Measured power of 'ebay' lasers vs advertised rating

[holozip]

Hi guys,

How many folks measure their tube output? I'm curious to see how close to the rated output other peoples tubes are.

If you do measure your laser output, please could you let me know the advertised tube wattage and the actual output power you measured? I'm hoping many people will find this useful as a resource of what to expect, and it would help me with my issue below:

In my particular case; I recently bought a 50W laser cutter from ebay. I had some teething troubles, the laser power supply was broken on arrival - but was replaced, and now I'm reasonably happy with it. I also bought a Mahooney 100W probe.

The machine:








According to my probe I am currently getting about 29W output direct from the tube aperture - whilst pulling 27mAh from the supply. For a 50W laser, I'm fairly disappointed with the power output, and can just just about get through 5mm plywood on full power (slowly, and often requires multiple passes). Does this stack up with other peoples experiences?

I'm considering buying a replacement tube from a local source and have a choice between 40W and 60W tubes. If a 40W tube will really put out 40W, then its probably in my interests to 'downgrade' - as it'll mean a 10W increase over my current scenario. If not, then I'll probably spring for the 60W version.

Thanks for taking the time to read my thread.

Kind regards,
Gareth

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[gweikelaser]

5mm plywood ,60w should cut and for 40w ,50w ,their power is almost same ,max is 40 -50, but 29w is too small

Hi guys,

How many folks measure their tube output? I'm curious to see how close to the rated output other peoples tubes are.

If you do measure your laser output, please could you let me know the advertised tube wattage and the actual output power you measured? I'm hoping many people will find this useful as a resource of what to expect, and it would help me with my issue below:

In my particular case; I recently bought a 50W laser cutter from ebay. I had some teething troubles, the laser power supply was broken on arrival - but was replaced, and now I'm reasonably happy with it. I also bought a Mahooney 100W probe.

The machine:








the 40w tube should be same as the 50w one , max can reach 50w ,yours is only 29w, seems not normal and for 5mm plywood, 60w should work,if it can reach 60w


According to my probe I am currently getting about 29W output direct from the tube aperture - whilst pulling 27mAh from the supply. For a 50W laser, I'm fairly disappointed with the power output, and can just just about get through 5mm plywood on full power (slowly, and often requires multiple passes). Does this stack up with other peoples experiences?

I'm considering buying a replacement tube from a local source and have a choice between 40W and 60W tubes. If a 40W tube will really put out 40W, then its probably in my interests to 'downgrade' - as it'll mean a 10W increase over my current scenario. If not, then I'll probably spring for the 60W version.

Thanks for taking the time to read my thread.

Kind regards,
Gareth

[cinematic2]

According to my probe I am currently getting about 29W output direct from the tube aperture - whilst pulling 27mAh from the supply. For a 50W laser, I'm fairly disappointed with the power output, and can just just about get through 5mm plywood on full power (slowly, and often requires multiple passes). Does this stack up with other peoples experiences?

I'm considering buying a replacement tube from a local source and have a choice between 40W and 60W tubes. If a 40W tube will really put out 40W, then its probably in my interests to 'downgrade' - as it'll mean a 10W increase over my current scenario. If not, then I'll probably spring for the 60W version.

As for standard chinese lasers:
700mm long is about 32-35W when new in good condition (not 40 as they claim)
1000mm is about 50W if you are really lucky guy.
1200mm can reach 55W. 60W when just out of factory line.

Regards

[holozip]

Thanks for the responses guys. I ended up going for a 60W tube and matching power supply to solve my issue:




As predicted, I'm getting around 55W - which should be more than adequate for my needs.

[herby08]

hi all
as to CO2 laser tubes it depends where the manufacturer are. over the years I had 40W tubes from different sources but during the last two years I bought tubes from the north branch and they last about 1,500 to 1,800 hours heavy cutting.
I cut 5 and 6mm plywood mostly just the cheap from HD and I can cut them with around 15mA and a speed from 5 to 8mm/s one pass. sure there are some batches of plywood who have lots of glue inside and they are tough or not cutting at all, they go in the waste.
greetings
waltfl

[RCaffin]

I'm curious - can you cut thin sheet metal with any of these? eg Al or Ti?

Cheers
Roger

[herby08]

no you can not cut any metal with a CO2 tube , maybe with a high power over 200W but I don't know about this
greetings waltfl

[kb0nly]

Cut no.. But if you spray the aluminum with a laser prep material, its like a special paint, then you can etch designs into it and wash away the excess. I have seen it done its pretty neat and works on aluminum and stainless steel.