Darkly Labs emblaser - affordable laser cutter - review

[JCL]

Cheers Nick! I hear they don't work anymore.

I did an image of Jesus on a SAO cracker a while back. 

 

How much did you get for it?

[monkeysarefun]

Been skimming through the thread, so may have missed this in the 40 odd pages so far:

 

What is the minimum 'wall' thickness that the Emblasers can produce e.g. when cutting window bars, railings etc. Is there a difference between the Emblaser 1 and Emblaser 2 in this respect? Some of the examples pasted in the thread look really fine and to my mind ought to answer for 2mm buildings. Was thinking smooth, quality thin card or 'rowmark' type material would be best?

 

Cheers.

 

 

 

 

In theory maybe the Emblaser 2 being more powerful would be capable of producing finer details given that its greater power would allow faster speeds/less passes  to be used therefore avoiding burning off some fine details but in practice I've managed to get details of less than 0.5mm even on 3mm ply using either machine.

 

Enjoy the beast from the east..

[monkeysarefun]

Cheers Nick! I hear they don't work anymore.

 

How much did you get for it?

 

It looks like I just drew it with  a brown felt-tip pen so I don't think I would get much.

 

(its pinned to the wall here at work where it might impress girls if there were any working here probably)

[bill badger]

In theory maybe the Emblaser 2 being more powerful would be capable of producing finer details given that its greater power would allow faster speeds/less passes  to be used therefore avoiding burning off some fine details but in practice I've managed to get details of less than 0.5mm even on 3mm ply using either machine.

 

Enjoy the beast from the east..

Thanks for that. 0.5mm would be a great result for what I'm planning.

 

Sadly (for me and my 5 year old son) the Beast has turned out to be more of a Bunny is our part of NW England. Only an inch of snow and clear roads; doesn't stop folk driving at 5mph everywhere for no reason at all though!

[Simond]

Yes, much ado about not much at all.

 

I really don’t mind people driving over-cautiously. I do mind having to drive to Ashford to collect MrsD because they’ve cancelled all the rush hour trains to Folkestone & beyond for what appears to be no justifiable reason at all.

 

Best

Simon

[bill badger]

Yes, much ado about not much at all.

 

I really don’t mind people driving over-cautiously. I do mind having to drive to Ashford to collect MrsD because they’ve cancelled all the rush hour trains to Folkestone & beyond for what appears to be no justifiable reason at all.

 

Best

Simon

 

There's cautious and then there's cautious!

 

Anyways, I know this is a thread about the Emblaser but, before I jump in, is there anything else out there that is comparable to the E1 that I should consider next to it (discounting anything cheap and Chinese from Ebay or Amazon). My budget won't stretch to the E2.

Edited February 27, 2018 by bill badger

[nick_bastable]

Yes, much ado about not much at all.

 

I really don’t mind people driving over-cautiously. I do mind having to drive to Ashford to collect MrsD because they’ve cancelled all the rush hour trains to Folkestone & beyond for what appears to be no justifiable reason at all.

 

Best

Simon

could be worse Mrs B left home at 0630 to meet up a Ashford wasted two and half hours on the M20 to Maidstone to be told on arrival via text cancelled 

 

I stayed home and drank tea 

Nick

[monkeysarefun]

 

Anyways, I know this is a thread about the Emblaser but, before I jump in, is there anything else out there that is comparable to the E1 that I should consider next to it (discounting anything cheap and Chinese from Ebay or Amazon). My budget won't stretch to the E2.

 

Theres a few out there at the Emblaser 2 price and features, such as Full Spectrum, Muse, Glowforge and a cheap Chinese one made for Micromark. 

 

I'm not really sure of any that would be Emblaser 1 price that would be as good as it.

[bill badger]

Theres a few out there at the Emblaser 2 price and features, such as Full Spectrum, Muse, Glowforge and a cheap Chinese one made for Micromark. 

 

I'm not really sure of any that would be Emblaser 1 price that would be as good as it.

 

Thanks for the info. Can I ask if, in people's experience, everything you need comes in the kit? I assume the cutting mats in the Darkly Lab shop are not included and you get one pair of the funky orange shades?

[JCL]

Thanks for the info. Can I ask if, in people's experience, everything you need comes in the kit? I assume the cutting mats in the Darkly Lab shop are not included and you get one pair of the funky orange shades?

 

Hi there, yes, you get the shades, but I didn't get the mat. There are lots of different ways of setting up the Emblazer, and I've not personally found the need for one. You might want to invest in some books to read while the thing is merrily turning things into charcoal.

