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Darkly Labs emblaser - affordable laser cutter - review


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DHL have been in touch and parted me with £135 for VAT etc delivery should be Tuesday let battle commence   :scratchhead:

Wow, that was quick - probably quicker than I got mine in, though it did have to come up the deadly Hume Highway.

 

Don't forget, if you haven't already done it  - first thing Monday, register the software!

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G'day trendsetters,

 

I thought at this point, as the Emblasers begin arriving up there and I can pass on the baton that I'd do a quick recap and summary of where I am so far.

 

I said in an early post in regards to the expectations I had of the laser cutter:

 

 

So one stipulation was that it has to be able to cut very fine detailed scale lacework from either photo paper or at least (if that is too big an ask) from printer paper. Can it do this? I don't know yet. Additionally it must be able to cut up to 1.5mm card (which I use for the building shells), fine accurate sash windows from at least photo paper. I'd like to give etching bricks a go too.

 

From the ship modelling side of things it needs to cut ply to 3mm, as well as 2mm thick wood such as Huon pine and Walnut, and further – cut shapes in these not just straight lines.

 

 

 

Let down comprehensively by the Silver Bullet cutter and its annoying sticky mat, I was prepared for minor to major disappointment at some feature of the Emblaser, so lets see how its faring so far:
 

Firstly,  fine detailed scale lacework in matt photo paper:This is 50% power, 10mm/sec at one pass.

 

post-22541-0-71764300-1457246228_thumb.jpg

post-22541-0-05511000-1457246251_thumb.jpg

 

Sash windows, again from matt photo paper, same settings These are multiple layers, just plonked on top of each other so the alignment is a little off:

 

post-22541-0-55871900-1457246323_thumb.jpg

 

I haven't tried 1.5mm card yet but I'd be surprised if it didn't cut it. Actually, my have-a-go hero media was some 1mm cheap anonymous grey card from I don't know where. At 6mm/sec and 1 pass it gave amazingly clean and precise results without any charring. I'm thinking it might have been from inside a cheap photo frame, but I hope I can find more of it:

 

post-22541-0-18305600-1457246407_thumb.jpg

post-22541-0-32683700-1457246431_thumb.jpg

 

This one has a Playschool 'Through the arched window' vibe:

 

post-22541-0-57971300-1457246419_thumb.jpg

 

 

 

Etched bricks I'm happy with too – just need to refine my painting technique - or at least have one. This is just sprayed Tamiya primer and then talcum powder rubbed in.. These were cut in 04mm ply that I bought on Friday. I managed to avoid buying the stipulated 3 sheet minimum because they only had 1 sheet left! Still expensive but it'll last me ages being 1200x1200 square.

 

post-22541-0-01102600-1457246697_thumb.jpg

 

Finally ply. Ignoring the disappointments cutting the 0.8mm ply, I'm happy with the 3mm 'cheap' plywood from our local hardware chain. This is cut at 100% power, 6mm/sec, 3 passes:

 

post-22541-0-97335100-1457246826_thumb.jpg

 

So all in all everything I bought it for it can do. That usually NEVER happens!

 

Just a quick mention here of the above example file, as an illustration of how fast and easy it is to get something like this into reality. I use Inkscape, learned by following the awesome tutorial posted  here  by Mike Trice.

Its very easy to learn and use but it real  party piece is the 'trace bitmap' feature under the 'Path' menu.

 

Come on this quick  journey with me..

 

I first found a copyright free pattern by googling 'copyright free cutting patterns' to find this one:

 

post-22541-0-76715400-1457247081_thumb.jpg

 

Then its a case of saving the image, opening Inkscape and importing it:

 

post-22541-0-44736500-1457247076_thumb.jpg

 

Selecting the 'Path->trace bitmap' option, to get the bitmap.

 

post-22541-0-12005500-1457247071_thumb.jpg

 

Delete the original image to leave just the bitmap, resize it to whatever you want (you can also reize it later in the laser cutting programme)  and save as a .pdf.

