Morning (here) Col
I am not so far from Worthing over here in Kent (minster on sea).
Re cutting with your K40 you should easily be able to cut 3mm acrylic at a speed of 9 or more at 40-50% power.
I also went to a honeycomb bed but found it distorted badly as its small it dint seem to have enough bracing to keep it from twisting and was hellish overpriced.
.In the end I ripped out that awful spring thing and packed up from the base with chipboard and bits of 3mm and 2mm acrylic with a sheet of steel on top and then I used those timber joining things to place the job on (they gave the space for removing air…
I also was able to kind of adjust the bed height by adding or removing the packing.
If I was working with small cutouts then I would turn the spikes so they were down under the area of the part. I learned to do that the hard way as I had one piece drop out crooked, the head then jammed the laser fired constantly in the same place and I had a tiny ‘bonfire’ which spoiled the belt…all good fun!!!
I bought my K40 about 6 years ago…had problems with the controller and power supply early on so went over to an AWC and its still working like a ha’penny watch.
Hi Bernd, Guess what I have a Awesome.TECH as well. Just finished installing it. The laser beam works but I can’t control it with the K40 adjustment. I have installed Lightburn but I can’t see any settings there for it yet. Any clues?
It must have been a great holiday to be able to drive around Australia for a whole year. I have seen a lot of it but I have not been to the north in WA yet. Another pastime of mine has been to convert small vans into campers. So far I have done and sold three and are looking to do another one soon. I also converted a Toyota coaster bus which was a big job and cost the earth. We used it a bit and it was fun but very thirsty on fuel. We would love to visit Denmark and Holland who knows one day with a bit of luck. Getting back to this Laser it’s funny really as I was just getting on top of K40 whisperer & Inkscape and now I have to start all over again with Lightburn. Oh well all part of the learning curve.
regards Col
Hi John, Six years you must be a expert now. I feel a bit like I did when I started my apprenticeship as a printer, must be a hundred years ago. Still you got to start somewhere. You have got me wondering about the honeycomb bit now and I guess I will have to look into it a bit more before taking it further. I had a little 5th November episode myself the other day as the end of a strip of lead lights I installed caught alight. I thought there was a little to much smoke coming from the laser engraving I was doing and that raised the alarm. No real drama as I was able to put it out quite quickly. The end of the lead light strip was just hanging about an inch over the hole on the left of the machine and I guess it got cooked by the laser, still works though.
Bye the way you are absolutely right about 3D printers as they are dreadfully slow. I still think they are a marvellous invention with a lot of potential. All the best Col
hello Col
… if Lightburn has found your K40 it will take over control of your power settings. You determine for the specifice layers the correct power. But beware !, 100% in Lightburn is NOT 100% in your laser, it is almost 200% !! Always use your ammeter to adjust your powersettings and make a list of the reference values. I personally never go above 16 mA which equals about 55% in LB. I hope Lightburn develops a “software potentiometer” to adjust the 55% to 100%. Right now I’m not home but in the evening I could try to give you more of my settings if you wish
Hi Col
dunno about expert.I can turn decent stock into scrap faster than most if thats what you meant
What prog do you use to draw ya 3D parts I use sketchup (the use of the term ‘use’ is meant at its loosest definition)
Bernd has made an excellent point…though I currently tend have an absolute max of…20-21ma ( maybe as I invested in a chiller I can push things a bit more) you should be safe with anything under 22Ma but watch your temp!!
In case your wondering why 100% does not equate to full power…its all about the laser PSU most PSUs suitable for K40 can run much higher powered tube (100 watt or more, typically).
The software uses a pulse width modulator (PMW) to send pulses to the psu the higher the % the longer the duty cycle and at around 40% (on mine) equates to 22Ma … a 100 watt laser can be driven up to about 30ma or so
Unfortunately its more art than science I have had 40 watt tubes that would not even fire below 15ma…and maxed at 24!. the supplier, when you buy one should tell you the max rating…and alway knock a bit off they do tend to pad things out a bit.
One tip I would give is always use an analogue gauge as digital gauges react too slowly (well for my liking)
John, I was surprised by your mA for your K40 but forgot for a moment that my standard K40 only has a 30-35 watt laser tube like the most of the K40. I assume you have a real 40 Watt tube.
