My opinion about my new EXLAS 6040 engraver (Part 1)

[manolohpm]

Hi all.

I was used to work with an EPILOG 36 EXT laser engraver (75 watts) (40000 euros), but the owner of this machine is going to sell it, so I decided to go for a chinese one. I know that it won't be the same.

I decided to go for an EXLAS-6040 laser engraver. It arrived some days ago, but I've been busy so it's today when I publish some pictures of the machine before connecting and working with it.

Here they are:

https://picasaweb.google.com/manoloh...LaserEngraver#

The firsts pictures show the ship track by the Mediterranean sea.

The machine is equipped with a 80 w RECI laser tube, autofocus device, motorized table and coaxial red pointer. I bought a CW-5000 water chiller too, because I live in the south of spain (40ºC or more in summer).

Importing it has been easy, because the company where I work normally imports lots of things, so the agency has charged the minimum for me. Anyway I had to pay VAT and forwarded expenses.

Every comment know is made before cutting/engraving any piece, with the machine disconnected.

SHIPPING BOX
Very well made and extremely resistant. With a metal tubes grid on the base. No additional alignments needed for the laser beam. When I opened it, chiller and engraver were in contact, with no protection between them, so both machines were scratched. The engraver was fitted to the wooden box by very big screws.

CHILLER
Very well constructed. I'll have to check it working in real summer...

AIR PUMP AND EXHAUST FAN
Standard ones, nothing to say.

METAL BODY OF ENGRAVER
Thickness of metal parts are enough. Too thick in some parts I think, but nothing to complain about. The machine weights like hell (two persons are not able to lift it). Thanks god I rented a truck with hydraulic platform...

I would ask XYZ to take care of the termination of some metal pieces. Some of them are repainted, others are scratched or very bad terminated. If I were working in a quality department I would have rejected some of them, specially the ones covering the laser tube.

The machine was very dirty inside. Lots of metallic shaving everywhere. I took a couple of hours playing with a vaccum cleaner.

Machine has some really nice details, like the drawer to collect of the pieces cut.

The opening on the back side for big pieces is useless (I think) because the piece you introduce by this opening will hit the piece where the focusing lens is fitted. The big piece will lay on the structure of the machine, and not on the motorized table. Anyway, I will be cutting small pieces and won't use this feature.

I don't understand why XYZ uses two motors in order to move the table. It would be cheaper and more precise using one motor and a belt to move three or four screws at the same time (like in the Epilog machine).

One of the holes made in the structure to pass cables through it cuts like a knife, so I have protected the cables properly. The rest of holes are OK, but I've protected the cables too.

As you can see in one picture, the head of laser tube (high voltage) was too close to the fitting piece of red dot point (earthed), so I moved the laser tube around 5 cm to the left. I thought I would need to align everything again later, but it was not necessary.

When everything was clean and checked, I tested that every metal part was correctly earthed. And it was.

TURNING ON CHILLER AND WATER
This is an easy process. Just connect the pipes, fill in the chiller deposit and turn it on, refilling while the laser tube is being filled. I have to check for bubbles inside the tube, so I turned off and on the chiller some times. No problem.

A nice video tutorial about this chiller YouTube - ‪CW-5000 Water Chiller‬‏.

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION
I'm using an old laptop with Windows XP and CorelDraw X3. No problem installing driver and software.


Now everything is ready for turning on the system. I'll write the next part as soon as I can.

Regards. Manolo.

[Racerx43]

Nice write -up and thank you for sharing. I"m looking forward to your operational information. Please let us know what your software set-up works like. Could you expand on the driver portion and how well it interfaces with your workflow?

[manolohpm]

Hi.

Thanks.

Sure. I'm testing using diferent values for:

- speed
- power
- focusing distance
- air blow

I'll write a second post during this week if I have time.

Regards. Manolo.

[manolohpm]

Ok. Let’s go with the 2nd part now.

I’ve had to investigate the software, because the instructions are not very friendly, but it is very easy to use. Just to say that I only have worked with the CorelDraw add-on.

I haven’t been able to set the origin where I want, but anyway, I’m using my own method that I’ll explain later.

Before starting with this explanation, I have to say that after minutes of working with laser, the lens for the coaxial red dot was destroyed (picture attached). Laser started to reduce power so I checked all the mirrors and this one was destroyed. Anyway, with my method of positioning, I don’t need red pointer anymore.

Also, the device for autofocus hits the frame of the table at maximums values of Y. So it is useless.

CUTTING
The first thing I did is checking power/speed for the materials I normally use:

- acrylic 2 mm: power 70, speed 30
- acrylic 3 mm: power 70, speed 25
- acrylic 5 mm: power 70, speed 15

My method for positioning.
I’ll draw a reference file for cutting in Corel. The sheet is set to 600x400 mm first and then I draw two blue lines:

- one horizontal on top right
- one vertical on top right

Distances from these line to sheet borders are the ones that makes laser cutting over the honeycomb area and the closest to honeycomb frame. I save this file as “cut-origin”.

With this file, I cut two pieces of 8 mm thickness acrylic: One will be the X reference and the other one the Y reference. Before cutting, the piece must be in contact with both top and right borders of the working area. I’ll name this piece the “reference piece”.

I use rectangular pieces of acrylic for my jobs. Let’s say 580x380 mm. In order to position it on the working table, I draw a blue rectangle in Corel. The sheet again 600x400, and my rectangle 580x380. I draw all my pieces inside this rectangle using black lines. When I’m finished, I open “cut origin”. Copy both lines and paste in my working file. As both files are 600x400, when pasting, the position of origin lines are just the same.