 

post-22541-0-77228000-1457247064_thumb.jpg

 

Open the cutter2D programme, open a new project, import the pdf file, put in your laser settings and hit the 'calculate' button and there it is, ready for the laser.

 

post-22541-0-14908300-1457247059_thumb.jpg

 

If you care to zoom in on the laptop clock on the bottom right of the screen, the first one is 7:10pm, the last one is 7:14pm, so literally all ready from idea to lasering in under 5 minutes. The laser process itself will take varying times depending upon the material, but the greatest feature is that you can do it over and over, at any size you feel like:

 

post-22541-0-24584700-1457247282_thumb.jpg

 

 

 

So, this seems a very glowing review – you are obviously thinking " there must be a fly in the ointment!" or similar. Well, first up I've had no success with styrene but then I've not found anyone on the internet who really has. I've given it a go but it ends up a bit of a sooty mess. I don't use plastic in my modelling so its not a big issue and hopefully those of you who are trialing the Rowmark stuff will have a positive result.

 

Secondly, it really is a trial and error process because there are so many variables – power, speed, number of passes, material, baseplate.... Once you come up with something that works for a particular material, make sure you write it down.

 

There are a couple of technical issues, firstly if something else starts running on your PC/laptop it can cause the laser to pause in one spot momentarily, but enough to burn a small hole into your job, so make sure you don't have backups or virus scans or file copying or whatever else due to start when you are running the laser programme.

 

Additionally occasionally between jobs the PC/laptop seems to lose contact with the Emblaser. You send something to it but the popup window says it is not connected. This is fixed by closing the popup, unplugging the USB from the PC and plugging it back in again. This usually occurs if I run a job, then turn off the Emblaser while getting another one ready, then turn it on again. But its no big deal.

 

So that is it so far, its good to see that this has inspired others to get an Emblaser and hopefully we can all add to the sum of knowledge..

 

Now, off to rehome the huntsman that appeared overnight on my car – before he gets a chance to play the hilarious 'hide on top of the sun visor' prank!

post-22541-0-21692100-1457247388_thumb.jpg

Edited by monkeysarefun
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Hi, I've been following your journey and have a couple of questions.

 

How long did it take to cut each of the scroll panels above ?

Does the laser remove the excess material or leave waste bits ?

How easy is it to repeat the pattern to make a veranda length of scrollwork and is this best done in the laser software or before importing ?

 

Cheers

Stu

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I love the information - and it's incredibly useful - but I have the b******y spider....... (My one phobia)

 

 You do get used to them! Not wanting to make things worse for you Giles, but he is only a little one...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRV4d9LCawU

 

Stu. your questions...

 

1/   Time taken is a factor of the laser speed setting and the size of the job, ie the distance the laser travels, as well as the number of passes. For instance the plywood version above is roughly 35mm by 50mm, so the length of the outside perimeter cut is 170mm. At 6mm a second x 3 passes that's about 90 seconds to do that bit. With all the inside bits too it took around 18 minutes to cut out. The other end of the scale - the smallest photo paper one has much less distance for the laser to travel, plus it travels  at 10mm/sec and only needs 1 pass, so that took about 45 seconds.

 

2/  With the above examples I have fine tuned the settings enough that when I lifted the job off the laser most of the waste was left behind. The waste that  was still attached was the more intricate shapes, and I just had to blow them in the case of the photo paper, or tap them evenly with the points of the tweezers in the case of the cardboard and plywood versions. There was no bit of waste that was not completely cut through, its just that the kerf of the cut is so fine that some of the waste stays in place.

 

3/  I had a quick play with this. Without going all the way to a cut out test, my initial answer would be to import the original bitmap, then copy and paste it several times. Move these copies so they overlap on the edge upright. Make sure all are selected and group them. Export as a png file, since .jpeg is not an option. Open new project and import that .png file. Do the trace bitmap thing and go from there. Like I said, I haven't tried this all the way through and I only made it up as I went along so I'm more than happy if someone has a better and /  or easier way!

