Cheap Chinese Laser Cutter

[FlyinFlynn]

11 hours ago, Martian said:

I use an NJE n40630 laser module in my engraver /cutter . a really cheap module will not be very good or last long and power output is misleading .it really depends on what you refer to as cheap. I personally find the NJE modules consistent . 

 

I think Martin means NEJE. 

 

 

17 hours ago, Andy Joyce said:

Thinking a power upgrade would improve my cutter. Anyone spotted a cheap source for say a ~100w fixed focus laser head?

 

AFAIK there have been no miraculous breakthroughs in laser technology.. the most powerful laser diodes in the 450nm band are still around 5 - 6 watts, so to get 10 watts they put two diodes in a single enclosure to get more power out. there are now quad diode laser modules available now which claim, unsurprisingly, to be 20 Watts....  but 'cheap' is not what I would call them.

Output power is not everything, the quality of the optics plays a large roll in the quality of the results. https://hobbylasercutters.com/optical-power-measuring/ have done a comparative test between some popular makes (NEJE didn't do too well!... but that is just their opinion!).

 

If you really want to increase the input power to ~100 watts, just add a high wattage resistor across the power supply.... 🙂 

[Andy J]

26 minutes ago, FlyinFlynn said:

 

If you really want to increase the input power to ~100 watts, just add a high wattage resistor across the power supply.... 🙂 

Ha Ha not quite the mod I had in mind.  Think the issue I have with my current laser diode is that the optical power drops wrt On time as it gets very hot. Do have a miniature fan on top of the heat sink so I suppose I could improve that, as its flow rate is very low.  Did note that on several of the ebay pages that they declare the optical power as 5W for about £100 increasing to 6W for about £150.

 

Having watched an youtube clip showing what I think was described as a 100W cutter cutting 5mm ply if a fixed focus device would be better. But given all of my cutting is various thickness materiel I can now see that this would be an issue requiring some form of screwed adjustment for the head.

[Martian]

I built my own cutter/engraving unit and it has an adjustable head height.

[Andy J]

Purchased a N30820 5.5W laser today at a reasonable price so will be keen to see if that's an improvement over my old unit.

 

Also, has anyone designed and machined up a air assist nozzle that would fit say around the lens rather than the simple bent pipe approach I have used in the past.

[Jason Channing]

17 hours ago, Andy Joyce said:

Purchased a N30820 5.5W laser today at a reasonable price so will be keen to see if that's an improvement over my old unit.

 

Also, has anyone designed and machined up a air assist nozzle that would fit say around the lens rather than the simple bent pipe approach I have used in the past.

I 3d printed one which works well, so long as the beam is centred the nozzle gives a huge improvement, the LED laser is handy for its size and takes little effort to get up and running compared to my CO2 powered one.

[Andy J]

Also went looking on ebay for a Z axis adjustment slide which may prove to be useful given I often cut materiel of different thicknesses. Found this one which may prove to be useful at a reasonable price.

[Flying Squirrel]

On 30/11/2019 at 10:01, Geoff Gardiner said:

Joshua.

I have just built a laser cutter with the dimensions that you are after.

Have a look at my build log here.

It will also take a dremel for cutting thicker ply.

Geoff...

 

Is thread still available?? Link is not working. Apologies if it's mentioned elsewhere.

 

On 01/12/2019 at 15:04, FlyinFlynn said:

Posted by Joshua Henderson 1 on 30/11/2019 09:51:59:

Flyinfynn

 

Please put a link on here when gig start building.

what size are you building and with what components?

 

I like the idea of being able to cut a full kit hence the sizing as the Eleksmaker A3 only have a small cutting area.

 

Im sure some way with the Extended frames they can be supported somehow? Just don’t know what to buy as a start for the laser cutter/ setup to then tinker with?

 

 

Link is https://www.modelflying.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=147510

I have a 1.2 meter length of 20x40 lying around (as you do!!) so i will build it that long, probably be about 30cms wide. As it is a simple design and quite light on the cantilevered gantry it should not suffer too much from vibrations. Buying an eleksmaker and possibly modding it to your requirements would be the less traumatic way to go but where is the fun in that? There is no magic in these engraver/cutters, you just need to arrange for the laser to be in the right place at the right time..and most of that is done by the microprocessor, if there is any magic in this process it is in being able to master the software to get your design in a machine readable form.

 

 

Or this one? Thanks

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

12 minutes ago, Flying Squirrel said:

 

Is thread still available?? Link is not working. Apologies if it's mentioned elsewhere.

 

 

 

Or this one? Thanks

 

Threads are still there FS, just the links don't work since forum moved to new platform.

 

[FlyinFlynn]

Is this the link you wanted?