[monkeysarefun]

I got the mats with the Emblaser 2 but I wouldn't have ordered them separately, I have pretty much given up using them because they make it too difficult to hold things down, plus small offcut bits drop into the cells and stick up to jam into the laser head.

 

For the Emblaser 1 I use a glass sheet and hold things down with masking tape.

[bill badger]

Thanks - I'll bear that in mind as I want to be cutting thin sheets for laminating etc.

[bill badger]

Gulp!. I've just taken the plunge and ordered an A3 Emblaser 1. I had been making some initial enquiries about having things cut to order, but having worked out all the things that it would allow me to do, plus all the things that haven't occurred to me yet, I decided I would learn more this way and be able to play to my hearts content. I also have the benefit of a long professional relationship with AutoCAD which I hope will come in handy.

 

Thanks for the great thread and the advice.

 

 

[Giles]

You won't regret it. I have the a4 E1, and find it remarkable. I also run Autocad.

 

Good luck!

[teetrix]

Although Lightburn still doesn't connect, I'm able to work with Laserweb. One of my ongoing projects is a van with a brakeman's seat. The steps have fine supports, and I'm quite pleased with the laser:

 

 

aP1300031 by Michael Carl, on Flickr

 

Single support at the right. And, please don't breathe btw :-)

 

Michael

Edited March 8, 2018 by teetrix

[JCL]

Wow. Sorry Michael, what scale is it and the material used?

[teetrix]

It's 1/45 (german 0 scale). The wall is from 2mm ply, steps and supports from 1mm MDF. Here's a general view of the current state of play:

 

 

aP1300032 by Michael Carl, on Flickr

 

Michael

Edited March 9, 2018 by teetrix

[bill badger]

Just had the confirmation and duty payment request from DHL on my A3 Emblaser 1. Delivery scheduled next Tuesday - under two weeks from order to delivery from Aus; not bad at all.

 

Starting to get quite a list of things I want to try and create.

[bill badger]

In the end DHL delivered on Monday and a couple of evenings have got the thing assembled. No major problems and it fired up fine. I agree about trying to spot the focus with the orange specs on; all very tricky. Its just finished engraving the calibration file; the line is quite thick line so the focus will need much work using the adjust-line-adjust-line method. Even at this stage I'm mighty impressed and relieved it flew straight from the start. 

 

What have folk found to be the best material to use as a work base that ensures the target material can be kept completely flat? I think MDF has been suggested, but I'm not a fan and don't intend to cut it in such a home setup. Would glass work?

Edited March 13, 2018 by bill badger

[monkeysarefun]

In the end DHL delivered on Monday and a couple of evenings have got the thing assembled. No major problems and it fired up fine. I agree about trying to spot the focus with the orange specs on; all very tricky. Its just finished engraving the calibration file; the line is quite thick line so the focus will need much work using the adjust-line-adjust-line method. Even at this stage I'm mighty impressed and relieved it flew straight from the start. 

 

What have folk found to be the best material to use as a work base that ensures the target material can be kept completely flat? I think MDF has been suggested, but I'm not a fan and don't intend to cut it in such a home setup. Would glass work?

 

Welcome to the world of orange eyewear..

 

I used a piece of  10 or 12mm MDF with notches cut out oft he four corners to fit the corner posts which locks it tightly in place. I used the cut2dlaser software  to create and etch a 1cm grid starting at 0,0 onto the MDF  to allow me to place material accurately.

 

On top of this I have a sheet of cheap glass stuck to the MDF with double sided tape.I stick light material and  thin ply up to 3mm thick  using masking tape around the edges. Can be an issue here in summer with the tape not sticking due to the humidity since I do my lasering outside in 40C heat, so I have been experimenting with  a 3mm thick steel plate I bought off Ebay and holding things down with thin magnets (1.5mm thick) again off ebay. placed where it is certain that the laser head won't crash into them.

 

These are incredibly strong though and it is impossible to lever them off the steel sheet without the risk of  breaking them so this is still a work in progress. I have since bought 2.5mm magnets - strips and circular - to play around with..

Edited March 14, 2018 by monkeysarefun

[flubrush]

What have folk found to be the best material to use as a work base that ensures the target material can be kept completely flat? I think MDF has been suggested, but I'm not a fan and don't intend to cut it in such a home setup. Would glass work?

 

I use a piece of 6mm plate glass - part of an old glass shelf from a shop.   I hold it in an MDF frame on the base of the machine so that there are a few millimetres of space between the underside of the glass and the alloy base plate.