 

Again Giles, sorry about the spiders!

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Many thanks for the informative and interesting posts, I have been watching with interest.

 

My concern with these machines has always been the necessity to learn the software to load into the machines, (this being my problem with photo-etching as well), but your illustrations indicate that it's not the problem I thought it may be - it might tempt me, you should get onto them for some commission!

 

With regard to cutting plastic, none of the commercial cutting firms recommend it, they all use acrylic or Rowmark, so I don't think there's any issue with the machine, I just don't think you can cut laser cut plastic.

 

So once again, thanks for the posts.

 

Peter

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With regard to cutting plastic, none of the commercial cutting firms recommend it, they all use acrylic or Rowmark, so I don't think there's any issue with the machine, I just don't think you can cut laser cut plastic.

 

They are right. Two reasons: -

  • If you try to cut styrene as in, say, Plastikard. It melts rather than cuts
  • The fumes it give off whilst you are trying this are poisonous

If you want a `plastic' its Rowmark or for thinner you can get 0.5mm Perspex that cuts nicely   {i used to drive the lasers at York Modellmaking}

Edited by ngtrains.com
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They are right. Two reasons: -

  • If you try to cut styrene as in, say, Plastikard. It melts rather than cuts
  • The fumes it give off whilst you are trying this are poisonous

If you want a `plastic' its Rowmark or for thinner you can get 0.5mm Perspex that cuts nicely   {i used to drive the lasers at York Modellmaking}

 

Hey mate, thanks for confirming this. Not using plastic in my everyday modelling I did want to at least be able to give an indication to others who do about the Emblasers abilities with it and hopefully avoid them buying something that didn't meet their expectations

 

. It does just seem illogical on the face of it to me who - like most of us - is used to saws and knives (I shall from now on  call them 'analogue cutters') that something that can cut 3mm plywood and 4mm walnut can't cut 0.25mm flimsy  plastic!

Edited by monkeysarefun
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It's all to do with how well the material absorbs the laser light.  Shiny or transparent materials won't work very well unless the laser has lots of power.  Matte, relatively dark materials will cut very well.  Also, by transparent I mean transparent to the wavelength of light being used in the laser - which is not necessarily the same as what it looks like to our eyes.  This is particularly true for the bigger, CO2 lasers, which have a wavelength far, far outside the visible range.  PMMA (Perspex) is almost completely opaque to CO2 lasers, which is why it cuts so well.  I wouldn't be surprised to hear that it doesn't work so well on diode laser setups like the OP's.

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IPI, a plastics company in the US, also produce ADA, the same as Rowmark. When I lived in Australia (until Dec 2015), I obtained supplies of this from Laser & Sign Technology in Riverwood Sydney. I obtained thicknesses of 1.6mm, 1mm, 0.8mm , 0.4mm and 0.25mm, I have not been able to obtain this variety anywhere else.

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IPI, a plastics company in the US, also produce ADA, the same as Rowmark. When I lived in Australia (until Dec 2015), I obtained supplies of this from Laser & Sign Technology in Riverwood Sydney. I obtained thicknesses of 1.6mm, 1mm, 0.8mm , 0.4mm and 0.25mm, I have not been able to obtain this variety anywhere else.

Hey, thanks for that - I drive right past Riverwood once a week, I'll look them up!

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Mine has now turned up too, which is impressive considering it is only two weeks from order and Darkly Labs advised despatch as two to three weeks plus shipping time. Actually it would have been even quicker if yesterday's DHL contract driver hadn't claimed that we were not in to take delivery - we were - all day!

 

For reference, I had to pay DHL £165 for Duty, VAT etc., for a 4W A3 Emblaser plus an extra pair of the Eagle safety glasses. No breakdown of the charges that I have been able to find, but it was roughly what I was expecting (while naturally hoping for less!).

