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Its important to know your focal lenght. What is the distance from lens to your material about. I think its more than 2" with stock lens. I,m just thinking is there same machine with different focal lenght on market. Its also importan clean lens sometimes and check its not upside down .
@bratan, about water quantity, I am working on a 28 liters reservoir. you must check the temp of water (and of your ambient). if your water is steady at a good temp, well the quantity is right... btw more water, more temp inertia.
still building my cabinet/filter, I am almost done. Last sunday I built the carbon filter (take a 18 liters trasparent plastic box, cut the bottom, placed a net et voilà.
but after reading about the CFM of the extractors in the latest posts I am a bit worried that my 270 cfm will be enough... :-(
Just wanted to drop a note about something i found interesting. I got some white 1/8" acrylic and tried cutting it few days ago. There was NO SMELL, and almost very little visible smoke either. Even after I removed it from machine cut piece had very faint smell of burned acrylic. Unlike transparent acrylic I used before, which stinks like a skunk. Apparently there are different materials used in acrylic production that can affect smell... With stuff like this it's totally doable in closed spaces with DIY filter!
Were both cast acrylic or extruded one stinks more than the otherQuote:
Originally Posted by bratan
One that doesn't smell is cast (attaching picture). No idea about the other one, I think I got it at Home Depot long time ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by fixtureman1
Quote:
Originally Posted by itmaxx
If you are planing to cut wood your camera lens will need a lot of regular cleaning. Just think of it comparing to a lens for the laser itself. Even with an air support and high pressure air blowing on the lens all the time lenses get dirt stuck to them from time to time. Your camera I guess will be nowhere near that air and its lens will get all possible dirt sticking to it.
But some lasers use cameras inside and not just for monitoring but also for trace & cut jobs. This means these cameras are placed onto a laser head and as close to a burning point as possible. So I guess it is still working concept and somehow these cameras can survive.
I have usb camera. Never cleaned. Never problem. I cut only plywood or acryl.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByJi...p=docslist_api
Some laserhead video sample.
Laser cut sample: https://youtu.be/qNkWxViw0ig
I guess that your laser is slow and very low power and you are not cutting anything thicker than 3mm so all smoke is getting sucked out before it can start building inside.Quote:
Originally Posted by miketola
Try to do this with 100W and 280W machines that can cut fast and quite thick material. Because of their speed and the fact they remove a lot more material with each cut they make a lot of smoke. I run a 1200W blower for 100W and and a 2500W blower for 280W and they cannot suck out all smoke without it getting stuck everywhere. I have it on rails, mirrors and on a lens from time to time.
Yes i cut usually max 6mm plywod and max 5mm acryl.
I have also good exhaust system.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByJi...p=docslist_api
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByJi...p=docslist_api
I believe you :-) I have only tried to warn about this problem the OP just in case he has not thought about it in advance.
My 280W laser had an option to come with a tracing camera but I did not buy it. I did not buy it not because of the dirt on the camera problem... I did not even think about it back then. I was told that it would put extra weight on the laser head and it would reduce its speed.
You are right but these people use 50w china laser. Its little bit different machine. There is also different plywoods. It debends what glue they use. I have different birch plywoods in stock. Example with "urea" glue you can cut it easily and it does,t smoke. If you plywood burs black and smoking its construction plywood for houses and there is very hard glue.
Here I am, at last.
Yesterday I completed the work: my sh-g350 is ready and working.
I am really happy with the machine, noneed to align anything, mirrors are clean, everything seems working like a charm.
I tried just some pulse and some manual lasering (pulse and small movements, cause I didn't take my pc with me...) and the ray is good small spot, and the small engrave made in manuals shows a very small kerf.
The cabinet I built (see previous posts) is perfect to contain the distilled water reservoir (15 liters at the moment, but still place to contain other 10liters and I put some car radiator fluid in it with anti algae).
At the end the filtration system is composed this way:
1-simple kitchen extractor hood ative carbon element (just to stop the large contaminants)
2- 3M filtrete filter
3- active carbon pellets (at this moment I put just 5 liters of carbon in it but have plenty)
4- HEPA filter
5-kitchen hood active carbon fabric (just to close the hole in the cabinet...)
During my (veri little) trials I tried small engraves on wood: no smell at all. I am quite sure that during a real work the 5liters active carbon will be too little and I will need to put another 5-7 liters in it
All the air is moved with the sh.g350 fan and vacuumed by a centro150 centrifugal fan (460 m3/h)
very little noise, the most comes from the sh-g350 fan.
I am also making my mind about building a small box with pyramidal sponge to cut the noise of the outcoming air.
anyway I am really really happy with my purchase. hope to show you something asap!
back from workshop...
Cutting REALLY makes a lot of smoke. Stinky smoke.
my first configuration worked fine for engraving but cutting is another story... after few seconds of cutting acrylic (15mmsec 65%) the odor becomes recognizable even 5liters carbon.
I filled my active carbon filter with 15 liters of 4mm carbon pellets and check any leaks in the cabinet. and now it seems that smell has gone.
and now the question:
when >I cut acrylic the edges are not clean...I mean it seems that the laser is not switched on all the time but pulsing on-off very fast. so the edge becomes a little bit rough.
Is there anybody out there that understand the laserworks software well to understand which parameter could be changed to eliminate this problem?
Check your original design, it has smooth edges.
Also I had issue with wobbly pin table which cause some uneven cuts. Fixing pins with caulk fixed it...
hi Bratan, Some experience with wobbling on my 3d printer, this seems not the case.
Attachment 280348
the cut is finely wobbled... it seems a pulsing laser. I don't know... doens't seem a mechanical problem but a software paramenter to adjust...
the manual of the laserworks 8 (or rdworks8, it is the same) is a very funny chinese-english translation... not so useful. I guess there should be a parameter regarding the resolution or the pulsinng of the laser... but don0t know where it is...
Yeah that doesn't look right. As far as I heard, there's no such setting in RDWorks. But it's in the firmware.Quote:
Originally Posted by itmaxx
Also check out this facebook page, I found it invaluable! They actually have proper manual in the files section that was re-written by someone in USA :)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/441613082637047/
try slowing down the cut speed, or increasing the power, or decreasing the assist gas, or a mixture of all three...
I am trying to educate myself regarding laser etchers/engravers, and have been considering buying this same machine, and would like to know if it can etch/engrave mirrors (or would the mirror reflect the laser and cause issues)?
Can this machine etch/engrave photos onto wood as it comes from the vendor, or would it need upgrades? What parts would need to be upgraded?
Thank you for your time and assistance.
any co2 laser CAN engrave photos on almost any material (but no metal, you need fibre laser). the software makes the difference.
this machina can engrave photos really easily just as is, with no upgrades.
about mirror you can engrave glass side and get frosted effect or mirror side and will remove the mirror. just check kind of mirror, guess old silver mirror could not work, not tried