[MonoNeuron]

Hi Goddess,
I would buy a second laser tube and probably a lens. If you look after the mirrors and be careful with them then they will last a very long time if you are only using around 40 - 60 watts. Don't touch the mirror or lens surfaces with your fingers and if you clean them then use a good quality blower brush and be gentle. If they ever get a residue that can't be blown off them then use the drag method to clean them. This means get a piece of blotting paper and soak it with a little bit of Isopropyl alcohol or high grade Acetone and slowly drag it across the lens/mirror letting the fluid dry behind the blotting paper as you go.
The belts should last hundreds if not thousands of hours if they run correctly and are readily available from parts suppliers in the States like McMaster Carr and Stock Drive products and are not that expensive. Lasers are only noisy because they need a suction air pump to rid the cutting area and the machine of smoke which should be vented through activated carbon or allowed to be vented outside (but the neighbors might not like the smoke especially if they have asthma like so many do now-a-days).
Any computer will do from a 386 and up but if you get a faster one then you don't have to wait around for things to get done. Cheap Pentium computers can be had for the asking if you check out a photocopy/printing house or advertise in the local newspaper. You should be able to get one for a few hundred as people upgrade these things regularly. Just ask around for a donation of a computer for your "special project" and you never know who will take you up on it if you let them have a few cut parts for free.
Cooling is a must for the Tube and refrigerated would be a better choice as the tubes work more efficient if they are not running hot and will last longer. It's like everything. Keep the heat out. It's not a must for it to be refrigerated though as distilled water passed through a radiator with fans blowing through it is also OK and quite acceptable. Place 1 drop of photographic wetting agent in the water so that bubbles don't stick to the sides of the laser cooling tube. (puritans may not like this idea though)
Hope this helps somewhat.
warm regards
Richard.

[QUOTE=goddessofchaos;305239]I have decided that to order the 3040 from WKLaser with Frank Fang's help will be the best way for me to get into a small part-time business. Reading as much as possible on this forum and also Sawmill Creek I have appreciated all of the input from everyone and people have been most helpful!

[pedroman]

Goddess, congrats on making a big decision.

Several things to be aware of. You are Mac and the system runs via PC. Imagine the commercials on TV to be on the lighter side of the learning curve. It is a big transition just there. If you are looking at used PCs you are doing yourself an injustice. I don't know where you live but you can get a current processor PC at places like Best Buy, Frys Office Depot often for 400 USD which will be faster and more stable than even a two year old machine bought used. WARNING New PCs come with VISTA the latest operating system from Microsoft. There have been reports that VISTA does not work well with the control cards from the laser companies. Ask a friend for the WindowsXP operating system. It is very stable and works with these cards. Also setup a small network with an inexpensive router to transfer files from Mac to PC. $50 should get cables, router etc to do this.

The smaller laser systems use a PCI card (card that goes into a slot in the PC computer) which many have complained about as being very unreliable. I know Flyguy has had issues and others as well. The larger units use a control card that is on the laser and you transfer a file to the laser then run the laser independent of the PC. I like this much better as it sets the machine up for production runs allowing the operator to simply hit the start button on the laser without a PC attached and run multiple pieces easily.

Smoke / smell. Be ready for it and make sure you have a very good exhaust method for your machine. The laser works by burning the material and this generates smoke and smell. Make sure you have air assist which blows air out a nozzle at the work piece and helps to keep your lens clean.

Paypal is not the safe secure system they claim. I use paypal for my eBay sales as an easy payment method for people buying stuff from me. I also use it to pay people on eBay. I have had a poor experience where I paid for an eBay purchase with paypal, never received the product, went through the two month process to get a refund and NEVER collected the entire amount back. The seller simply abandoned the paypal account leaving only $5 USD in it and that's all paypal ever refunded. Paypal will not work for you to get you money back if you are dissatisfied. Don't count on any protection through paypal.

The laser is cooled by water and if you can refrigerate the water even better. I bought the chiller which works very well and keeps the water at whatever temp I set it at. Certainly the noise you ask about is primarily the peripheral equipment, blower, air compressor and chiller but not the laser. The laser is about the noise level of the older dot matrix printers so not very noisy at all.

