[cncadmin]

I get them from this guy- steveluo @ mail.sc.cninfo.net

[cweeks]

Hello all,

I am one of the many silent CNCzone users, but it is time to make my first post. I have been following this thread with some interest as I am going to have a pop at making a CNC laser cutter. Sourcing the laser and the optics is the tricky bit, especially in the UK.

I need the lot, 4 gold coated mirrors, 4 adjustable mirror mounts, 1 ZnSe focusing lens, and the tube itself, prop about 40watt. The power supply I am going to have a go at making (yes I know it potentially lethal and dangerous but isn't that the fun bit, for those interested have a look here and here, it's only a short step between the two, easy said eh and failing that a neon sign transformer with some ballast should do, or I could even buy a proper one.

Anyway I digress I have emailed http://www.sintecoptronics.com/ but no reply, I have therefore given up with them. Can CNC admin tell us if Steve Lou has a web site for his laser products, or a catalogue, and if he sells the actual laser tubes or just the optics, and the sort of cost involved. From the little digging about I have done I get the impression he works for an almost goverment like import export agency. Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated, before I dive head long.

Cheers, Cam.

[khasabog]

I can say that I got mine from Steve Luo for $1106.00 shipped. Sounds cheap but look for his service.

I have big problem with his system since the beginning (see my post http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26468).

I waited three month before got it. He sent used power supply, which is probably the cause for my problems. He refused to admit that he sent me used power supply.

When I ask him for help he sad that all documentation on power supply they have is two pages user manual (bad translation on English from Chinese).

Anyway I wish you good luck!

George.

[cweeks]

Most interesting, this is exactly the sort of thing I wondered about and hoped wouldn't be the case with Mr Lou. How did you pay ? Am I correct in assuming he only accepts payment via, the buyer isn't covered for crap service option of bank transfer ? I think insisting on credit card payment my be wise, any problem I can set them on him.

[khasabog]

Most interesting, this is exactly the sort of thing I wondered about and hoped wouldn't be the case with Mr Lou. How did you pay ? Am I correct in assuming he only accepts payment via, the buyer isn't covered for crap service option of bank transfer ? I think insisting on credit card payment my be wise, any problem I can set them on him.

Yep!
Bank transfer.

[cweeks]

Well I have emailed him, I will keep you updated. I have asked for a catalogue and prices on:

1 x 40 watt sealed CO2 laser tube
4 x gold plated mirrors
4 x adjustable mirror mounts
1 x ZnSe focusing lens

I have also asked for CE certificates for the above, and if he accepts credit card payment. Should be a laugh.

khasabog should you ever chuck your questionable laser supply in the bin, would you chuck it in my bin, I would love a look at how it works.

Cam.

[khasabog]

khasabog should you ever chuck your questionable laser supply in the bin, would you chuck it in my bin, I would love a look at how it works.

Cam.

Did not quite understand what you mean.

[cweeks]

Should you eventually get yourself another laser psu and chuck the possibly duff one in the bin I would consider taking the duff one off your hands. Thats all.

[khasabog]

Should you eventually get yourself another laser psu and chuck the possibly duff one in the bin I would considered taking the duff one off your hands. Thats all.

If we ever get a new power supply, we will try to fix our old one!

Sorry.

[cweeks]

Oh well, it's no big deal, I was only after it if you considered it bin fodder. Very right to give fixing it a try, thats exactly what I would do. Please share the results thou.

Cam.

[miljnor]

Hey paul

Where did you get that cool Aluminum honey comb for the laser table?

I know I saw it in your post but can't find it anywhere!!!

oh and how much did it cost?

[waldo2413]

what all do i need to build a talbe 6x10 ft what kind of price and were do i gwet the parts i have a laser and i have servo motors for it all i nee is to make the table hjow do i go about that and were do i get the parts thaks

[DS420]

It appears that everybody has a story when it comes to dealing with Chinese suppliers. Chinese are trying to supply machines at an attractive price and so support, features, and software controls suffer.

