Hello all, ok! I have been a user of CO2 for some time now but am looking to get hold of a fiber laser, I know very little only from what little bits I have read but basically just want it for playing around, doing something with metal etc. I’m not too worried about how much the unit might cost as long as it works with Lightburn and gives me plenty of room to grow if I take to it and not enough to break the bank if I don’t succeed. I see there is lots of machines out there, on eBay for instance there are some cheap some not. I like the idea of different colours on metal stainless mainly from what I read also like the idea of making pendants and such and just engraving metal objects. I am sure there is many things that a good fiber laser could do but where to start, I would appreciate any and all advice on what you think about brand names compared to non brand names for instance and is there really much difference if any. Anyway there is probably a thousand questions I should be asking but for now just listening and taking it in, I have looked at xtool, omtech, eBay and others that have popped up on google but need to really know what I am looking for so once again any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Bruce
We can’t help you if you don’t know what you’re looking for and have given us no details.
Co2 lasers are continuous wave lasers, whereas fiber is a pulse laser. If you’ve done any research it’s likely you know you need a MOPA for learning on, along with not too expensive, that you didn’t mention.
In general, visible led lasers and co2 work well on natural materials. Fiber works on man made materials. There are always exceptions. Such as co2 works great on acrylic, but not what I’d call a natural material.
I need better guidelines of what you want to do. Just start anywhere, we’ll get around to what you really want eventually.
This is a video from JPT who makes many of the fiber sources, it’s not bad.
I got all of my lasers out of sheer curiosity.
Jack Thanks for your input.
Yes you are correct it’s a bit hard to help someone when no parameters have been set. I have been doing more reading and looking today there is so much to go through. I like the idea of the IR and being able to mark such a wide variety of materials along with the fibre but I also like the fiber side for doing small proto PCB’s. The question is with the fiber for instance what size laser would I need to do a PCB easily with no effort at all.
Can you get dual IR and fiber lasers in the one package?, if so what would a decent machine be?
I just like the ability to be able to do these types of things when I need to rather than have to ask someone else to do if for me also yes I am also very curious to see what else I can do with these things but at the moment I would just like to mark some decent metals as well as the PCB’s and be able to mark a wide range of items as I am always being ask “can you write this on this for me?” for example and a CO2 just doesn’t cut it especially if its a small rock that someones had for x amount of time and its a keep sake whatever.
So, Is there a laser out there that anyone knows of that will mark small items like jewelery, rock & make small PCB’s & make decent marks on stainless etc that they know of.
I just basically want to know if there is a machine that anyone has used or seen that might do a little of what I have stated above, because all manufacturers always have the best machines ever until you get it and use it.
I really don’t do pcb’s on mine, mainly because FR4 has an epoxy center. You shouldn’t lase it as it produces debris such as gasses that aren’t good for you.
There is also a problem with making holes.
I don’t know what process you’re using, so I have to guess, but some people coat a board and use the UV laser to set it and etch it normally.
I have a 60W MOPA and it’s tough to get it where it’s just removing copper. There are a number of videos of people doing this on Youtube, so you might hunt around there.
Fiber seems to work on rocks, but if you’re too aggressive, it just melts back to lava, if that’s the type of rock you have.
If you click on the magnifying glass icon, top right, you can search the site. Search on pcb and you’ll find a number of them. Some are like 20W machines.
Make sense?
Have any other questions, sing out.
With the PCB’s I have etched and CNC as well also done the PCB way and other manufacturers as well but etcing is nearly always a little hit and miss, CNC dust etc well I don’t know whats worse smoke or fiberglass & copper dust, and for 1 of’s you just want something fast & I think with the fiber laser it would still have to invert etc but it looks so much quicker.
The Rocks, hmm well most of the stuff I have around me is granite and its hard, but the trinkets I get asked to do well I don’t even know what some of it is so turning someones keep sake into lava would not go down to well I don’t think so not sure on that one & certainly would like to avoid the tears.
Q. with a fiber laser are you better off with auto focus or not a big issue?
Q. what sort of wattage should one be looking for? are you better of having more power than you need incase you do need to use it one day or start off small?.
Q. with a UV laser for instance what sort of laser wattage should I be looking for in power range etc. I am like every one else I guess would start of doing small or not so hard items & end up out stripping the machines abilities.
