Perhaps they made a mistake with saying its a motorized z axis because it comes with EXCad2, but please tell me if I am correct in assuming a tower extension will do the same thing as a longer tower?
Also,
Im confused with the need for having different lens sizes. If a bigger lens will cover a wider area ie 300mm but will create the same power if you want to engrave ie 40mm, why would you want any other lens apart from a big one? Or is it simply to do with focusing the height?
Here below is part of the email I got regarding the fiber laser MOPA machine
Fiber laser is different with CO2 gantry laser, the lens determins the working size. There are few different size of lens, such as 70X70mm 110X110mm 150X150mm 175X175mm 210X210mm and 300X300mm. 70X70mm lens means the max marking size is 70X70mm., 300X300mm means the max working size is 300X300mm. the smaller size the lens is, the better beam and stonger the laser is. the bigger size the lens is, the weaker power is. so if we want deep marking, we should use smaller lens, when we want bigger file marking, we can use bigger size lens. We will send 2pcs lens with the machine, you can choose the lens size. and we will calibrate both lens for you before delivery
Doesnāt matter the machine, a lens pretty much works the same way, on a co2 or on a fiber.
As you shorten the focal length, the spot becomes smaller. Same power over a smaller spots reacts like a higher power laser with a larger spot.
Itās all numbersā¦ power doesnāt change, just the area of the spot changes, this has the appearance of higher power.
I use an F254mm for most of my stuffā¦ it covers about a 175mm square. Itās relatively high so I have room to work under it. An F100mm lens gives me little room to work in and align the part.
Make sense?
As for the Z ā¦ you can motorize the Z axes, doesnāt mean it it will be able to be driven from softwareā¦ like a manual step/move switch for the operator.
Good choice with going with a lesser machineā¦ But depending where your at, what I seen the most out here in the US are something like Longer, or Orutr those seem the two most poular is what I was told when I started and the are ceartainly less expensive models out there. But it really is a personal choice and your preferance. The Longer I have came as a 40 Watt and then the Ortur I upgraded the Laser head and made a couple of other modification got that to a 40 Watter and while it a great litle machine I donāt feel it does the job I want it to do for me. But hey, I know for a fact that, there are a lot of other folks into this far further than Iāve dared to venture for two/three reasons. I Time and Money, and being married for over 40 years I think I want to stay marriedā¦ Any case Iām sure that you can get a whole lot of better answer from otherās out there - And Good luck, Donāt forget have funā¦
This seems like an old post nowā¦ but just an updateā¦ finally got a machine today, or ordered it at least, now just gotta wait 35 days before I finally get it
I opted for the:
Hoation 60W JPT MOPA EM7 laser machine
6 x lenses (70X70mm 110X110mm 150X150mm 175X175mm 210X210mm and 300X300mm)
2 x rotary (60mm rotary and 100mm rotary)
800mm tower (with motorized Z axis)
XY (2d) table
Cutting vice
Z Table
Ordered pretty much all the accessories, so I guess the learning is about to start
Wish me luck, and Iāll let you know how I get onā¦ if I havenāt said it already thanks for all your help with this!
I was offered in the quote Safety acrylic (OD6) 610 x 305 x 5mm for $120/pcs to make enclosure, but didnāt get it.
Do you think that I will need this and should I have included it with the order? and would one acrylic be sufficient?
What do you want to use this for? Itās not long enough to cover your machineā¦
Most of these setup for commercial use have a rectangular shield that raises up exposing three sides of the work area ā¦ Believe me, I been around 3 sides and there are still issues with material placement and getting in there to do things. Such as focusing with a short lens. Some of these short lenses have a depth of focus of < 1mm, makes them tough to focus.
I wear safety glasses when around any machine that can throw anything at my face ā lasers, milling machines, lawn mowers, weed eaters, to name a fewā¦ I especially use them with wire cuttersā¦
So I wear the supplied safety glasses from OMTech.
I also question theseā¦ before purchase, I looked into these and took another path, out of curiosity, to the fiber rust removers. There are numerous videos of the hand held galvo heads using up to 5kW in power to remove rust, with no use of eye protection. Not even from the flying junk this knocks off.
Another curiosity, my led damages retina, co2 the corneaā¦ Both will engrave hot dogs, baloney and bread ā¦ The fiber will not mark them?
I advocate safety glasses.
I donāt know how you are going to use the X/Y table, but Iām hoping to find out.
This is a neat video that fun to watch using a fiber
I guess by what you are saying, having an enclosure around the laser will just make it too difficult to access the laser itself and the object to be engraved, and therefore building an enclosure that doesnāt completely lift up and out the way would be too much of a hinderance. Am i correct?
I thought it would have been the Z table that may have had less use, and thought the X/Y table was very useful to accurately center an object to laser engrave?
Hi
Just read this from the start and want to wish you all the best.
Like yourself, I am rural and somewhat similar aspirations and although you probably have thought about it, a plan for costing and marketing should be high on your agenda to recoup and maintain traction.