Parts Buy a spare tube. I did and luckily I got one out of two functional when the machine arrived. These tubes are very thin walled glass blown tubes that are not very well packed. I believe of all parts in the machine this is the most fragile of all. By the time you need new lenses the growing community will have found a US source for everything else in the machine.

I hope this helps.

:cheers:

Pete

[MonoNeuron]

1 other thing,
Try out the program " Inkscape " for all your vector work. It's free and is uncluttered and works fine.
Rich.

[goddessofchaos]

I thank you guys for your input - and with the reassurance that I don't need to order a lot of extras I will be calling Frank this afternoon. N

[goddessofchaos]

I hit something accidentally and didn't finish my message! Anyway, thank you guys for your input. And my next hope is that I will be able to understand how to work the program. But I am sure there are answers out here if I run into difficulty.

[wklaser]

If someboby have questions or suggestions on our laser machine or after sale service, please contact us by the following address:


[email protected]
or
[email protected]

[goddessofchaos]

Hey thanks Mononeuron. I downloaded Inkscape (with a bit of difficulty in understanding what/how to do it but persisted) and it is so intuitive and simple to do quick vector work - a lot easier than my tried and true Illustrator! I am not giving up Illustrator CS2 but for a fast trial I was able to play with it and do things without resorting to help at all. Looks good.

Jacqui, Goddess of Chaos, GSOLFOT

[pbucha]

Hi I have been following this thread with interest, I am currently looking at products by WKlaser and HXlaser (rabbit), I am impressed by both. @pedroman did you buy the chiller with the laser from rabbit or from a separate company. Also for air filters what would you, or anyone else recommend?

I am intending to run the machine from the back of my shop, which is on a high street...but I have no outside wall there. so I will have to duct to the front of the shop. This is not too much of an issue, unless the exhausted air is full of fumes and particulate material, hence the need for resonable filtration. Of course I dont want to end up paying more for the filter than for the laser.

I'd just like to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread it has been very usefull to me. I had not thought through properly the cooling or exhaust till reading this.

thanks again

Paul

[pedroman]

Paul,

I bought the chiller with my machine as a convenience. It is basicly a small water cooler and pump unit that has a microprocessor controller unit as the control. probably more expensive that needed but works well and will probably extend the tube life a little. As far as a filter I am not running a filter now. My laser is on the bottom floor of my two story building and I simply used the forced air furnace vent stack for my exhaust port. OBVIOUSLY my furnace gas is OFF and will not be used until I re-plumb exhaust for the laser but I needed a quick way to exhaust the fumes. LOTS OF FUMES so you need to exhaust the laser to the outside. Even as it is the smell of acrylic still lingers in the air two weeks after finishing the first job.

If you can find a good yet inexpensive active carbon filter it would be better for your neighbors for sure.

A word of caution to all:
HXLASER is the manufacturer I am speaking of now but likely the same conditions exist for many of these Chinese laser units.

The electronics for everything delivered as 220vt but they mainly use a plug which is the same as any 15A110vt plug in the US. The heavy power supply provided takes a 110vt circuit and delivers 220vt to the powerstrip attached to the front. Not a very elegant solution but certainly works fine. Here is where the Chinese need to study our electrical supply in the US and conform to standards. One plug (air pump) is a european round pin connection (220vt). while everything else uses a 15a110vt standard plug but the machine runs at 220vt. NOT SAFE! I will be running new circuits to where I am putting my laser for its final location thus eliminating the power supply. I am also altering the plugs to match the US codes for 220vt operation. There is nothing worse that frying something because the wrong receptcle was used for higher voltage. Imagine using the matching recepticles for the plugs they provided and plugging in my latest router or saw purchase. ZAPO in an instant.

Hope this helps.

Pete AKA Pedroman

[pbucha]

Thanks Pete, I spoke to HX and they can supply me with a filter system for $950 which is not cheap, but probably reasonable compared to a 'Purex' product...not that I've found prices for purex filters.
I hope I should be ok on the electrical front since I'm in Europe, Spain to be precise and we only have 220V here.. or at least it's 220.ish.V when it works
The electrical standards out here are, shall we say more relaxed than in other parts of europe. My last house I had was wired top to bottom in bell wire!!!

