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SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → General Discussion → pastprimitive and adrian's lasercutter chat
The upside of this long handling time is my laser cutter should be arriving in a week or so. I'll get to get it all set up and cut out my case:D
You'll need that time to come to grips with focus distance and kerf .. 
@elmoret - Good to have that confirmed.
@adrian - Yeah. I'm prepared for another baptism by fire, 40 watts of glorious infrared fire!
@pastprimitive,
I've been looking for a laser cutter. Do you have a link?
yes, it's a cheap Chinese model. But I am confident it will be adequate for my needs. Plus $600 including shipping, and all the necessary exhaust and cooling fixtures... I'm not complaining. Sure it can only engage about the size of a piece of paper.... but with replacement laser tubes readily available for $200 each... well this is all on a budget I can get behind.
The cases and FilaWinder were cut by a 60w. The people at Full Spectrum Laser kept saying the 40w can cut through 1/4" wood, but probably not MDF or HDF.
Keep us posted on how that works, Ive been looking for a laser engraver for quite some time but never thought to look on Ebay I guess,, all of the ones Ive seen have been $2000+ base price
Crazy1
yes, it's a cheap Chinese model. But I am confident it will be adequate for my needs. Plus $600 including shipping, and all the necessary exhaust and cooling fixtures... I'm not complaining. Sure it can only engage about the size of a piece of paper.... but with replacement laser tubes readily available for $200 each... well this is all on a budget I can get behind.
Can a 40w engrave a logo on 6061 aluminum? maybe do multiple passes, or "vector graphing" as its called at Full Spectrum.
Crazy1
The cases and FilaWinder were cut by a 60w. The people at Full Spectrum Laser kept saying the 40w can cut through 1/4" wood, but probably not MDF or HDF.
@ IanJohnson I think it's simply a matter of number of passes. May need to do some double cutting, etc. But I am not getting my hopes up. I know what I paid for;) And I won't require that much of the machine. I know when a company promises something that seems a bit extreme given the product specs that what they are really saying is "in a pinch" it will do etc... I think the same goes.
Plus I have my CNC router to handle the really beefy stuff.
here's a link of reports of various laser powers and maximum real world cutting depths. People reporting cutting through 1/4 mdc with a 25 WATT. Anyhow, time, speed, etc...
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread. … u-have-cut
@Crazy1 It won't be able to engrave on unfinished aluminum. There are spray on coats, etc... but that is really engraving the coating. I believe it will handle anodized aluminum however. But I am not sure on that one, I'll obviously be looking into it.
@Crazy1 It won't be able to engrave on unfinished aluminum. There are spray on coats, etc... but that is really engraving the coating. I believe it will handle anodized aluminum however. But I am not sure on that one, I'll obviously be looking into it.
Correct - really anything in the 40W CO2 class is best described as an engraver that can do deep engraving and thus cuts to a certain extent or through multi-pass - but then you have other issues with multipass laser cuts depending on the edge you want etc. or just material contamination in general (weird gases get released depending on what you are cutting - some quite noxious and corrosive)...
As for marking ano alu... yup, you can laser 'engrave' anodised alu such as PC cases - but you're not really 'engraving' the alu - rather you are causing the dye in the capillaries produced as part of the anodizing processes to evaporate.. essentially what 'laser tattoo removal' is doing... So your 'engraved' relief will always be 'bare aluminium' (aka white/silver) showing through...
Alternatively, you can use CerMark LMM6000 or equivalent (http://www.thermark.com/content/view/36/78/) - which is a laser marking 'ink' for use on metals. Its how those really neat little logo's are again 'engraved' on tools permanently... available in spray on or paint on preparations...
Finally - not everything can actually be laser cut without consideration - PVC will produce chlorine gas which will eat the coatings on the mirrors and the internal in general. ABS produces HCN when cut with a laser... So you need to learn to do 'burn tests' to try and determine what plastics/materials are made of before engraving with a laser.
Anyway - Way OT now - but its probably worth a thread of its own somewhere....
Thread of it's own, I like that. I knew about the noxious gas part. So does the laser marking ink just get burned onto the metal essentially working it's way into the grain?
How about PLA or HDPE/LDPE? I'm not ashamed to see if I can squeeze a little more info out of you adrian.
Now you have a thread of your own.
Gotta keep things on topic, as I point customers to that thread for updates.
Ha ha, thanks... Sorry about the thread jacking.
Now you have a thread of your own.
Gotta keep things on topic, as I point customers to that thread for updates.
Perhaps best moved to general discussion or projects.
elmoret wrote:Now you have a thread of your own.
Gotta keep things on topic, as I point customers to that thread for updates.
Perhaps best moved to general discussion or projects.
I don't have that power, I'm a mini-mod.
EDIT: someone did it!
SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → General Discussion → pastprimitive and adrian's lasercutter chat
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