Well done on picking your machineā¦hands on is the only way to learn!
I think your best move was comming here to lightburn community as the info is priceless as seen by this and many other posts and also getting to see the awesome work that contributors turn out and be able to chat to the people that do it.
Inspirational quote for newbies āEndeavour to persevereāā¦thats what keeps me going through the purchasing obstacle course.
Having a few lasers here, Iāve found I need to get close to the material to do adjustments or maintenance.
I would think so. Itās hard to think of all the things that effect the operator/work area to become problematic.
Iāve seen many machines with large areas and a fairly large access doors and the complaint is the same that they canāt always get where they need to go.
I use my fiber with metals that are wider than my table, mount them and use them as jigs to hold material. If your case is the size of your work area that could be limiting.
These are nice sheets of acrylic, but itād cost you almost $500 (4 sides) just for material. It isnāt long enough to exceed the column height, so you canāt, in reality, enclose it completely.
Youāre stuck either making the material or making some kind of alignment jig. Although there is supposed to be an origin of front/left there is really no way to locate it with the fiber. Iāve found that using center I can align a jig outline and be very accurate as far as alignment.
I do this for a coin jigā¦ I engrave a place for the lip to sit and have perfect alignment to centerā¦ at least until I move the metal for another project.
Iād suggest, you concentrate more on ventilation, use the supplied glasses until you get a feel for what youāre doingā¦ Nothing like hands on when youāre learning something.
Just as an additional data point. I have my fiber laser on a metal cart from Harbor Freight, with the āboxā on the bottom and the ātowerā on the top. The top of the cart has a large custom cabinet on top of it (basically, an open-bottom box), with about 1/3 of one of the long sides being a door. The cabinet has plenty of headroom for the tower, and the door has a single certified laser-safe window. The cabinet also has internal and external activity indicator lighting and a door interlock (which pauses the laser automatically if the door is opened, pausing it before there is any line-of-sight opening). My rotary axis, focus sticks, and positioning bits all also have convenient storage inside the cabinet.
I have slightly less convenient access to the work area, but with the cabinet build large enough for my use cases, itās never been a problem. It would be an issue if I were, say, trying to decorate a long-handled shovel or something, or if I were trying to do one of those big-disc-on-the-rotary multi-position jigs.
On the plus side, with all my lasers enclosed, my shop is laser-safe as a rule, unless I intentionally bypass protections, in which case I don the appropriate laser safety glasses for the laser Iām working with (diode, CO2, or fiber). In normal use, I can be using the diode laser, CO2 laser, and fiber laser all at the same time, and all of their enclosures have their own exhausts venting outside.
You are, of course, technically correct, which in cases like this is not the best kind of correct.
I tell my scuba students that the only way to guarantee they will never have a scuba diving injury is not to scuba dive. There is no way to be absolutely āsafeā and still dive. On the other hand, if you are trained well, follow your training, and use your head (and your backup head ā thereās a reason you dive with a buddy), you can dive āsafelyā. Could something happen? Sure. Would it take a chain of multiple failures and unforeseeable circumstances? Almost (but not quite) certainly. (You could have a congenital heart defect that doesnāt manifest until microbubbles in a bog-standard ascent end up causing decompression injury, but you could also be hit by a car while walking through the parking lot to the dive boat.)
Making a ālaser-safeā shop does not mean that there is no way that anything bad could ever happen. The only way to guarantee that is to never use a laser. On the other hand, if you have to fail in your procedures, and the have the activity warning lights somehow get stuck in ānot-firingā mode, and have the interlocks fail, and have a specular reflection, and have it happen to be in just the wrong direction, andā¦ Well, I consider that ālaser-safeā in context, and vastly better than trusting laser glasses over my glasses.
One of my long-held areas of interest is aerospace and industrial accident analysis. I definitely donāt consider a ālaser-safeā shop an absolute in the face of complacency, on the other hand, adding more layers to the āSwiss Cheese Modelā of accidents is something that should be much more strongly encouraged in the āhobbyā laser world.
Iāve been around many manufacturing places, most accidents, that I know of, are because of a reliance of the safety interlocks working or simply becoming too complacent with the process.
Assuming that this laser or any machine, is safe, is a misnomer that, I donāt think, anyone should ever use ā¦ there is always something that can happen or operator error that can cause issues.
Laser safe is much like the proverbial unsinkable ship, happens.
As you pointed out ā¦ engage brain before using ā that ensures you best overall safety advantage
Received machine yesterday evening from Hoatian - 60W JPT MOPA EM7 laser machine, but without any instructions of how to assemble everything and set it up, is it straight forward to do?
Also, I believe I will have to purchase Lightburn, but after looking on their website Buy LightBurn ā LightBurn Software I think all I need to get started is a trial version of LightBurn Software & Galvo license key. Is this correct, or will I need something else?
You should probably start a new thread, as itās not the same question.
Pick up Lightburn trial and itās usable on any machine, all different types are supported. Eventually youāll have to purchase it with the galvo option.
happens.
