monkeysarefun Posted April 24, 2016 Author Share Posted April 24, 2016 I knooooow........ I got the newsletter last night. Might have to do some more overtime! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
teetrix Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 Sometimes it's good to haven't enough money yet... Michael Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 Would it be wrong to be a two-laser household? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 Seems to me that if they are going to issue a more powerful laser cutting head, it is likely that it fits the current chassis. Thus an upgrade might be a reasonable option / expectation. I guess it depends on how long you're cutting for - if it currently takes 3 cuts, and you can get down to two, or even one, it will save time, but the greater energy in a shorter time means more smoke - will you need extraction, etc, as I have with the CO2 beastie (currently etching inside wall for boiler house...)? Best Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Trofimow Posted April 24, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 24, 2016 (edited) IMHO extraction is necessary if you intend to use it indoors even with the 4 watt laser. My experience with it so far extends only to running the test file, but that was enough to make me decide that rigging up something to remove the smoke will be the first priority once I have time to use it. Intrigued as to what they are going to announce - hope it will be compatible with what I've just bought. Alan Edited April 24, 2016 by Trofimow Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 Question to those etching MDF: what's the thinnest wall you can achieve in 2mm? I'm doing some window frames and 0.6mm seems to be the thinnest I can reliably leave without simply burning away. Is this "top of the class" or "could try harder"? Repeated post in other thread Best Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
teetrix Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 @ Giles: Maybe you become a trendsetter @ Trofimow: You can get complete exhaust kits from merchants specialized for the needs of a "growing community" : https://www.growland.co.uk/Extraction-Kits But activated coal filters will only last minutes if exposed to MDF fumes, so you will need some more robust filter mats before them. Here are some inspirations for complete DIY-units, unfortunately only in german and made for much bigger CO2 lasers, but maybe useful to get the idea: http://wiki.fablab-muenchen.de/display/WIKI/Selbstbau-Absaugung Michael Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 Question to those etching MDF: what's the thinnest wall you can achieve in 2mm? I'm doing some window frames and 0.6mm seems to be the thinnest I can reliably leave without simply burning away. Is this "top of the class" or "could try harder"? Repeated post in other thread Best Simon I've just squeezed 0.4mm, by cutting in 2mm MDF when I meant to cut in 0.8mm ply! It did it, but it is a little thin! 0.4mm is my limit for 0.8mm ply and 0.8mm Tromark (drawing - so it comes out a tad thinner than that) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 (edited) The webs of these brackets are drawn at 0.4mm . The grey one is 0.8mm ply, and the black one is 0.8mm Tromark. Both do the job, but the Tromark required more pricking out by hand Edited April 24, 2016 by Giles 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 (edited) I'm not getting top marks then Thanks - More experimentation required!! Simon Edited April 24, 2016 by Simond Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold JCL Posted April 24, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 24, 2016 For thicker card (1mm and over) I've been tending to leave the power at 100 and just fiddle with the speed. For 1mm card I've found 8mm/sec seems to cut through, and 6mm/sec for 1.5mm card. Both done in a single pass.If you can't cut through the 1.5mm card at these settings it might be worthwhile looking at the focus again - I fiddled with mine for around 2 hours until I got a line about a hairsbreadth, it was worth the effort, tedious is at was to continually remove the shield, quarter-turn the lens, replace shield, draw line, compare with previous line etc etc etc... But - it only needs to be done once!, ... I replaced the gantry brackets this morning, and interestingly now I have NO free play in the rods, even though checking with a depth gauge showed no difference in depth of the rod holes in the old brackets vs the new. I feel I'm going to have to continue focusing, I'm cutting through at 3mm/s, 100%. I'm afraid the squinting is making my eyes water (through the glasses obviously), but I'll get there. One question, is the front of your diodes the same height as the back? I've a couple of mm difference as its slightly lower at the front. Giles, your fan brackets are amazing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeysarefun Posted April 24, 2016 Author Share Posted April 24, 2016 Seems to me that if they are going to issue a more powerful laser cutting head, it is likely that it fits the current chassis. Thus an upgrade might be a reasonable option / expectation. I guess it depends on how long you're cutting for - if it currently takes 3 cuts, and you can get down to two, or even one, it will save time, but the greater energy in a shorter time means more smoke - will you need extraction, etc, as I have with the CO2 beastie (currently etching inside wall for boiler house...)