Hi, I’m thinking of adding a fibre laser to my collection.
I will be engraving metals, and would like to be able to cut thin metal if possible maybe up to 1mm thick.
Should I go for a 100w machine or is there not much benefit of that over say 60w?
Do I need auto focus on these or is manual easy enough to do.
Any recommendations appreciated.
Regards Neil
Great…
These are engraving machines not cutting machines… but given that if you engrave deep enough it becomes a cut…
I have an M60 JPT M7 MOPA - I got from Cloudray, it’s 60W and I have four lenses for it. What I’ve found is, like a co2, higher power is for engraving deeper. I cut out 0.254mm brass in about 70 passes, which takes about 30 seconds. Using that theory, if I wanted 1mm I would estimate about 4 times longer or about 2 minutes.
I’d stay under 100W… once you cross the 100W line … my <100W lens costs $60 USD lens that same F lens for >=100W costs about 8 times more or close to $500… If you need or want higher power, I’d suggest staying under the 100W limit… IMHO…
The other issue we don’t think about as it’s usually not that much of an issue, is that the metal tends to warp uncontrollably. Even with the arrows with relatively thin brass warped and I had to hold them down and flat…
Currently Lightburn doesn’t support a Z axes on these… that’s an EZCad3 option, which isn’t supported by Lightburn at this time. They only support EZCad2 motherboards.
A longer lens gives you more depth of focus (dof) but the tradeoff is a larger spot. These are 40mm brass coins from Amazon. I used the F254mm lens.
I ordered mine for a 300x300mm coverage area (requiring an F420mm lens) but it also requires a tall column. This is necessary if you’re going to put something like a rotary with a large object on it… My column is 800mm (80cm).
In this photo, it’s got an F254mm lens mounted.
A master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) type gives you more adjustment ability. If money is an issue, I’d suggest a lower power laser in exchange for a MOPA type… IMHO…
I’ve heard good things from users of Haotian and OMG lasers, seem to have good service and lower prices… but check around and email them… sometimes it makes for a better deal… I got a few hundred off mine for emailing them and asking…
Good luck