Can we get from Chinese XY tables and laser tubes but without electronics and software? If we can, it can be combined with the following and we could have a helluva system.

Take a look:

Simplest hardware controller for CO2 laser and step/dir controls for motors
I am going to show you how easy it can be to control a laser machine and how easy it is for you to build electronics.

You need:
1. PC/ windows XP or 2000 with 1 GB memory if raster operation desired or 512 MB RAM, if vector only.
2. PC needs one parallel port and one USB port
3. Your XY table, optics, laser power source, and(IMPORTANT) laser power supply that is capable of working with PWM input for laser power control.
4. If you are going to use step motors, you may use gecko or any appropriate step motor drivers for your step motors. If servos, procure servo drivers with step/dir input.
5. Cylindrical attachment, if laser work is desired on cylindrical surface.
6. Either build or buy a simple breakout board ($10 to $50)
7. You will build one simple cable from the printer port to your breakout board in your laser machine.
8. There is no need for building any front panel on your laser machine. You may want power on/off switch as well as a red or green indicator for power ON.

You can use any of the following popular applications to design your jobs:
a. AutoCAD version 14 and up
b. Corel Draw version 9 and up
c. DolphinCAD for LinkMotion
d. AcceliCAD for LinkMotion
e. Rhino 4.0
f. Illustrator
g. FlexiExpert
h. SignLab/EngraveLab
j. Gerber's ArtPath

Applications for raster work only:
a. Microsoft Word
b. BarTender from SeagullScientific
c. PhotoShop
d. Corel Paint
e. PhotoGrav to convert from gray scale to single bit raster file

LinkMotion 32 bit printer type machine driver comes with a Control Pad and it uses numeric keypad of the standard PC keyboard to control the laser machine (jogging, Home command, laser and red indicator testing, water cooling, and positive air pressure controls

Now, prepare a job in one of the above application software, select LinkMotion as the output driver in Windows, click print and send the job to your laser machine.

You will preset feedrate, power level, PWM frequency, home, and emergency switches in LinkMotion. The power level will generate PWM pulses for the specified feedrate. If the machine is running slower because of a sharp curve or a corner, the power level is modulated and kept is as a function of speed. You can calibrate your laser power output in every 5 percent increment and declare. Also, you can recalibrate every so often to maintain proper power level output.

You can control and vary power level as a function of ten different colors in the color pallete in LinkMotion applet.

About the only thing you need to depend on your application is for sorting of a job for output sequencing.

To summarize:
1. Very little new things to learn
2. Vector and raster operations
3. Continuous power control for cutting
4. High speed raster operation
5. PWM frequency control
6. Color control
7. Increase or decrease the XY speed on the fly
8. Tickle pulse to keep the CO2 in the ready state to minimize the firing time
9. Built-in cylindrical operation, all you need to do is to declare motor gear ratio

This is not a dream. It has been selling for over a year.

If any of you are interested, please, let us know. We will be more than happy to help.

You can contact me directly at
[email protected]

[miljnor]

Not a bad little idea/product but you should put it in the product announcement area and not clutter the thread up with advertisements (which is a sure way to get ejected from the forum)

[DS420]

Now, in retrospect, I can see how it could be viewed the way you did.

I apologize for that.

I read numerous problems of similar kinds with laser users around here and I wrote up a little explanation.

In future, I will position the information where you suggetsed.

Thanks.

[miljnor]

no problem man.

we always like to see the pro's come around and educate us. what would really be nice is to see some video or pictures of a machine that you guys have put together and watch it work!

of course in its own thread.

[DS420]

Miljnor, we can do something even better than that.

If anybody is interested, we can send you demo software. You can wire up your step motors and see the smooth operation in your own environment. If possible, you can connect your laser power source and can attempt actual production. All the necessary information are just a few short PDF documents.

All we need is your E-Mail address.

If you do not have high speed DSL type connection, we will ship a CD to you free of charge anywhere in the USA.

