colors would actually affect this quite a bit, as red acrylic absorbs blue light, and black would absorb all light. There are also additives that can affect uv absorbance, but unless you buy with with them, who knows if it will actually have. http://www.plasticgenius.com/2011/05/infrared-and-ultraviolet-transmission.html
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Nov 12, 2017 23:50
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I have an 85W and I cut 1/4" at about 8-12mm/s if I remember right. That's pretty slow really.
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Nov 13, 2017 00:08
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Glowforge plans to bump their prices to 4K/8k in December. Those people won’t get theirs til June or further. It’s been almost half a year since official release and core features still haven’t been delivered (pass through on the pro, accurate tracing, accurate positioning in general, the code to run it off the cloud). Why would anyone want to buy what they currently have for 8k.
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Nov 28, 2017 18:18
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I wonder what the problems are. Like is the hardware great but the software end is trouble, was it all just way harder than they expected, or what.
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Nov 28, 2017 18:54
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As soon as they played "what technically counts as shipped" games with their units I figured that was the end of that. No one who starts down that road comes back from it.
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Nov 28, 2017 18:57
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It used to be you could spend extra money & get cutting edge technology before all your friends. Now you can spend extra money & get a proof of concept prototype.
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Nov 28, 2017 19:00
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Nevets posted:Now you can spend extra money & get
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Nov 28, 2017 19:02
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I haven't followed GF too closely but every report I see just seems like amateurish transition from prototype to manufactured product. They're not solving any problems that multiple (every) other businesses haven't solved when manufacturing stuff overseas that requires software. I am wildly speculating that their delivery promises were never based on rigorous analysis and, like many kickstarted projects, they are winging it because nobody will hold them accountable.
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Nov 28, 2017 19:03
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They did have some promising sounding stuff though, like how they from square one designed to fit certain dimensions and such to make shipping and logistics sensible and low cost. No one ever really considers details like that unless it isn't your first rodeo, and I thought it was a promising sign.
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Nov 28, 2017 19:13
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Shipping logistics and cost are pretty easy to keep in check if you don't ship! 
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Nov 28, 2017 19:37
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Don't buy Kickstarter laser cutters, don't buy Kickstarter 3D printers. Ever! I can't think of a single case where people wouldn't have been better served just by chilling and ignoring the hype. This field is moving too fast for that. For every machine that will be purchased in anticipation of receiving it two years later, there will be a better or cheaper one six months out.
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Nov 28, 2017 20:10
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Yea right old man, you're just trying to stop us from disrupting your outdated business ideas. I'm gonna kickstart a 3d laser printer, and all my friends are gonna work in the factory, and if you wanna have a beer at lunch hey go ahead I'm not like one of those lame bosses that are only concerned with liability.
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Nov 29, 2017 02:55
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I have something I would like to laser engrave, either a zinc alloy (sorry, that's the only description) or aluminum ("aerospace grade aluminum", again, sorry that the only description) depending on what I decide to buy. I have at my disposal the following two laser cutters: https://www.ulsinc.com/products/platforms/pls6-75 https://www.ulsinc.com/products/platforms/vls3-60 Is it likely that either of these lasers would be capable of engraving either material?
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Jan 21, 2018 06:52
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No, nothing in those sub-100W lasers will be able to engrave metal. Look into Thermark or Cermark if you just want to make marks, and but there won't be any actual engraving without a $40,000 fibre laser.
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Jan 21, 2018 07:03
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No.* Both of those lasers max out at around 75 watts. To work with metal, you're looking at minimally about 200 watts plus an oxygen blast in order to cut thin sheet steel. Aluminum is harder to cut than steel with a laser and off the top of my head I can't think of any examples of a laser-cut zinc part so I don't know what you'd need for that. Those lasers simply don't have enough power to do what you're talking about. *However, there are two specific cases that might work for you. First, a laser in that power range (40 watts and up) can etch anodized aluminum by disrupting the anodization layer. This will leave a white mark on the gray aluminum background (or whatever color it's been dyed). Think like the text on the back of an iPhone. It won't make any difference in the geometry of the surface other than a slight roughness in the etched area, but if you're just going for a visible effect, it would be fine. Second, you can buy chemical treatments (one brand is CerMark) that you brush onto the part and then etch, and the chemical basically "fires" into a hard black mark that bonds with the substrate. That lets you put a dark mark on nearly any metal, but the chemical itself is very expensive.
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Jan 21, 2018 07:07
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i suppose engraving might not be what i'm going for, i'm just going for a visible effect as Sagebrush pointed out. Regardless, doesn't sound like what I have available would be sufficient?
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Jan 21, 2018 07:21
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It's fine if the aluminum is anodized.
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Jan 21, 2018 07:27
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ante posted:No, nothing in those sub-100W lasers will be able to engrave metal. Look into Thermark or Cermark if you just want to make marks, and but there won't be any actual engraving without a $40,000 fibre laser. There are some impressively cheap ($6-10k) fiber lasers coming out of China now. I haven't tried Cermark, but I did play around with Molybdenum as a replacement in my K40 and was only able to achieve non-permanent marks. Other people have apparently gotten it to work better.
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Jan 21, 2018 17:14
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I got dry moly to work okay. Seemed pretty permanent, but not so consistent in density.
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Jan 21, 2018 20:07
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I remember an experiment someone did using a paste of plaster of paris with rubbing alcohol. Paint it onto the metal, then laser it, and it worked like cermark. Something about swapping a chromium atom between the uncured plaster and the metal causing the (permanent) color change probably just like cermark does. Haven't tried it myself but it's on my list.
