I’m about to pull the trigger on my new addition. I’m ordering the following:
150mm lens
300mm lens.
100W MOPA laser with 800mm tower.
JPT power supply.
Ezcad2, says it supports Lightburn.
60mm rotary.
If you were ordering a new one, would this be a good configuration?
Ultimately, I want to laser engrave firearms, stainless plates for equipment labels, pictures on dogtags and some color stuff in the future when I learn it! I also want to use it as a second cup etcher for Polar cups as I’ve been doing quite a few of those on my CO2, I could use a backup and a machine to double my throughput. Also want to do rings and since I can use my current rotary for cups, I’m getting the small one.
I assume the 300mm lens is for 300mmX300mm coverage? I have one, it’s an F420 which covers the 300mm square area.
I use it the least, but am just figuring it out. I have a F254, F160 and an F100.
If you are going to do rings, you probably want a short lens… Cloud Ray advised the F100 is the shortest you mount… I suspect it’s because you can’t lower the machine low enough to focus … the dept of field it very small on the 100mm
If you want lenses for >=100W, you pay dearly… for my 60W, I got a F100 lens for about $62 US from Cloud Ray.
Looking at their site for f theta lenses I see there is a K9 F100 for $45 US < 100W, compared to the K9 F100 for 100W at $369.
Only a $324 difference… at the 100W level… sure you need 100W? Probably be good for guns… Might be able to use the <100 lenses for things like rings… good question for the vendor…
Make sure your JPT MOPA is an M7 type… I think they make one that is similar but doesn’t have the adjustments…
I’d call or contact Cloud Ray and ask them about buying this… They gave me a $250 discount code in the return email… anything is better than nothing…
I have yet to put my PiBurn wheeled rotary on the fiber, but I don’t think it will be a problem… Worst case it that the cable is too short, or as a minor inconvenience, rotate the wrong direction… easy fix…
Thanks for the info! So you like your Cloudray? The one that I’m looking at is from Haotian Laser. It’s $7,300 for a 100W w/ Ezcad2. She was talking about a lens for 150mm x 150mm and one for 300 x 300 from my request, mainly because they advised that the smaller lens is better for rings, larger lens is better for larger objects but less detail? New to it so not sure. It’s definitely an M7 type. Said it’s compatible with Lightburn. They’re also including a 60mm rotary for rings as well as 24 patterns for guns.
The only issue I’m having is they want me to purchase it from Alibaba and I’m not sure I want to do that. I’d rather order it from Amazon or somewhere but not sure what the cost difference is, haven’t looked that far.
I’ve spent some time interfacing with Russ Sadler with my co2, followed a lot of his 200+ videos and I like the way he teaches. I find it very clear and concise.
When I found my China Blue 50W tube was not in TEM0 mode, I started looking for another tube. I asked Russ for his advice. He has had parts, he designed built and sold by Cloud Ray. They even have a Russ Spec machine they sell, quite a nice machine.
He did state that Cloud Ray uses grade A parts in the builds and replacement parts.
As a comparison OMTech, my China Blue tube is only 880mm, so it can’t possibly be 50W, it measured out at 44W with a Mahoney meter. A replacement tube from OMTech is advertised as 50W and both of us know it’s not really a 50W tube… They also gave me a guaranteed delivery date… it made it, at least to sit off Long Beach harbor for three weeks until it could be unloaded… I know it wasn’t their falut, but it was their guarantee, and the result was we’re sorry.
I purchased the 40W tube from Cloud Ray and it performed exactly as specified and was advertised as 40W… I don’t buy from OMTech anymore… I’ve had better results with Cloud Ray than I ever had with OMTech…
When I went to dump $7k, I went with Cloud Ray, got it in three days, warehoused in the US. Worked fine … they didn’t set up the rotary, but advised me of the correct settings… so I’m happy…
Cloud Ray is Chinese, like all of them and it takes 24 hours or more to get a reply… they do reply… I like the Cloud Ray odds of success over the others…
Been burnt by these people, so I wouldn’t purchase from them…
If you read Cloud Ray site, they explain that these other sites are not the same distribution channels and therefore don’t provide any warranty or help if you purchase their equipment from someplace other than their online site.
In your position, I’d make sure they will warranty it… I’ve heard good things about that company, but I wouldn’t trust Alibaba any further than I can throw them
A shorter focal length lens has a smaller focus point or dot size along with a more shallow depth of field (focus)… The Encircled Energy is a good reference for dot size… it’s from Heat Sign… The Focal Length (F-number) is not the same as the Square field size.
Thanks again bud. This helps a lot. Think I’m going to bypass on Alibaba (it was being a pain to set up and account with and the last e-mail they sent they want my ID… yeah, NO. :D)
I’ll do some research on the Cloudray and get it moving. I know they sell on Amazon and while I’m not excited about their politics, you can’t argue with their delivery, customer service and SPEED.
Oh and final comment, you mentioned 100w being high but I like to overkill if there’s no negatives to it. I initially was going to buy a 40W CO2 and went with 80. Now I wish I had just jumped to 120W but at the pace business is picking up, I’m guessing I’ll need to order another in the not too distant future. These things are like money printing presses.
The only negative is the lenses are over 8 times the price… it’s what they are made of… I’d suspect if you’re using a short lens for a ring or something small like jewelry, you could get away with the lower power lens if you don’t run 100W through it.
I’d hate to explode a lens and waste my galvo head.
This is their comment, so buyer beware if you purchase their product from another vendor…
Different Machine Types and Configurations.
The laser machines will be equipped with unique configurations (only for machines on www.cloudraylaser.com) which have high stability and marking efficiency.
Support Customization of your laser machine and upgrading solutions if needed.
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Since for different configurations and policies, product prices will be different.
And We only offer lifetime tech support and marking/engraving parameters, free materials for orders directly on www.cloudraylaser.com, not adapted to any orders from other sales channels.
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We can only offer after-sale service for customers ordered on www.cloudraylaser.com, not responsible for orders from shopping platforms as we don’t have your order information in our system. Please contact the store on platforms to get related support in time.
