Here’s what I’m looking at getting right now:
OMTech K40
80W Fume Extractor
CW-3000 Chiller
Cloudray Laser head with air assist
I still need to pick a compressor for the air assist.
I’m probably getting the MG3 controller.
Is this a good start? Overkill at all?
Thanks,
Josh
The 3000 series chillers, are really not chillers. They are a radiator with a fan in them. How well they work depends on the ambient temperature of the area.
I lived in the Phoenix Arizona valley area. It gets ‘hot’ there. Most of the time there, the 3000 series would act more like a heater than a chiller. I had to move to a 5200 series that actually has a refrigeration system.
My time with heads are restricted to the larger Chinese types, but I found that lots of the stuff just doesn’t ‘bolt on’.
Depending on what you do will determine the type of extractor you need. Cutting material that produces lots of smoke and debris compared to engraving on glass… Definitely need one for ‘smoke and debris’, there might be no need for one if all you did was engrave glass or porcelain. The wider the scope of operations the more $$$… Want to do cups/mugs… more $$$.
Keep in mind that you can trade $$$ for labor in some cases… either way it costs you.
I’m sure you’ll have fun.
Take care
That was my concern with the 3000. I think I’ll hold off and see how it goes with the stock water pump. I’m in MA and it’s cold here now anyway.
The head I’m getting is specifically for the k40.
I’ll be doing Rowmark acrylic stuff, some wood, might try glass and other stuff for fun. I’m assuming the fume extractor is a good idea vs the stock exhaust?
Thanks,
Josh
Pretty simple rule of thumb… if you can smell it, you’re breathing it…
I just ordered the K40, with the 80W fume extractor, and they conveniently had a discounted CW-5000 chiller, all from the same seller on eBay. Hopefully none of that turns out to be problematic. 
I’m also ordering a 65L/min air pump, the air assist nozzle, and some safety glasses. I’ll probably also get a drag chain for the air assist hose, and I just emailed awesome.tech to order the MG3.
If there’s anything else I should grab, please let me know.
Thanks for all your help!
Thanks,
Josh
Every picture I’ve seen of the K40, it has a drag chain…am I mistaken?
Funny, I worked hard to get rid of my drag chain… 
…and then I canceled that after I looked closer at the photos.
Why’d you get rid of the drag chain? Isn’t it useful for the air assist hose (and the red dot wires that are already in it)?
Thanks,
Josh
The hose is very flexible and is attached to the back of the gantry.
Less mass on the moving parts the quicker it can accelerate and run. Less overscan is needed since it can slow down, change direction and get back up to speed with less distance.
The ‘red dot’ was a pain, so I ditched it within the first couple of weeks. By the end of the 2nd month I had replaced the head assembly and found the drag chain pretty useless and in the way for me. The LED never was accurate, good for a ball park and that’s it.
I use templates that fit in the machine to align materials.
My water chiller arrived first. I’m slightly surprised by how large it is…and it weighs more than the actual laser.
I want to say that the reaction about things being bigger than expected is a commonality for everyone buying a CO2 laser.
I feel like the opposite happens with diode lasers.
Kind of like going to the grocery store. Look into that little bag and think that’s $150 in food?
Took my wife and I to put the co2 on the ‘wheeled stand’…
Well, unfortunately, the chiller is trash. I don’t know if the seller is a scumbag or an idiot, or both, but the ad was a lie. The ad said it was:
“Wrong ordering, the outer packaging is a bit damaged,product in good condition”
Except it was banged up to hell, missing hardware, dented radiator, broken water intake pipe, etc… Absolute trash. The water tank wasn’t actually mounted to the housing, and one of the mounting feet was broken off completely, and removed from the unit.
Oh well, I guess I’ll be trying the water pump that came with the laser instead.
My first 5202 was doa. We hassled about it and I ended up eating part of it. Stupid of me.
What I with it was use the pump and safety interface. The 2nd loop ran copper loop into a beer cooler with ice. The loop kept the distilled water isolated from the ice bath water.
You could just make a loop or coil and go from chiller to coil to laser. It kept my temps low during the summer in Phoenix, at least until I got a replacement. Sounds like it may be past that point. Hope you have pictures for them.
If you ordered that from someone like Amazon, go to them, they have the power to get the vendor to make good.
Good luck
Well, the seller has offered to replace it with another returned unit. Hopefully the next one is not junk.
Thanks,
Josh
I dunno if this is the right place for this question, but I’ll ask anyway. My K40 bed and gantry travel don’t make a ton of sense:
The hardware limit switch is all the way in the back where the gantry currently is in the photo. But that’s at least an extra 2 inches of Y axis not included in the 8x12 work area in front of the vent duct.
What’s the deal with this? It seems like moving or shortening the exhaust duct would add more workable area?
Thanks,
Josh
Seems reasonable to me.
Does the lens clear the vent?
Can you take off the lens and move the head around a larger area?
If you can physically move the head there (no power) without forcing it, then it’s probable that could be usable space.
After the head modification on mine, I got an extra 44mm out of the Y axes.
You also need to take into account is airflow…
Do some searches on K40 bed expansion. It’s one of the most common complaints/upgrades for the K40.
It looks like some people have opted to remove that duct entirely, stating that it does nothing but reduce the airflow.
I removed that duct, it was easy in my K40 version. 4 screws in the back and it lifted out the front without having to remove the gantry or anything else.
I also installed the fume extractor, though I need to make an exhaust port board for my window.
I lined up the laser/mirrors fine, and installed the air assist. Still waiting on my replacement water chiller, so I used the crappy water pump that came with it to test it out.
But now I definitely need a controller. I seriously hate all the other options so far. Inkscape and k40whisperer are terrible. LaserDRW is terrible. CorelLaser is useless since it didn’t come with coreldraw software.
The Mini Gerbil 3 is out of stock, so I’m either going to get the K40+ from OMTech or wait for the MG3 so I can use LightBurn.
Anyway, the test came out great:
It all came out surprisingly well, and deep for the laser being set at “10%.” Here’s a closer look at the brilliant poetry:
I got the red dot pretty close. I think I can get it spot on with the laser. X axis is easy enough, but I think a washer(s) under one of the mounting screws will help correct the Y axis.
Thanks,
Josh
Inkscape isn’t really laser control software to be fair. It’s design software that people have extended to be able to do some basic laser control. As design software I find it a little clunky but incredibly powerful and flexible.
One thing to remember about k40whisperer is that it wasn’t intended to provide any design capability. It’s more analous to laserGRBL. They’re both designed to take in an existing design, setup the minimal configurations for burning, and run the job.
A lot of laser workflows traditionally had these disjointed design->laser configuration->execute job patterns.
LightBurn is unique in that it combines all 3 of these functions into one streamlined platform. To me this is the main reason why the cycle time for LightBurn is so much faster than other solutions.
In other words, the other solutions are bad particularly in the light of LightBurn’s ascension.
One other piece of software you might want to try out is meerk40t. It’s relatively new and developing rapidly.