? Best Simon The teaser picture in the newsletter seems to be implying a complete redesign... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeysarefun Posted April 24, 2016 Author Share Posted April 24, 2016 (edited) I feel I'm going to have to continue focusing, I'm cutting through at 3mm/s, 100%. I'm afraid the squinting is making my eyes water (through the glasses obviously), but I'll get there. One question, is the front of your diodes the same height as the back? I've a couple of mm difference as its slightly lower at the front. Giles, your fan brackets are amazing. The focusing thing is a pain to do and I couldn't rely on just the size of the light dot on the testpiece to get the focus accurate, because turning the lens made it go from faint dash to blurry dot, and stayed at blurry dot until I turned it too far and the lens dropped out. I ended up using the technique described in post #4 of this thread. If you have a magnifying glass to compare the line widths it is a big help,. Domenics rule of thumb is that you should be able to cut plain white copy paper at 1800mm/min (note - mm/min, not second!) My unit is a little lower at the front but I haven't found it to be an issue, I was concerned that it might affect the accuracy by not being able to precisely set the focal distance with the tool but in reality I've been doing a lot of 3mm ply which bows up or down slightly so the focal length differs all over the job and that doesn't seem to be a problem. Amazing brackets Giles! ( can I just mention that you missed a bit - like I always do too! .)... Edited April 25, 2016 by monkeysarefun Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeysarefun Posted April 25, 2016 Author Share Posted April 25, 2016 (edited) Actually, seeing Giles awesome black bracket made me wonder if there might be a 5th variable (apart from material, power, speed and number of passes) - the colour of the material. The eternal optimist from work who hopes I'm going to do his wedding invites had given me some various sample stock to try. One was a black cardboard, about 0.35mm thick. I tried the same bracket that I'd been playing around with using white paper and photo paper, and there is definitely an improvement in the result. I was able to lower the power and up the speed and every little element was cut through cleanly without needing to poke them out with tweezers: Emboldened ( or should that be Emblasened?) I went hunting for more little things to cut out. Here is a little wrought iron kind of panel, it had no trouble coping with the fine details here: So I went finer still - a wrought iron door. Some of the very fine twirly bits didn't make it through but on a whole the detail is pretty good: Then I got a bit cocky, the detail here is about a hairsbreadth and it was at this point that bits started breaking off: But still, I don't know of any other way - apart from maybe having your own personal Allan Downes with Stanley knife attachment - to get fine details like this: Settings were 80% power and a single pass at 18mm/sec. I can't be sure whether its the quality of the card that makes it work so well , or whether black does absorb the laser or whatever, but I'll be using this black card from now on, and I won't be buying any more scalelink brackets, gates or railings! Edited April 25, 2016 by monkeysarefun 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold JCL Posted April 25, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 25, 2016 (edited) I thought I was getting good results with the Silhouette, but they are remarkable. Edited April 25, 2016 by JCL Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
teetrix Posted April 25, 2016 Share Posted April 25, 2016 (edited) Gentlemen, I'm amazed... :good: Congrats! Obviously those (relatively) low power diodes allow much more fineness as a bigger CO2 laser. My lasercutting partners achieved 0,6 mm width in 1 mm MDF: and 0.5 mm in 0.5 mm acryl: by using expensive trotecs, and they were (rightly) quite proud of it. But it looks rather coarse compared to your results. You can see even single "laser shots" at the MDF part, I think it's impossible to turn the power even lower... The black cardboard seems indeed to absorb the energy better and let it stay at a small point. Michael Edited April 25, 2016 by teetrix Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeysarefun Posted April 25, 2016 Author Share Posted April 25, 2016 (edited) And just one more - because this is more fun than cutting the grass, which is what I'm meant to be doing.. Edited April 25, 2016 by monkeysarefun 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold DaveyH Posted April 25, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 25, 2016 The results in this thread are amazing - I ended up with a Silhouette having watched that skill develop online, I bet I'll end up with one of these as well! Wondering out loud (so to speak), is the speed of the cut a factor in the likelihood to burn? Logic seems to suggest that the quicker a successful cut can be made, the less risk there is of collateral damage? Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeysarefun Posted April 25, 2016 Author Share Posted April 25, 2016 (edited) The results in this thread are amazing - I ended up with a Silhouette having watched that skill develop online, I bet I'll end up with one of these as well! Wondering out loud (so to speak), is the speed of the cut a factor in the likelihood to burn? Logic seems to suggest that the quicker a successful cut can be made, the less risk there is of collateral damage? Dave Hi Dave, Just hold off for 4 days or so going by the darklylabs homepage! Speed of the cutter IS one factor that causes burn, but it is a real juggling act to get the right mix of speed, power, number of passes and so on to prevent it. Speeding up the laser can introduce other issues - purely from watching it do its stuff the laser isn't a steady light source, it seems to pulse - actually,rapid flicker would be more accurate. So by going faster you can tend to get perforations rather than a clean cut line. I've yet to come up with a fool proof algorithm that takes in power, material, speed, complexity of detail and number of passes that will prevent burning. However, todays experiments with the black card are the first time I've had zero burn holes when doing really tiny shapes, so I'm going to stick using that I reckon! Thanks for the comments. Edited April 25, 2016 by monkeysarefun Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles Posted April 25, 2016 Share Posted April 25, 2016 Oh, absolutely - colour is vital. When I got Tromark samples, I had identical materials in indentical thicknesses in black and white. Black I could cut in a single pass at 7mm per sec., white wouldn't cut right through even with three passes. I bought black sheets..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles Posted April 25, 2016 Share Posted April 25, 2016 The focusing thing is a pain to do and I couldn't rely on just the size of the light dot on the testpiece to get the focus accurate, because turning the lens made it go from faint dash to blurry dot, and stayed at blurry dot until I turned it too far and the lens dropped out. I ended up using the technique described in post #4 of this thread. If you have a magnifying glass to compare the line widths it is a big help,. Domenics rule of thumb is that you should be able to cut plain white copy paper at 1800mm/min (note - mm/min, not second!) My unit is a little lower at the front but I haven't found it to be an issue, I was concerned that it might affect the accuracy by not being able to precisely set the focal distance with the tool but in reality I've been doing a lot of 3mm ply which bows up or down slightly so the focal length differs all over the job and that doesn't seem to be a problem. Amazing brackets Giles! ( can I just mention that you missed a bit - like I always do too! .)... Untitled.jpg My unit is also a little lower at the front! I love your wrought-iron work - a real treat! Thanks for pointing that extra hole out - it had cut, but I hadn't pricked it out..... I have now! Incidentally, the bracket isn't my design, but Phils, and very nice too.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeysarefun Posted April 25, 2016 Author Share Posted April 25, 2016 My unit is also a little lower at the front! I love your wrought-iron work - a real treat! Thanks for pointing that extra hole out - it had cut, but I hadn't pricked it out..... I have now! Incidentally, the bracket isn't my design, but Phils, and very nice too.... Thanks for confirming the colour thing - it was quite a revelation discovering that today! Re your brackets and the cool 3D kind of effect - I guess there are layers there? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles Posted April 25, 2016 Share Posted April 25, 2016 Just two layers - the main bracket, and a border layer.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeysarefun Posted April 25, 2016 Author Share Posted April 25, 2016 Nice! It looks much more complex. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeOxon Posted April 25, 2016 Share Posted April 25, 2016 I thought I was getting good results with the Silhouette, but they are remarkable. Hi JCL, Since you got me and many others started with the Silhouette, it would be interesting to read your thoughts on what applications suit which type of machine. You should soon be in a position to offer comparison of the two approaches! Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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