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Jan 21, 2018 21:56
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There was someone on youtube that got their CO2 laser to etch and possibly even cut thin steel, but they did it by pumping a lot of pure oxygen into the enclosure. Seems like a very very bad idea. edit: did a search and apparently there are a fair number of folks doing this with 150+ watt lasers, but instead of filling the enclosure they replaced the air assist with an oxygen feed. Less of a bad idea, but still seems risky. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnuSO7eIkVY Parts Kit fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Jan 22, 2018 |
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Jan 22, 2018 17:54
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So, I just found out the EMI cans we put over our RF boards were somehow ordered in brass. Theoretically, I would have preferred copper or aluminium, but I don't have much sense of how much practical difference brass makes (vs. aluminium or copper) in terms of shielding effectiveness. We need "good" shielding up to about 200 MHz. Any thoughts? Thanks!
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Jan 24, 2018 05:36
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Hey goonfriends, I'm looking into DIY options for cutting 2-3mm cheap rear end wood. I don't need a very large bed size either, I could probably make do with something like 300x300mm, but obviously if I can go bigger without increasing the cost too much I'd not say no I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction for more info, specifically I'd need to get an idea of what laser I'll need to get through the material and any guides anyone knows for building something cheap and cheerful would be handy FWIW this will be my first build and while I'm a software engineer by trade and I've got some hobbyist EEE knowledge, I'm basically fresh on the scene and learning as I go. I want to build this thing 50% for making little boxes and 50% because I really want to get my hands dirty and build something rather than buying something stupidly expensive All advice is appreciated, thanks!
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Jan 24, 2018 12:07
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The bread and butter 40-50W Chinese CO2 lasers will do that for you once you add an air assist. You might have to spring for a more expensive one to get a bed bigger than 300mm x 200mm though.
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Jan 24, 2018 23:29
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Nevets posted:The bread and butter 40-50W Chinese CO2 lasers will do that for you once you add an air assist. You might have to spring for a more expensive one to get a bed bigger than 300mm x 200mm though. Thanks dude, I was looking at Chinese CO2 lasers, but didn't know what wattage I'd need From what I've read I could go with liquid cooling and a gently caress load of fans and it should do the job As for bed size.... I'll need to see what I can afford before I go too nuts, although building a bigger bed then investing in a more expensive laser later might be the best plan
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Jan 25, 2018 16:20
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If you're spending less than a thousand bucks and want to cut wood, I think a K40 is probably the ticket. Mine does 1/4" hardwoods pretty well. I don't think you could possibly build a CO2 laser cheaper than you can buy a K40 ($300-400), and I can't imagine building a system around a diode laser would be anywhere near that cheap or capable. Once you get into the low four digits you start to approach some of the larger tabled Chinese offerings.
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Jan 26, 2018 00:34
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How's the laser market (not just chinese) these days for a simple small cutter just for cutting cardboard?
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Jan 26, 2018 06:30
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Ambihelical Hexnut posted:If you're spending less than a thousand bucks and want to cut wood, I think a K40 is probably the ticket. Mine does 1/4" hardwoods pretty well. I don't think you could possibly build a CO2 laser cheaper than you can buy a K40 ($300-400), and I can't imagine building a system around a diode laser would be anywhere near that cheap or capable. Once you get into the low four digits you start to approach some of the larger tabled Chinese offerings. I'll look into the K40, but I'm UK based so I'm not sure how well the price will translate Thanks for the heads up though 
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Jan 26, 2018 09:08
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man in the eyeball hat posted:I have something I would like to laser engrave, either a zinc alloy (sorry, that's the only description) or aluminum ("aerospace grade aluminum", again, sorry that the only description) depending on what I decide to buy. I have at my disposal the following two laser cutters: i’m using the same laser lab. would they be able to etch the case of a plain zippo? i believe it’s brass.
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Feb 8, 2018 19:08
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Casual Encountess posted:i’m using the same laser lab. would they be able to etch the case of a plain zippo? i believe it’s brass. Same answer. Probably even worse as copper and it's alloys tend to be very good at reflecting IR.
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Feb 8, 2018 19:49
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Baronjutter posted:How's the laser market (not just chinese) these days for a simple small cutter just for cutting cardboard? Its pretty easy to scale a openbuild acro system to any size if you dont want to go the eleksmaker route.
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Feb 9, 2018 05:57
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I'm glad to find this thread, as I'm about to take off in my personal adventure to zap things into art. I purchased a cheap chinese K40 off ebay awhile back, and it has never worked right, the main issue being it runs into the side at startup and grinds until I turn it off. I complained and got most of my money back and decided to take the plunge and get a Glowforge instead, getting one aftermarket from someone who is upgrading to a laser with a larger workspace. I should see it next week so I may never fix the hunk of laser garbage that sits in my closet.
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Feb 26, 2018 15:52
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IIRC that’s a super easy fix, it’s just an issue with the limit switch not triggering. Mine did it too and I aligned the proximity tab better.
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Feb 26, 2018 18:50
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Ambihelical Hexnut posted:IIRC that’s a super easy fix, it’s just an issue with the limit switch not triggering. Mine did it too and I aligned the proximity tab better. I was wondering if it was some sort of controller issue, my Makerbot did the same thing and I had to replace a controller. I'll look into it when I have a larger workspace, like I said, they gave me back most of my money so it's not really bothering me to take my time tinkering with it. Thanks for the suggestion!
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Feb 26, 2018 21:37
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