I have the reci W4 rated at 130 max, I think I’m reality it’s 100.
I assume you have the W6 or something equivalent. Anyway, your vid blew me away! I gotta get myself a 4” lens and do some tests!
Trust me. Save yourself the time and hassle. Simply buy two more standard lens holders and have them preloaded with different focal lengths. This way you’re not fumbling around with delicate lenses.
US $14.90 29％ Off | 1pc CO2 Laser Head Lens Tube + Air Nozzle for Lens Diameter 20mm Adjust Focal Length 50.8/63.5/101mm for CO2 Laser Machine
Ditto. It is so much more efficient, and less risky, to have a SEPARATE HOLDER FOR EACH LENS. (oops sorry about caps lock).
We have the ones you can end-for-end, so the lens can be fitted at the top, nearly 3" from the nozzle, or at the bottom, but we have different spacer gauges for each lens for each machine. The gauges vary from 18mm, to 10.5mm, to 8mm to 6 and 5 mm.
The 130 watt laser (Reci -W6 labelled 150 but actual 130w) has the 4" lens permanently in it. But it has a different nozzle too- a 3" long tapered cone.
I found a 5" lens the other day for those over 1" thick jobs - but you have to realise at those thicknesses, (eg acrylic or yukky sticky MDF) the improvements or gains are not proportional nor linear, as heat dissipation and larger spot size affect things much more than skipping over a bit of 1/4" acrylic, for instance.
I’m sure this isn’t an original idea but I use 3d printed collars for each lens tube so that the z height focus is the same when I switch tubes with different lenses.
Hi Richard
I have the same system.
Keep the narrow cone on, do not use the wide cone for this. This might be the issue. The wide cone if for engraving only. You need a high stream of air for cutting timber.
About 13mm from nozzle tip focus should be fine.
Cut at about 6mm/s @ 65% power
Remember that when using lightburn to do slow deep cuts you have to set the minimum and maximum power setting to 60% othewise the power will stop back to 10% by default when cutting at a speed less than about 9mm/sec. That is an inbuilt safety precaution.
Depending on the material, you may need to tell it to do 2 passes as this is aproaching the limit of what it can do in one cut. I’f I’d had my time over again I would have gone to an even higher wattage.
The beam is definitely noticably wider on this lens, and it is probably designed to be used for cutting thicker material such as 35mm foamboard etc so that the energy at the base of the cut is still concentrated enough.
Hope this helps.
Terry