 

To hold down material I use double sided tape on the glass,  but I only use small squares of it positioned outside the cutting area if possible.  If you use a large area of double sided tape,  removing the cut material from the plate can be very difficult and damage can be caused.

 

Jim.

[JCL]

I do something similar to Jim.

 

With regards to the tape, I rub it down more or less to the left and bottom of the cutting area, and then load up a file that contains a rectangle the same size as the cutting area which I used to cut the tape. I then pull up and discard the tape from inside the cutting area. Then I know that the tape is exactly on the edge of this area. I can also use those cut edges to make sure that the Emblazer is still square  (I once had a problem with it going out of whack).

 

One thing, on my machine, when I raise and lower the diode, I can skew it left or right if I'm not concentrating, so if yours is the same, be careful of that.

[bill badger]

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I'll try the MDF / glass to see how that goes; for the past few days I've used small sheets of 9mm MDF and 9mm ply as supports underneath the base plate, which seems to sag a bit when the machine is standing on the 4 rubber feet.

 

I was interested (and ultimately encouraged) to re-read 'monkeys' posts about cutting ply. To get me going I ordered some 1.5mm and 3mm sheets of 'laserply' from ebay and also tried some 1.3mm laminated cardboard from Hobbycraft that I already had. The laminated white card cuts and engraves really  nicely and I managed to do some really neat stonework in 2mm scale.

 

I had planned to use 1.5mm ply as the internal layer for buildings and build layers of suitable thickness to give me the building relief. But, the ebay 1.5mm ply just wouldn't cut. It seems to get through the top layer, but then seems to stall at the middle layer and the top layer then just burns sideways with every cut. I think I gave up at 12 passes on 100% at 5mm/s and then tried other power / speed approaches, but still no banana.

 

As a next step I bought some 'normal' 1.5mm play from the local timber merchant yesterday and tried that too; same result. I rechecked the laser focus in case I had got that wrong, but it seemed OK. I was about to give up for the night but thought I'd just try the 3mm ply I got from the same ebay seller. What do you know: 4 passes at 5mm/s on 100% and it cuts like a Grebulon Death Ray going through a planet.

 

Obviously ply is not ply is not ply. Can anyone recommend a source of 0.8mm, 1mm or 1.5mm ply (I need material of each size for what I'm planning)  that they know the Emblaser can get through? I will use card for the thinner layers if needs be. I also want to steer away from using lots of MDF; I have 'professional' heebee-geebees about the fibres it gives off, especially in a 'home setting'.

 

What fun the Emblaser rollercoaster seems to be...

[nick_bastable]

 

As a next step I bought some 'normal' 1.5mm play from the local timber merchant yesterday and tried that too; same result. I rechecked the laser focus in case I had got that wrong, but it seemed OK. I was about to give up for the night but thought I'd just try the 3mm ply I got from the same ebay seller. What do you know: 4 passes at 5mm/s on 100% and it cuts like a Grebulon Death Ray going through a planet.

 

Obviously ply is not ply is not ply. Can anyone recommend a source of 0.8mm, 1mm or 1.5mm ply (I need material of each size for what I'm planning)  that they know the Emblaser can get through? I will use card for the thinner layers if needs be. I also want to steer away from using lots of MDF; I have 'professional' heebee-geebees about the fibres it gives off, especially in a 'home setting'.

 

What fun the Emblaser rollercoaster seems to be...

Morning

 

life has restricted my modelling somewhat how ever 0.8mm ply from this source has been reliable in the past

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/A4-Birch-Plywood-Sheets-Laser-Safe-For-Crafts-Models-Pyrography/251805150797?hash=item3aa0c1ae4d:m:mTckUpmn0pBR2uQzXeX1G_w

 

 

it is worth considering doing the   lens upgrade 

 

Nick

[Simond]

Not a great deal of help, but my experiments with ply & my CO2 laser were not great either. Further work, or different ply, required. I suspect it’s the resin that causes the problems.

 

Perspex cuts like butter, card is als9 good, MDF is fine but the resin seems to vaporise and then coat everything in a slightly sticky brown layer which is resistant to even acetone - I use mine in the garage, with an extractor, but I’d not want to run it in the house, so I get your concerns, though there’s no “fibres” when it’s cut by laser.

 

Unfortunately I’m not running mine at all at the moment as it’s too damn cold, but I’ve plenty of other things to do.

 

Best

Simon