[CJL5585]

Glad to hear of your success. Will be looking for photos.

[WilliamD]

Finally, the pictures are up!

First, this is my messy sink...



Then, my work area!



And to think, I have to use this bathroom! J/K

OK, here is the setup I used to align the laser. There are two screws on each side. For how ghetto it looks, it actually worked really well.



This is a shot of the lens holder, mirror holder and back plate I made to hold the optics. It was a blast using the mill, even in manual mode. I can't wait to completely CNC it. Nice and cool flood coolant makes a very understated difference! Also, once I had it setup, I did this 10x10 grid. It's at .5" spaces. I cut it at 130 ipm, at 20% power. It did quite well.



One thing I have yet to learn, is how to get the dwell for the laser off. It turns on, and sits for a split second and creates an annoying little dark spot. I turned what I believe the option is in Mach to 0 seconds, but it still does it a little bit.

I had a little fan to control the smoke at first, but needed to upgrade!



This box fan does really well up 50% power. Definetly keeps the smoke and flame from directly hitting the lens. But at 50%, it can still flame up a tiny bit. It's a temporary solution. Luckily, the air flow doesn't move any of the material I'm cutting.

I'm still working on uploading that video, because it shows it cutting, and the laser on. Very cool, but I know it's pretty ghetto right now. It will crank out the product I need for right now, and when I have the CNC mill done, I can cut and make the 36x36" table I really want. But now I'm still hunting for carbon filters. I found some for a home air purifier, around $30 for a 3 pack. But no dimensions. It looks like they can get pretty expensive.

[WilliamD]

Got the video uploaded!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nmnl5Eq-Pk

The ball of white light plays havoc on the camera focusing. You can also sometimes see the flicker of white laser light, which is not visible with the naked eye. This was at 30 ipm, at 40% power. With two passes, it cut the letters out... and then some!

This is the most detailed font and letters I'll be doing with the laser. And as you can see, it handled it quite nicely. Certainly no complaints!

[miljnor]

could you tell me how big in diameter the laser tube is?

I am currently in design stage and an approximation would help tremendously!


looking good man.

[thkoutsidthebox]

That is amazing. Great job. Im getting crazy ideas of building one myself and I haven't even finished....uhmm....started my first router yet!

Theres also the larger router and the plasma cutter to get designed and built...come to think of it, what am I doing on the computer, really got to get back to work!!

[coleong]

Hi WilliamD,

I was looking at the pictures and think that you can aviod excessive smoke by enclosing the cnc .

Then use a powerful vaccum cleaner to suck the fumes out via a rectangular hole make parallel and close to the engraving level of the workpiece.

This rectangluar hole should not be made too big so as to have a high suction power and of course only facing on one side of the workpiece only.

Please note that the smoke/fumes from engraving certain type of materials are really bad for health and to be vented outside your house.

[plexer]

You should check the hazard details for any material before laser cutting acrylic is good because its main by product of laser cutting is water I belive.

But one example of a material you shouldn't laser cut is PVC as it will give off chlorine gas which is very very bad.

MDF as you've found out stinks this is due to the resin used to make it.

An example from the MSDS for MDF is:

Health Hazards Acute & Chronic: FORMALDEHYDE VAPOR: ACUTE: MAY CAUSE TEMPORARY IRRIT OF SKIN, EYES/RESP SYS. MAY CAUSE SENSIT IN SUSCEPTIBLE INDIVIDUALS. CHRONIC: RATS EXPOS TO 14 PPM FORMALDEHYDE DEVELOPED NASAL CANCER. THE NCI EPI DEMIOLOGY STUDY OF 26,000 WORKERS FOUNDLITTLE EVIDENCE LINKING FORMALDEHYDE EXPOS TO CANCER. (EFTS OF OVEREXP)

Just be careful with what you are lasering.

Ben

[toneV8]

Got the video uploaded!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nmnl5Eq-Pk
!

I can not see video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nmnl5Eq-Pk

[WilliamD]

Hmmm... not sure what to say. It loads up just fine for me. Is anyone else having issues? Sometimes I have problems with YouTube, but just try back later and it works. If no one else can see it, then I'll triple check the account settings. But it seems to be public.

[thkoutsidthebox]

I see it fine!

[hkxy]

it is hy laser power ,is made in china ,jinan

IS 1200mm and 60W

[miljnor]

I am looking for the diameter NOT the length of the tube

but thanks!

[toneV8]

When I open link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nmnl5Eq-Pk I only see this pic.

[coleong]

Hi miljnor,

If you to refer to #5, the diameter is 2 inch as stated by WilliamD.

On another another thread, hkxy has quoted the 60w set for 745 and this 20w higher than what WilliamD has.

[Mat-C]

Have you considered using CO2 to control the flaming? It's pretty cheap and should be easy to direct at the laser spot... might reduce the burns and/or flames quite a bit: even MDF needs oxygen to burn

[miljnor]

If you to refer to #5, the diameter is 2 inch as stated by WilliamD.

I must not have been reading the captions as closely as I thought!

Thanks!

[WilliamD]

I'll be getting some pictures of the stuff I cut later.

But I succesfully etched glass, rubber and paper. The glass was pretty cool. It did it at 10%, 15 ipm. You can definetly see the fine line, and just barely feel it. I upped it to 30% at 15ipm, and it made a deeper and more prominent line. I liked etching the glass because it's the one thing that doesn't smell when you cut.

I've started redesigning a table and acrylic case for it. Then I'll have a blower hooked up to really pull the air through and pipe it outside.

I love the lack of need for hold down! If I want to try something out, I just put it on the table and cut something. I always start out at 10% and 30 ipm, then gage from there. Just to make it clear, I'm not cutting vinyl or PVC, or anything I think resembles it. The rubber for the stamps I make really stinks also. They make some polymer that doesn't stink when lased, and I might look into that.

I also put in for a demo of LinkMotion, seeing how I don't have a way to do raster graphics. It's something I'd like to try. I have MC9.1 and Mach. I can do vector stuff just fine, but want to try the whole photo thing.

I have all kinds of paintball stuff, so I'll hook a bottle of CO2 up and see how it works with lasing. I've heard of using N2, which is basically just air, but not C02. If it works out really well, I'll definetly add that on!

[thkoutsidthebox]

Great William, can't wait for the photos. Have you tried burning designs onto solid wood like beech or pine by any chance? I'd love to see how that looks.
"Inkscape" is a great free program I use for raster to vector conversion, with very flexible conversion options. Just google it if you want to try it. Although Im not sure if you need another program after conversion to then cut the vectorised pic since InkScape can't do this, although it will save in various formats like dxf, eps...etc. You can probably answer that one. L8rs.

[coleong]

I think it is best to aviod the co2 as n2 is cheaper and co2 might decomposed to carbon monoxide which is poisonous and odorless.

Is it possible for you to say the version of the linkmotion after you have try it out and the cost of it? They are offering a $250 version, is this the one?

Thanks

[hkxy]

price:$1300?
40W?

:cheers:

Same product,Less prices.IN MYCITY HOMEPAGE