[wontpontificate]

Allright! So!

I'm really close to biting the bullet here, and buying a ready-made CO2 laser. I've been jerking around too long with plans and half-baked prototype attempts of my own build, I just find that I don't currently have the tools, nor the shop space to really make it happen, and I'd really like to have something to start using.

Although the K40 has proven it's "too good to be true" status on multiple occasions, and is hobbled with terrible software, it's still rather alluring from a cost and footprint standpoint. To me, it's a box of parts, with all of the essentials conveniently sourced, with a bonus cabinet thrown in.

My goal is to have a fairly small laser that I can haul around with me to events to create custom widgets for attendees who desire them. The K40 is about the right size, and at it's price, if I dropped it, they'd only be able to hear me in the next county. If I were to take a tumble with a FSL, or an Epilog unit, my despair would be heard across several time zones.

Looking at the costs, buying a K40, adding air assist, and parallel port control for Mach or EMC2 (or heck, even a DSP) would put me at less than half of the new LightObject machine. I know I'm comparing apples to oranges here, and a discussion of the differences between the two machines could rival the length of That Tolstoy Novel, but for my purposes, I don't need the laundry list of awesome features that the Lightobject or Epilog machines offer.

Adding a DSP, air assist, and doing upgrades though presents some cost issues. Even though I'm still less than half the price of an Epilog or a LightObject laser, it's sort of in the "next tier up" from the K40 of "ebay lasers" -- something like these:

CO2 Laser Engraving Machine ENGRAVER Cutter Auxiliary Rotary Device 50W New Ad | eBay

Those suckers, although significantly larger than the K40, are sort of tickling the upper end of possibility for easy transport without a large vehicle. I've seen lots of them on ebay, but like the K40, it's hard to find outside of ebay. Having lurked here for a while, I've seen folks mention that chinese suppliers who sell on ebay tend to cheap out the machines, compared to similar machines that sell for the same dollar value outside of ebay, due to seller fees and whatnot.

I'm still bound and determined to build my own CO2 laser, it's just not in the cards immediately. I figure that if I own a smaller laser, it'll be easier to build the bigger laser, both from the experience of rolling up my sleeves and plumbing into the smaller one, -and- having a laser to make parts.

To sum up this rambling stream of consciousness:

1) I know the K40 isn't the best piece of kit in the world, but it's the right physical footprint. I'm not afraid of getting my hands dirty, and not a stranger to these mechanics and electronics, so my research has led me to believe I could slap it around into something better than it was, and could do what I want it to.

2) Getting the K40 up to spec puts it up into the price range of the next tier up of chinese lasers, such as the RedSail X700 (from what I understand, I have not received quotes) but they seem a bit too big for easy transport.

3) Is there a happy medium in physical size and price between the K40, and the Redsail X700 -- a sort of a "sweet spot" for small desktop CO2 lasers

4) I'd like to solicit recommendations of a laser with the following criteria: a) small enough for easy transport to events. b) cheap enough so that if fumble-fingered me manages to have a transport mishap, I won't spend -as much- time sobbing over the shattered remains.

Thanks for reading! I've been doing as much research as I possibly can, and am always eager to learn more. If you can think of any stuff I should spend more time learning about, spin me around and give me a shove toward it!

-C

[mondo50m]

In my opinion, you may as well stop at the easy transport part. Transporting a laser will surely knock the alignment out. This would probably happen every time you picked up the machine to transport it. Maybe not, just a thought.

Milt

[epilotdk]

The 50W machine you link to is not easily transported and although they claim the tube is 50W it is closer to 40W. Moving a laser around is a bad idea. As already mentioned, you will need to re-align the mirrors every time. They are also on the heavy side and bulky. Better get something that can be wheeled around if you must transport it.

IMHO the K-40 machines are false economy. By the time you have spent time and money on upgrading it to make it of any use you could just as well have bought a better machines AND it would still have a warranty if anything breaks. Once you mod the K-40 the warranty is out the window (if you are lucky enough that the seller will honour any warranty in the first place).

One thing to keep in mind if you are going to events is that you must be able to vent any fumes from the cutting away. That could mean long ducting runs which will require a hefty extractor fan.

[wontpontificate]

The 50W machine you link to is not easily transported and although they claim the tube is 50W it is closer to 40W. Moving a laser around is a bad idea. As already mentioned, you will need to re-align the mirrors every time. They are also on the heavy side and bulky. Better get something that can be wheeled around if you must transport it.

I'm kind of resigned to the heavy and bulky point at this point, but I'd still like to be able to move it without a truck. Having to realign the mirrors is certainly a pain in the tuchus, but for the amount of volume I could do in a 2-3 day event, I think it's worth it. And yeah, I kind of suspected the 50w unit would be closer to 40w, and the price is fairly steep compared to the units offered by "cnccheap" (They look like Redsail units, and I think I read somewhere that they were the official ebay sales force of Redsail). I've been looking at ebay prices, since most manufacturers don't list their prices on their websites, and I haven't got round to emailing for quotes and specs on some of the smaller machines.

IMHO the K-40 machines are false economy. By the time you have spent time and money on upgrading it to make it of any use you could just as well have bought a better machines AND it would still have a warranty if anything breaks. Once you mod the K-40 the warranty is out the window (if you are lucky enough that the seller will honour any warranty in the first place).

Yeah, I was kind of speculating on this in the above. Thing is, the K40 is still fairly diminutive in size. If I bought one, I'd be doing it with the knowledge that the warranty probably isn't really worth the pixels that spell it out on the ebay page, aside from POSSIBLY a non-DOA guarantee. Additionally, if the thing exploded, I'd probably not grenade everything in it, and could likely salvage my upgrades to stick into another K40, or a DIY unit that the K40 would help me make parts for.

This is why I was kind of wondering if there were something close in size to the K40, but a step up, and closer in features and performance to that bigger model.

One thing to keep in mind if you are going to events is that you must be able to vent any fumes from the cutting away. That could mean long ducting runs which will require a hefty extractor fan.

Yeah, I've got that in mind, and I'd either be indoors in a large room using carbon and HEPA filters, with sufficient HVAC capacity to get rid of the stinkless exhaust, or close to a window I could vent to. I'm also eyeballing some surplus extraction equipment I can get my hands on if I need to be away from a door or window. (Note for those concerned: I wouldn't vent the fumes anywhere without event staff knowing exactly what I'm doing, I'd cheap out on the laser cutter before I even thought about cutting corners with health and safety.)

I'm also experimenting with high powere diode lasers. They present their own challenges, such as what they treat as opaque for engraving, the dangers presented by visible light laser (which isn't filtered out by perspex like the wavelength of CO2 is) and the slow speed/lower power. If I can get them to do what I want though, they could be a viable option.

-C