I downloaded the setup video from HX's site, that helped a lot to reasure me about what i would have to do, I gotta say it looks easier than an Ikea flatpack nightmare :devious:

I have been looking for about a month now at all the different brands, I definitely cant afford a US or European brand, I can fix cars, build houses, fabricate parts and know more about PC's than is probably healthly for me. So I'm not afraid to dive in, and at the price point offered by the Chinese manu'f I recognise I'm going to have to.

So wish me luck as ...once more unto the breach.

I shall be keeping an eye on here hoping to pick up hints and tips as well as offer my own experiences.

thanks again

Paul

[yamingf]

i think thats something I have been doing here in US --- bring a better product and best service here to this industry community. but not for all chinese manufacturer, only for rabbitlaser. www.rabbitlaser.com

[axm]

Hi all, this thread has been extremely informative. I am almost committed to purchasing a laser engraver/cutter mentioned in this forum but would like to get some feed back on it's ability to do detailed work.

I occasionally have the need to cut detailed patterns, (and this is somewhat of a lower priority but also need accuracy -- if the vector data says 1.11 inch, I need an 1.11 inch cut.)

I've been working with a local engraver who has a RF laser tube based cutter (Epilog). It has become quite expensive to outsource my work so I am considering getting one. I understand that the laser systems discussed here are Glass laser tubes (I am not sure if the technology itself makes a difference or just the power but anyway,) and the more power it uses, the larger the diameter of the laser dot.

Does anyone have an idea how these machines compare in terms of detail work? For example, Epilog has an image:
http://www.epiloglaser.com/images/left_whyengraving.jpg
Can I expect a 60W (Glass tube) machine to do this kind of work?

Thanks!

[yamingf]

AXM,
RF laser tube will be much better than CO2 glass laser , they are not on same level to compete, but CO2 is much cheaper than RF, this is another fact. good news is that you can make up for this by using software to improve CO2 glass laser's engraving quality. we bought a copy of photograv and it can convert your file and make the engraving quality 3 times better than original file.

[wklaser]

Hi there,
Thanks for the kindly support. We are attending the advertisement trade show in Shanghai from 3th July to 6th July, all of our models will be there for your test. Anybody will go there??

Sincerely
JackYin


:rainfro: :rainfro: :rainfro: :rainfro: :rainfro: :rainfro: :rainfro: :rainfro:

[wklaser]

new model LC1225~~~



(nuts) :rainfro:


ps: Weclome distributers.. Any competitor who just want to discredit us with dirty measure are forbidden.. Thanks for cooperation..:rainfro:

[SRT Mike]

new model LC1225~~~



(nuts) :rainfro:


ps: Weclome distributers.. Any competitor who just want to discredit us with dirty measure are forbidden.. Thanks for cooperation..:rainfro:

Can you give pricing information for your line of machines?

They seem to be the best choice among the Chinese laser manufacturers when buying direct - but without price its hard to tell which machine I can afford

Thanks
Mike

[wklaser]

Hi Mike,
We have an agent in USA for LG models, but if you need LC model, pelase contact me, [email protected], or, [email protected]


JackYin

[SRT Mike]

Hi Mike,
We have an agent in USA for LG models, but if you need LC model, pelase contact me, [email protected], or, [email protected]


JackYin

Hi Jack,

I am really not sure if I want an LG or LC machine. I see that LG is for engraving and LC is for cutting. Here is what I want to do with it (in order of importance to me)

1) Cut gaskets from thin (1mm) gasket stock (maybe neoprene or silicone or rubber)
2) Mark (engrave) anodized aluminum
3) Cut thin 1/8" (3mm) opaque (black) acrylic with the smallest kerf possible so I can cut intricate shapes
4) Cut other thin plastics like PET, UHMW, etc in sizes ranging up to 1/4" (6mm)

I also work with a lot of 1.25" acrylic. I CNC machine it now, so its not really necessary to be able to cut it on the laser, but if it can do it, it would be nice. I would also like to be able to mark/engrave plastic as well as cut it.

To be honest, I really dont care about raster at all. All of my engraving would just be simple text and I do all my programs in AutoCAD so they will always be vector.

Can you suggest which machine (LC or LG) is best and which range of laser power? I was thinking something around 60W-80W.

[wklaser]

Hi mike,
Please contact me by email.. [email protected] or [email protected], thanks

JackYin

[mlind]

Hmmm,,

My presonal experience with anything made in China has been bad. LOL