Lasers

[kubotaman]

Just curious as to what some of you have for brand of lasers. If you have one, can you please tell me if you are satisfied with it and what it's capabilities are? Thanks!

[tomwillis]

Hi Daryl,

I have a Universal 40 watt on PRT Alpha and my second Z holds my porter cable router. Lots of capabilities....anything specific that you'd like to know?

Tom

[kubotaman]

Thomas, I am assuming you made the laser yourself?? How does it work and will it cut say .25 deep in wood? I really know nothing about them so can you explain how it works? It sounds interesting to have a laser and a Bot at the same time. I can see lots of possibilities!

[danhamm]

UL laser 40 watt, not on cnc, 1200 lines per inch, 82 inches per second.
soft woods no knotts .5 inches cut for boxes, pine, cedar 3/8 acrylic.
see what we make at.
www.burningimpressions.ca (http://www.burningimpressions.ca) or
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Burning-Impressions/107304665958314?ref=hl

[tomwillis]

Daryl - I purchased the Laser from Universal and then integrated it into my Shopbot.....so I have twin Z's - one for Laser and one for Router. I have both vector cutting and rastering capability with the laser. ie- rastering allows you to etch pictures into a variety of substrates, granite, wood, acrylic, glass etc. Feel free to give me a call - if you want more details. 603 991-0484 Tom

[genek]

I have epilog, 45 and 75 watt, good to cut 1/8 baltic birch solid wood etc.. If I had it to do over again would have gotten two 80 watt from another company cheaper than what I paid for my 45 watt... would have still had money left over.. lasers are very use full can do things cnc can not. e-mail me at eking1953@yahoo.com will put you in contact with a good laser that is cheaper to buy and to replace laser tube than universal or epilog.

[danhamm]

So Thomas, your packing the laser tube on the gantry..? in the vertical.? or horizontal with mirrors.? have you geared up your Alpha to make use of the lasers power, as most lasers of 25 to 100 watt run at 40 to over a 100 inches a second, we put a synrad tube on a shopbot about 10 years ago and tried it,
then took it off.

[tomwillis]

Hi Dan,

I originally checked into Synrad - but Synrad didn't recommend mounting the laser in the vertical....so I chose Universal. Yes - it's mounted in the vertical and I have the original 911 motors for my Alpha. When I raster pics - the machine speeds are set- typically at 660ipm. Not really sure if they're achieving that - though. The etchings come out great and depending upon the substrate - seems to drive the power & speeds. Vector cutting - I'll change machine speeds based upon what I'm cutting. I'm doing mostly cutting of corrugated and folding carton board. Sometimes I use a custom "scoring" tool in the router - but other times I just scale back the power in the laser to score and then power up for the "knifing." The issue - I've found....other than vibration...is dust when using the router...so typically I cover the laser.

Why did you take your laser off?

Tom

[danhamm]

In 2001 the resolution wasn't good enough and the speed was 1/25 of what was needed.

[t28c34]

I would love to some day put a laser on my second z. Whats the costs involved? Do you have to buy a univerals system and gut it to re-mount everything on your bot?

[ssflyer]

Actually, some people have bought inexpensive solid state laser modules off eBay, and used them. I'll try to find the references later. If I'm not mistaken, the new SB3 software (now in beta) supports PWM outputs for laser contril...

[tomwillis]

Hi Terry,

The costs are fairly expensive for a Universal system. Approx cost of a 40 watt at the time - was $6500 including nozzle and lenses. I've added some lenses to my inventory....but the real cost was integration. Recently at the Maine camp - Bill P mentioned something about SB - not quite there yet on laser support - but I'd confirm directly with SB. I have to use a different control software....and works well for what I'm doing - but probably depends upon - what you're going to use the machine for.....to evaluate the expense.

Hope this helps - Tom

[SomeSailor]

Just curious as to what some of you have for brand of lasers. If you have one, can you please tell me if you are satisfied with it and what it's capabilities are? Thanks!

Hi Darrell;

I have had a Pinnacle M Series from Sign Warehouse (GCC LaserPro) 65W since 2005 and it's been perfect. It's a great additiona to my ShopBot.

[garyr6]

I have a 60 watt from Full Spectrum Engineering.... great price and for what I got, worth the effort and minor tribulations.