[fantasy2]

Depends, on ebay you can find some pretty good deals on these lasers. Around 1500~2000 USD. If you put a RF Tube in the machine it's almost the same cost. So with a bit of work you can have a machine that only costs let's say, 8000 USD. That's not that much..

[Litografa]

Everyone must do their own work - somebody produce lasers, somebody sell and service them, somebody work on lasers. Solutions like "I will google Internet, find parts, assemble laser for nothing, will work and make money for new Hammer before New Year " usually do not work

[fantasy2]

I cannot agree more, but, this is a big machinists forum and not only for professionals selling products to their costumers and bringing service here. That's only a small part of it.

I'm a mechanical and electronics engineer so I already design machines and products on daily basis(although those machines have different functions and don't work with lasers).

My interest is always like, can I make this or do this myself? That's the fun of being an engineer!

If you have the ability to change the machine for not that big money and are capable of doing that. Then why not? It can save you 24.000 euro!

It's not always about 24/7 production. Where is the fun of that?
Sure, for production I will use the high end products. But for DIY and hobby purposes it can be very nice and fun.

I'm thinking about buying a cheap HX40B as a base for a small machine, replace the electronics and the Co2 laser with a small diode laser. Maybe I can even engrave small dogtags with it or cut SMD solder sheet.

....or am I dreaming and should someone wake me up here?

Everyone must do their own work - somebody produce lasers, somebody sell and service them, somebody work on lasers. Solutions like "I will google Internet, find parts, assemble laser for nothing, will work and make money for new Hammer before New Year " usually do not work

[Litografa]

It's not about you If you have degree, knowledge, experience - it's OK. The problem of many forum visitors is that they have very basic knowledge but think that it will be enough to built equipment. Same situation here in Lithuania now. Young generation thought - "If Cninese can made this laser, why I can not built from E-bay parts". And this vision is heated by E-bay ads - EASY, JUST BUY FROM ME AND CONNECT TO ELECTRICITY, WARRANTY 24 MONTHS, EXTRAPOWERFUL, 200 KWT, YOU CAN CUT STEEL and etc
I hate when sellers too easy manipulate by words
Sorry for offtop

[zax15uk]

If you buy a HX40B and remove the electronics and laser you've essentially got a very small belt and stepper driven XY table in an enclosure. You could assembly a larger XY table with higher quality components for less cost - so why bother?

Now I would buy the HX40B, keep the electronics and laser - use it 'as is' and upgrade it with a diode laser (in additional) for metal engraving or whatever.

Zax.

I'm thinking about buying a cheap HX40B as a base for a small machine, replace the electronics and the Co2 laser with a small diode laser. Maybe I can even engrave small dogtags with it or cut SMD solder sheet.

....or am I dreaming and should someone wake me up here?

[fantasy2]

don't know about the cost of the hx40 but expected it to be cheap.

It sounds like a nice idea for the upcoming vacation

[fullspeceng]

There are a few things to consider if you are changing wavelengths.

CO2 lasers are 10.6um. This is deep infrared and that is absorbed by organic material so you will get a burn but not too much else. YAG lasers and visible lasers pass through most organics including your clear eye lens.

This is bad because your eye is a lens and the laser will focus on your retina causing blindness if you are not careful. At least with CO2 you might get heat up and a nasty burn but it doesn't focus through your eye lens onto a spot which cause blind spots.

My CO2 laser cuts SMD stencils fine out of mylar and kapton.

_______________________________
www.fullspectrumengineering.com

low cost Mach3 controlled CO2 laser cutters, Inkjet PCB kits, Laser 3D Scanning, Solidworks 3D Mechancial Design, Electrical Engineering Design, overseas CNC manufacturing consulting

[fantasy2]

I'm aware of that and already got special laser glass to replace the original acrylic glass from the machine. I am also in contact with a guy that uses and makes laser machines so that's nice!

Anyway, just had contact with the rabbit laser factory and now they told me I can't separate the upper and lower cabinet of the HX6090SE while other distributors say I can separate them easily. Really confused here

Anyone who knows it and can place some pictures?

[VBLietuva]

Hi, everyone
I wroted earlier, but still have same problem cutting white acrylic. The laser beam makes black spots in the corners on side of the object. This time I have photo to show


I'm using 6090se rabbit laser and also have problem when cuting in right bottom corner of the table. It cuts much more weaker there and makes more wider cutting line. The height to laser head is a same, what could be a problem ?


Please help me with these 2 questions

[zax15uk]

It sounds like you have 2 issues.

