Hello all, I am now in a position to buy a standalone laser engraver. I will be cutting some wood with 20mm thickness, some acrylic with 10mm thickness and engraving anodised aluminium. My reasons for this choice are:
40-watt multi-diode optical power.
Included air assist which is on axis with laser beam.
400 x 400mm baseboard area.
LightBurn compatible (can send via WiFi, Bluetooth or USB)
1064nm Infrared module available
Rotary chuck available
Does anyone have any caveats for me? Any other suggestions? Thank you all.
The A9 is a well-built Laser, sturdy frame, nice mechanics etc. Though, if you cut 20mm material, 40W is not enough in my opinion. Even with my 70W S70 I usually don’t do that. It’s possible, but it takes time and depending on the material, you have quite some burn marks on the back side. I‘d say it depends on the use case if 40W fit here.
Always use USB to control a laser, ignore all WiFi and SD features. They don’t offer full control and make connections less stable. So don’t care what features the laser offers next to USB.
Overall Sculpfun has premium user service, so it’s one of the best brands to choose. They care about any issue you could come across.
Here is some information about the A9: Sculpfun SF-A9 - Diode Laser Wiki
Adding the IR-2 laser head or the rotary / chuck is not an issue at all.
I bought one about 6 weeks ago and I’m very happy with the purchase. I purchased via Aliexpress and it cost me half the advertised price on Amazon. You will definitely require an enclosure and smoke extraction system of some sort, mine was home made. Only things of note are: the fan on the laser module requires a filter to prevent dust being drawn through and blocking the vents, otherwise it will overheat. If you don’t add that then remember to clean it regularly using compressed air. I don’t like the position of the emergency stop button which is located on the frame - when the machine is in an enclosure it is usually inaccessible so essentially useless. Arrange it such that you can quickly cut the power some other way. The 20W selector switch just disables 4 of the 8 diodes - you don’t get to choose which 4. I prefer to use all 8 (i.e., the 40W setting) with lower power settings as opposed to 4 diodes at a higher power, less stress on the module overall. I also purchased 6 spare lenses but the original one is still in excellent condition, probably due to the good air assist system which is effective in keeping it clean. It is a very sturdy machine with good cable management and an open front so you can slide workpieces under (the control box is on the side - a much better idea). If you have specific questions please ask. I have the rotary chuck but not used it yet.
Thank you for this helpful information guys. @misken I was interested in the notion that 40W is not sufficient, cutting 20mm of wood or 10mm of acrylic. My 4.2W (JTech) as an integral part of my CNC machine could manage to cut 3mm plywood in two passes. I guess that lower power is always a toss-up between speed and accuracy. I managed to mark slate, ceramics, glass, wood, and anodised aluminium with my modest setup. The point about USB control is interesting and will help me to avoid a potential pitfall. I cannot place the new laser near my computer, so some form of remoteness from the computer is inevitable. Can the Sculpfun machine use a USB stick drive and work offline?
@ChrisLX200 Thank you for detailing your experience. I have found my previous Aliexpress purchases to be painful experiences, with long lead times and delays in UK customs. I not that EU prices are about 40% less than Amazon UK. They will only supply a Schuko plug top. A UK plug top means the item must ship from China. Thank you for the tip about a fan filter. Do you find much difference in spot size when using 4 diodes as opposed to 8 diodes? I appreciate your response. Thank you.
You do have to be patient sometimes and lead time depends on transport method. Advertised EU prices probably don’t include import taxes and VAT. I paid a total of £720 incl. delivered to my door but it took nearly a month to get here. There were no delays at customs however, it seemed (from the tracking data) to have arrived by road and the last stop before the UK was the Netherlands. Spot size obviously increases a little at 40W output c.f. 20W but not to the extent it matters when used for cutting. Engraving is another matter and you would notice small a loss in detail, partly due to increased spot size but also because there is narrow bandwidth of shading graduation at 40W. Still fine for engraving text though. If your primary use is for engraving images you don’t want a 40W output machine. I use my old 5W Sculpfun S9 to engrave with because it has a tiny spot size for detail and good greyscale reproduction.