I will work with the CNCZone site owner to set up the demo software and documents on this site for an easy download.

Thanks.

[jymmm]

I'm aware that a baffle is required to prevent burning the table, a vac supply is good to hold components and as mentioned above to collect fumes. Is it a Co2 laser and if so requires Co2 gas as well... what type of power supply is required and.. aside from E-bay.. where can you get a decent one for cutting up to 1/4 ply ?
Thanks, Craig.

I was in the market to buy a commercial (epilog, gcc, universal) laser a few years ago, and this is what I learned...

The baffle "honeycomb cutting grid" is to prevent the laser from reflecting off the surface your material is sitting on and burn/char the backside of the material. Also, this is where "Air Assist" comes into play to disapate (sp) the smoke where the laser has has just penetrated. Sometimes it's also to "blow out" the charred material so the laser can cut the rest of the way through the material - like in vector cutting situations with thick material where you have to make multiple passes.

The "vac supply" (as you put it) is primarily for exhaust of fumes. The minimal size I ever saw was 3", and typically 4", which most shop vacs are not.

What almost all of them are using is dust collectors (less the canvas bag)
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=94029
and vented to the outside. They are using the aluminum foil type clothes dryer ventialtion hose connected to 4" to 6" PVC pipe. The reason not to use all dryer hoses is the ridges cut down on the performance over long runs. Even 90 degree bends in the PVC pipe can reduce performance of the ventilations system.

When a demo was run for me cutting/engraving of clear extruded acrylic, it stunk. I don't me like blowing out a stick match, I mean like you just had a near miss with a skunk. Now usually it's vented to the outside (like how the toilet is vented to the roof of your house) the air will disapate it quickly enough and hope that your neighbors don't complain.

One thought I had was to use activated charcoal in a couple of 5 gal paint buckets daisy chained together as a cheap filtration system. If you have anyone than has difficulty breathing or small animals especially birds, you wouldn't want them around this.

As far as hold down goes... Just a beam of light is touching your material, so no real clamping is necessary, unless it's really light weight material where a small breeze would move it. Then vacuum hold-down would be nice and something you might want to consider during your design phase.

When it comes to cutting plywood, especially aircraft or russian plywood (1/8" thick, 5 layer stuff) it's not the wood you have to deal with as much as the resin that the plywood is made of. The resin has a higher density that the wood will ever have.

Also I had brought in some samples of exotic hardwoods I was able to get my hands on (teak and a few others I can't pronounce) and I found that the ones with the higher sap/resin turned out the lease desirbale in the finished product. It seems that the laser was charring the resin more so than cutting wood. Not a big big deal, more of an adjustment you'll need todo when working with various materials.

One thing I don't think I've seen mentioned (like I really looked lol) is that a laser can cut paper/fabric like it's butter! It is TOTALLY awesome if you have someone that sew's or you are making sails for a small sailboat or stencils.

Also... you can BLEACH fabric! Yes I said bleach the ink/dye in fabric to produce whatever artwork you created! Works awesome on denim! This concept (from what I've heard) might be patented, so you've been warned.

So, if anyone feels benefitted from this post and can take pity on it's author and just happends to know where a self contained 40 to 100 Watt CO2 can be had cheaply (did I say cheap? I meant REALLY REALLY cheap!) toss the info my way.

If anyone feels like whining, complaining, ranting, etc...
Eh, send it to the North Pole, cause I don't wanna hear it! LOL

Photos of what can be done with a laser can be found here:
http://www.gccworld.com/application....laser_engraver

[lingdao]

Howdy,

I am doing the 80 W laser machine, but because the laser machine power supply hards put to trigger.

MACH how establish the laser machine work of?

Thanks

I can buy for your generation in China, laser of C02 and the power supply 80 W4600 renminbi USD 575s do not wrap to transport the expenses


my skype:lingdao

[daya]

I own a shopbot. How could I fix a 80 W co2 laser into my machine.