The bottom right is weaker due to a misaligned beam, adjust the alignment at the furthest travel point (longest beam distance).

Your other issue may be due to the drawing, excessive nodes in the corners or the settings. The XY table must slow down to change direction and this means the beam stays in the same location for a longer time causing the excess heat, some machines/software can compensate for this, others can't. If you reduce the power and speed slightly it will lessen the issue.

Zax.

[geekinesis]

I have had a couple of similar problems with melting/burning acrylic.

All the good quality cast or extruded acrylic sheet I have cuts perfectly. I have bought the odd sheet from ebay and other cheap sources and have found that it cuts differently, similar to the burnt areas on your picture in the post above. Sometimes the edges seem to melt or curl over in a similar way to styrene.

I think there may be some differences in the acrylic at the cheaper end of the market, which may be manufactured differently or may have some additive (colour pigment?) which causes the burning/melting issues... Just a guess

Most of the cheaper opaque acrylics I have used seem to cut differently to clear cast or extruded acrylic.

After you have aligned you beam, it might be worthwhile testing a couple of different acrylics to see if that solves the burning issue.

[Litografa]

I am agree with Zax concerning speed slowdown on changing direction and as result OVERBURNING in this points. There was same problem with few customers on different materials. But we have in driver special setting which allowed fix this problem. I hope something similar must be in your lasers also.

[VBLietuva]

In my laser there is options :
speed
power
corner power
Today I'll try to deacrease corner power and write you all what hapend, I have tryied many acrylic, but the same problem

[VBLietuva]

Hi a, again
about cutting white acrylic again- I tried :
1. Cut by 2 times with less speed or power
2. I set corner power 0, 50 and 100, but not much help from that too
3. The acrylic should be good, because I tried few tipes, but same problem

I almost lost my hope... I bought this laser to cut acrylic mostly, and white, cream acrylic should be one of my favorites...

One good new for today- I have alignent mirrors perfectly and now I can cut all my table size perfectly

Please help me with advices, what could be a problem with white acrylic

[SkipW]

Hi a, again
about cutting white acrylic again- I tried :
1. Cut by 2 times with less speed or power
2. I set corner power 0, 50 and 100, but not much help from that too
3. The acrylic should be good, because I tried few tipes, but same problem

I almost lost my hope... I bought this laser to cut acrylic mostly, and white, cream acrylic should be one of my favorites...

One good new for today- I have alignent mirrors perfectly and now I can cut all my table size perfectly

Please help me with advices, what could be a problem with white acrylic

I see you started a new thread, good. I moved my reply to there.

[fantasy2]

It is 3 AM here and i couldn't get any sleep yet. Too exited about tomorrow when my hx6090 arrives! Feel like al little kid getting presents at christmas, lol.

Anyway, i hope i can help others with my new experience!


--------
edit:

Woo! Nice! Laser arrived in good shape.
We are now disassembling him to be able to move him.

[Tonio the best]

Hello, (sorry, I didn't know where to post this !)
I'm new on the forum and in plotters life !
My name is Antoine, I'm French so please forgive my bad English.
I just bought a rabbit HX 40 A from Jinan. I received it last Friday and installed it.
Everything went good, but the piece to maintain the piece to engrave is missing... What can I do about it ?
The main problem is that I can't make my MacBook Pro communicate with the machine.

Indeed, the connection is a Parallel port and the cable they gave me doesn't connect neither on the machine or the macbook. I bought another cable (think it's called DB9), it goes on the machine and on the MacBook pro via USB.

Till then, everything's ok. But when I try to send a File to engrave, I get an error : link error 2 and nothing happens... What can I do ? Why isn't it working ? I tried to change the USB port, change output on the software,... nothing seems to be working !
I installed the drivers on their website but it still doesn't work.
I'm a little desperate, could you please help me !!!

Configuration :
MacBook Pro late 2008 with Windows XP SP3
Drivers and included software

[Litografa]

Did you advice Jinan before purchase about fact that you will work with Mac?

[fantasy2]

Well.. the best thing you can do is buy a seperate computer and connect to it.

If it's a DB25 connector then connecting it with a DB9 to USB won't work. You need a real parallel port. There exist some DB25 to USB converters but most of them don't work that well with this kind of control.

What do you mean with "but the piece to maintain the piece to engrave is missing..." ?

[geekinesis]

Some brands of usb to parallel adapters are not compatible with the laser (and printers etc).

Hopefully if there is someone who uses a parallel adapter, they can post the brand.