Well my new laser is here and getting some work. Setup was super easy all you have to do is attach the x axis. Hooked up all the plugs and it works. Ikeir has the lightburn setup file and I found the material libraries for it with a little looking and the work well. I have been doing some wood, glass and even some brick engraving and looks like I will be getting the new veterans memorial park. I’ll post some pics later. As well as a more formal review.
First thing i had to do was build an enclosure. I didn’t realize that the acrylic sheeting had gotten so expensive so I decided to use some old old old material i had laying around. it was 1/4" acrylic sheet that i have had for over 30+ years. Well let me tell you getting the protective paper and corresponding adhesive of was a huge challenge, nothing would break it down and I scratched the hell out of it. The enclosure is needed and it is noisy without it.
I hated the way the compressor was fed with the air system it just drug over everything and not kept off of the work. So I tried a few things then custom bent and reshaped a 1/4" malleable copper airline. so it had a routing system.
The enclosure is just waiting for the orange tint (have strip and spray both) and a smoke evacuation system.
I also found 3/4" low pressure pvc pipe makes great leg extensions of any size you need
I have the Ikier K1 36w laser, and I mostly love it. I’m interested in any other cable management modifications you come up with - it’s my main complaint - the cables and air get dragged over the workspace. Occasionally work is ruined when one of the cables get’s snagged and drags things around.
yeah the air system was poorly thought out. the copper line has worked well I am thinking about designing a new top fan cover with carbon filter and a swivel or slip system for the top connector hose. I have the fan cover off and a 1/4" poly line runnning down in replacement to the oem setup and it has done several brick etchings at 4 hrs each so far
reworked the air system i did as i opened and inspected and found my 1/4 copper line was doing some minor rubbing. so I hooked up a flow meter and checked air flow with 1/4 line and other sizes and found a much smaller line that fit in the wiring slot would flow almost identical. so, I modified the cover slightly and used the smaller line. The other problem I found was that the top feed to the laser would not allow a pivot or a slide system to take up the varying length of hose required for the x axis. so I used a small section of 1/4" air coil line. I removed the hose barb on top and made a 90 that has a slip fitting into the hose from the top of the laser to the focusing cone. so now instead of trying to run the feed line in a straight path the custom 90 pivots and the coil line helps by extending and retracting.