 

Sadly, apart from a quick check of the contents - including making sure of no travel weary Huntsman's (I share your views Giles!) further progress will have to wait a few days, so I look forward to hearing how it goes with everyone else.

 

While searching for a UK distributor of IPI material I came across http://www.csionline.co.uk/materials/ , who seem to also claim to be "Exclusive Rowmark Distributors". Haven't had time to investigate further but it might be useful.

 

Brilliant thread, thanks everyone, just need to make sure I can prove how much else the laser can do apart from modelling!

 

Chris

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Mine has now turned up too, which is impressive considering it is only two weeks from order and Darkly Labs advised despatch as two to three weeks plus shipping time. Actually it would have been even quicker if yesterday's DHL contract driver hadn't claimed that we were not in to take delivery - we were - all day!

 

For reference, I had to pay DHL £165 for Duty, VAT etc., for a 4W A3 Emblaser plus an extra pair of the Eagle safety glasses. No breakdown of the charges that I have been able to find, but it was roughly what I was expecting (while naturally hoping for less!).

 

Sadly, apart from a quick check of the contents - including making sure of no travel weary Huntsman's (I share your views Giles!) further progress will have to wait a few days, so I look forward to hearing how it goes with everyone else.

 

While searching for a UK distributor of IPI material I came across http://www.csionline.co.uk/materials/ , who seem to also claim to be "Exclusive Rowmark Distributors". Haven't had time to investigate further but it might be useful.

 

Brilliant thread, thanks everyone, just need to make sure I can prove how much else the laser can do apart from modelling!

 

Chris

Odd you where charged £30 extra VAT /Duty  just for the glasses ?  even odder I only ordered on the 27th and yet was delivered in under 10 days, obviously a vagary of Interweb shopping.    First alignment  about to commence

 

just reread your post you ordered  the A3 version...

Edited by nick_bastable
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I'm rather half-heartedly expecting mine tomorrow - I had an email a week ago with a scheduled delivery date, but I've not heard anything since (not even about duty!)

I had only given a landline number and the notification of duty due came as one of those rather hard to understand text messages, but it just stated the sum and referred me to this link:- http://www.dhl.co.uk/en/express/resource_centre/shipment_billing_and_payment/payment_options.html - following the "Personal Customers" link took me to a payment page. Might be worth a look?

 

In my admittedly limited experience the 'scheduled delivery' day is not necessarily accurate - mine would have been a day early (good) if the driver had actually tried to deliver it (not so good!).

 

Chris

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I had only given a landline number and the notification of duty due came as one of those rather hard to understand text messages, but it just stated the sum and referred me to this link:- http://www.dhl.co.uk/en/express/resource_centre/shipment_billing_and_payment/payment_options.html - following the "Personal Customers" link took me to a payment page. Might be worth a look?

 

In my admittedly limited experience the 'scheduled delivery' day is not necessarily accurate - mine would have been a day early (good) if the driver had actually tried to deliver it (not so good!).

 

Chris

Try again with that link, but if it doesn't work try dhl.co.uk + payment options

 

http://www.dhl.co.uk/en/express/resource_centre/shipment_billing_and_payment/payment_options.html

 

Chris

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Well - I've just spent four hours assembling this laser (I'm sure it could be done quicker - but one does want to be careful). It went without a hitch, except the belt instructions weren't quite right, and were referring to the OTHER belt first! But is was no problem....

 

Anyway, on completion, following the instructions, plugged it all in (frankly expecting nothing to happen) but did everything - and blow me - the thing did a test cut from a down loaded program perfectly!

 

768B4B95-808C-47A9-9A2E-0B9EEB2D2C84_zps

 

78C495FB-72A8-48E1-915C-B302000C5A5F_zps

 

Although this is only a thick card, it is a beautiful cut straight off. It must be said, this is a cracking little machine, and I'm delighted with it before it's done anything useful!

Edited by Giles
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