The more I read the more it gets confusing as you might see in one video it ripping the copper of a PCB with ease and then you say that a 60watt it gets tough to remove the copper so is that just a machine brand thing or a power issue thing.
Also I do alot of 3D printing of objects (under license of course) but would like to put our name & number on the plastic bottoms, so I believe that a UV might be better for that what do you think on that? have you had any expierience with plastic marking or any advice at all.
Also with the plastic marking its easy to put name & number on big things but little things 1” (25mm) long its pretty hard.
Anyway Thanks for all your input it helps me greatly & I apologize for all my jibberish.
Problem here is how precise is your Z axes… Lightburn just released a beta version that is supposed to support EZCad3, which supports Z axes.
My Z support wobbles, to some extent and with a 15 micron spot size you can’t really move it up and down and maintain that kind of accuracy.
This spot size is a very short lens, like an F100mm it’s spot size is small, but it’s depth of focus (dof) is very shallow, about 0.74mm, this is where you need it if you’re doing anything that requires fine focus.
Lots of us have manually focused our machines, so I don’t think it’s an issue, but some people do.
I wanted to learn about them, so I purchased a 60W (M60 JPT M7 MOPA) machine. It will burn through most usable material, including copper. Once you start getting into higher power, like above about 80W many suggest you purchase high power lenses which cost about 8 times more.
I didn’t expect to go to a higher power machine, so I settled on 60W.
I don’t have a UV machine, shot my wad on the fiber. However, there isn’t much choice when it comes to UV as it will likely be a 5 or 10W device. Once you get higher power, it usually needs a liquid coolant.
There is no power control over these, you change power by changing frequency and pulse duration. I’m not a good judge of uv as I don’t own one.
I don’t think that’s what I meant. It’s tough to get it to remove just the copper and leave the substrate. Touchy settings for this and I don’t like the smell of epoxy being lased. Some of the single side boards use a base of basically paper and you can lase it without issues.
Since uv is a much higher wavelength, it should have a smaller spot size. UV lasers are known as cool lasers as they work at the molecular level, not by heating the material. As I advised, I’m not a UV user so I can’t really give you any dependable information.
There are plenty here that have uv machines. Hopefully they will pop in and give you their feelings on the subject.
Good luck.
Jack
Thanks for the answers and info I understand about the copper now and yes I was definatelty thinking the wrong thing its a case of only just burning the copper away and not everything else.
For what I was planing on doing with the fibre it sounds like around the 60 watt range might be in the right area anyway and as you mentioned with the lense prices such a difference in price as you go up in wattage that could be an issue or become one.
With the auto focus side of things it appears that on the fiber laser its only used for the initial setup so that looks like its not a real necessity.
I had a look at a couple of machines on ebay, AliExpress etc as well as brand name units and the brand name are really pricey compared to those on the shopping platforms though the eBay & Ali don’t seem to be much better after looking at a few of them.
Anyway has anyone out there had anything to do with the any of the following machines that they could give some insights into good bad whatever it does not matter.
They are both off eBay for the moment 1 fiber and 1 UV
Scotle 60W JPT Mopa Fiber Laser Marking Machine Metal Engraving Color Marker AU | eBay Australia ?
10W UV Laser Marking Machine Engraver Marker S&AChiller For Glass Wood Metal PVC | eBay Australia ?
I don’t know if these links will work for everyone around the world but these 2 machines are both on ebay.
If anyone has any machines they would like to suggest I am open for suggestions the UV I want it mainly for marking PLA plastics from 3D printers at this point in time and the fiber well I have a fair bit of stainless steel which is not much chop for anything major but would be fine for the trinkets market.
Also I have a family emergency atm so if I do not answer for next week or so its not because I’m being rude or ignorant its just I have this emergency happening.
So thanks in advance to everyone.
There are a few Chinese laser vendors that have a good reputation on Reddit.
- Haotion laser - Sales person is Pascal, I believe
- OMG laser
- BOGO laser
All of these are supposed to be lower cost and great service. It’s wise to e-mail them and ask. Many times they give you a better deal.
I have a Cloudray model. Besides the mechanical parts and galvo, there is only a control board, laser source and power supply needed in these. If you have a rotary, then add a motor driver.
Not much in them and not much, if anything, is really user serviceable.
From what I’ve read, UV lasers don’t work very well on Ferrous materials.
Have fun.