Originally Posted by
jp1957
I recently purchased a Storm600 from G Weike. My experience …
The Storm600 laser system as advertised is actually quite nice – a 40 watt laser system, 600x400 cutting table, water pump, air pump, air exhaust included – “delivered in 5 days” – for a very reasonable price. I inquired about the options and was sold “Red Dot Pointer” for an additional $50 and “Auto Focus” for an additional $150, and a chiller for about $200. I place my order and sent payment.
About a day later, I was informed that my system has been put into production. 2 days later, I was informed that do to space problems, they do not install red dot pointers or the auto focus option. Instead, they would be shipping me two additional sets of lenses and mirrors. I was not pleased about this, but what were my options – I had already paid. Definitely not pleased about the price paid … $150+50 ($200) for two sets of mirrors & lenses that can be purchased on ebay for about $65 each. So, with that trade I lost about $70.
FYI … Lost in translation … “Delivered in 5 days” means that it will finished and ready to ship in 5 days. But, to be fair, I was not expecting the machine to be delivered to the USA in 5 days. Regardless, the laser was put into production, and about 10 days later I was informed that it was “ready to ship”. 10 days later it was actually put on a ship. 6 weeks later, it arrived at my door.
The shipment took 4-5 weeks longer than anticipated, but it was now in my possession. Also, for those of you that have never had anything shipped from overseas, I was quoted $190 for freight. That is the sea freight and the rail transportation to the city nearest my house. It does not include port fees, broker fees, import bond, duties, etc. In this case, and additional $500 in shipping costs.
The unit was packaged quite nicely in a fully enclosed crate. I unpackaged it and set the machine up on a stand, installed the blowers, water chiller, etc. A minor point, but the unit was missing a 1 large clamp and 2 small clamps. There were also a few screws that fell out during the shipment. As a word of caution, the machine when shipped is sprayed with an oil mist to protect it during shipment. Keep this in mind when moving it around.
I should note that during the setup process, you are required to clip power leads to the CO2 tube. That is when I noticed that the tube (model #D32) is rated at 32 Watts – Not 40 watts as advertised. The tube clearly states “Agreement Power = 32 Watt” and “Peak Power > 32 Watt”. If the manufacturer of the tube sets the power at 32 Watt, why is it being advertised and sold as a 40 watt system. It is entirely possible that the system will generate up to 40 watts of power, however, the tube is not designed to continuously produce 40 watts of power. In addition, written on the label next to the power meter is a statement not to exceed 22ma of power to the tube or it will shorten its life. As an aside, I will mention that the power supply installed in this machine will handle up to a 60 Watt CO2 tube.
Also included in the kit were a software CD and a tote box with various bits and pieces. NO INSTRUCTIONS on what those bits and pieces are to be used for. NO INSTRUCTIONS on how the machine is to be set up. A lot of searching later, I found an assembly and setup manual listed on another manufacturers website that closely matched with the Weike system.
I installed the software and ran into quite a few problems – basically, it would not connect and work. After a number of days sending emails back and forth to China, we finally determined that I had been sent outdated software for a different machine. New software installed – and I now had a working machine. Note that although they have many downloads on their website, the website is down more than it is up. In addition, the download page is ambiguous at best. Regardless, software for the Storm 600 was no where to be found on their website.
Because my first project involved working with 1/4" ABS, that is where I began. Test cutting simple 1” squares at various power and speed settings. I ended up with 50% power and a speed of 3. This setting kept the meter at about 22ma. Not full power, but more than adequate to cut the part. I then setup my first project … cutting a roughly 10” square shaped piece out of 1/4” black ABS. The project took about 6 minutes to cut – and both my customer and I thought it looked great.
At first glance, the machine appears to be aligned properly. Good cut around the entire part. After about 10 parts I noticed that the bottom right corner did not cut as well at the top right corner. It was not cutting completely through at that spot. Upon further inspection, I found that the bed was not level. I looked for something to adjust and found that the nylon block that was supporting the table was completely stripped and had dropped about 1/8” down the lead screw. I dismantled the top of the bed exposing the lead screws and support blocks – 1 block was stripped out, 2 were sloppy loose, and 1 was tight. At this point I also noticed a couple of screws that were holding the adjustable Z bed lead-screws were loose. Tried to tighten them up and found out that they were not long enough to bite into the frame. Note that the screws holding the lead-screws to the frame were different lengths. Some barely long enough to reach the frame, others that penetrated completely through the frame. Needless to say, I purchased some longer 4mm screws. Talked with Weike and they are suppose to send me some nylon blocks. However, even when I get the blocks, this will be a major undertaking. The lead-screws are pinned between an upper and lower frame. Therefore, the frame must be dismantled to install the blocks. I am trying to find out the specs on the lead-screw. Looks like a trapezoidal 12mm with a 3mm pitch RH. Since I need to go through so much work to replace the blocks, I am considering purchasing brass or steel ones.
In the mean time, the next day I put a block of wood under the bed and shimmed it into position. Started cutting again – same program – same settings. This time, I got a much poorer cut. After the cut I was left with about 0.5mm of flash. I adjusted the speed to 2.5 and everything cut as planned … just took a little longer. Cut a little while longer and quit for the night.
Next morning, turned on the machine and was greeted with a blank control panel / LCD screen. Backlight worked. Buttons worked. Program worked. Just nothing displayed on the panel. Cut another part and again, I had about 0.5mm of flash. Slowed the program down to 2 and it ran fine – but now I was up to a 10 minute cut. I reset the system a couple of times, but I could not get the screen to display anything. I shut everything down and sent my latest laser update to Weike.
2 days later, I turned everything on and the panel lit up. Nothing changed – everything working – No idea what caused the problem.
So it was back to cutting parts. Started running – and again, the part did not cut through. This time I was left with 1-2mm uncut. I had to slow the speed down to 0.75 to get a good panel. My original 6 minute cut was now taking almost 25 minutes.
Thinking that maybe some screws were loose on the mirrors (because I had experienced loose screws before), I took a stab at adjusting them. Putting a small piece of cardboard in front of the #2 mirror and pulsing the laser for 2 seconds put an almost imperceptible mark on the cardboard.
It is apparent that the problem is not with the alignment – but with the CO2 tube itself.
I have sent my findings to Weike. They told me I was not using the correct settings to cut 1/4" ABS. They asked that I set power=100% and speed 10-15. Tried power=100 and speed=10. It barely marked the ABS (less than a 1 mm cut). They then asked for some videos of the laser tube, a test cut of a piece of paper, and pictures of the control panels. It has been about 48 hours – and still not a word from Weike.
Trust me, I was not expecting a flawless machine. I have designed and built two 3-axis CNC routers from scratch. Nothing goes as planned. But one would think that if your business is building CNC laser equipment, one should have a better control of the manufacturing process.
Has anyone else had these kind of problems with Weike laser system?
Has anyone had this kind of problem with a new laser tube?
And to answer the obvious question, the system has never been run without water-cooling. There are no bubbles in the tube. The chiller I installed beeps incessantly until it detects water flowing (ie for about 3 seconds during start up, or if you pinch a hose).
I have also looked through the settings in the control panel. Very limited control settings – and nothing appears to be amiss – nor has anything changed since I cut my first part.
I am open to suggestions … but I can only assume that I have a defective (ie leaking) tube.