Then I move the top right corner of my rectangle (and all the pieces inside) to the intersection of the reference lines.

Now I place reference piece on the table in contact with table frame (up and right), and then my 580x380 piece in contact with reference piece (again top and right). And I can start cutting. Just define black lines to be cut, and blue lines not to be processed.

This way I can cut some pieces, stop and continue later on with the rest of work at the same position.

QUALITY AND SPEED OF CUTTING
I’m used to work with an Epilog 36EXT engraver. Quality of cut edges is just the same. The same comment for speed.

About precision of cutting closed figures, it is perfect with Epilog and with this engraver you can see minimum gaps.

I have set water temperature on the chiller to 18ºC, and the maximum temperature in the laser tube output is 29ºc (it changes 24-29ºC while chiller changes 18-22ºC).

ENGRAVING
The method for positioning engraving works is the same BUT you have to increase the distance from the right border of the table. Why? Because when engraving, the X movement is bigger than the length you’re going to engrave (acceleration gap or something). And if your engraving work is very close to right side of the table, the head will hit this border and motor will loose many steps. So the first line will be correctly engraved but the rest of lines won’t.

Engraving is soooooo slow. Something I take 4 minutes with Epilog takes 50 with this one. And the quality of engrave is perfect for Epilog and let’s say 60% for this one.

I’m using bidirectional engraving and sometimes you can see the change of direction gap. I haven’t tried with unidirectional type, but this would cost me 1:40 hours for each piece!! I've attached engraved text using Epilog and this one (guess you know which is each one?).

I have to do the engraving without blowing. If I use blowing, the debris from one pass is adhered to the previous passes (material is hot yet).

The quality of engraving is not enough to sell things to my customers. I think I would need a servo motor for X axis. This would correct the speed problem, but I don’t now if this would correct the change of direction gap. What do you think?

[muqtadir]

HI Manolo
I have 3 machines from the same manufacturer. Regarding the engraving you have to change the drawtube double wider then cutting. This is my experience. For cutting to make cool they use small hole but for engraving needs about double size outlet and you will see it will be excellent engraving.

[manolohpm]

Hi.

Do you mean increase distance between lens and material? A bigger laset dot burning the acrylic?

Regards.

[Rodney Gold]

I have a similar type chinese machine with a 80w reci and more or less the same specs except it's a bigger machine and in my opinion
you have something wrong with the laser or are drastically out in some settings if your laser takes 50 mins to do a 4 min Job your epilog does and still delivers such poor engraving.
I would check a few things as to the poor quality engraving

Focus , check the laser is indeed focussed, don't trust the autofocus , if they provide a manual focussing gauge use that.
Alignment , did you align the optics before using the laser?
Check the mirrors and lens are clean

You should have a compensation smewhere in the software so the lines of bidirectional engraving line up , fiddle with that to get the lines lining up

As to speed , you might have to set a max speed on both the control panel of the laser and in some software configuration
If the max speed on your control panel or laser config in software is set at lets say , 10mm/second then no matter what you tell the laser to run at with engraving , it will not exceed that max speed setting.

Your laser is advertised at 60meters per min as its highest possible engraving speed , or 1000mm/second , which is plenty fast , even at 1/2 that speed , it should be at worst 1/2 to 1/3rd as slow as your epilog when doing bidirectional scanning/engraving.

I would call tech support about these issues , as albeit the chinese lasers are not the speed and quality demons some of the top of the range mainstream machines are , they are not as bad as yours seems to be.

[manolohpm]

Hi Rod.

Thank you for your answer. I attach all screenshots for engraving options.

Originally Posted by Rodney Gold Focus , check the laser is indeed focussed, don't trust the autofocus , if they provide a manual focussing gauge use that. Alignment , did you align the optics before using the laser? Check the mirrors and lens are clean

Focus must be ok, because when I cut, the width of the cut line is actually very very thin (more than with Epilog). Any way, I'll clean the mirros and lens (I'm waiting for the isopropyl alcohol).

You should have a compensation smewhere in the software so the lines of bidirectional engraving line up , fiddle with that to get the lines lining up

I think you mean field "backlash" on the attached picture engr4. The value of this field is distance in mm I guess. I'll play with this value.

As to speed , you might have to set a max speed on both the control panel of the laser and in some software configuration If the max speed on your control panel or laser config in software is set at lets say , 10mm/second then no matter what you tell the laser to run at with engraving , it will not exceed that max speed setting. Your laser is advertised at 60meters per min as its highest possible engraving speed , or 1000mm/second , which is plenty fast , even at 1/2 that speed , it should be at worst 1/2 to 1/3rd as slow as your epilog when doing bidirectional scanning/engraving.

Ok, this is the point. I've realized that in the user manual, there's a value of 400 (picture engr1), and I thought that speed value changed from 0 to 100 (like with Epilog). I'll check higher speeds.

I would call tech support about these issues , as albeit the chinese lasers are not the speed and quality demons some of the top of the range mainstream machines are , they are not as bad as yours seems to be.

I hope so...

One more thing. I don't understand the concept of PWM frequency. What is done when changing this value?

Thank you very much.

Regards. Manolo.

[Rodney Gold]

Speed on most of these machines is actually mm/sec not a percentage like epilogs and some others. The PWM freq is actually the freq of the control signal for the laser tube , I dont think you can change it to anything other than what its set at if you have a glass tube.
If that is plastic engraving laminate you were engraving in the first pic , I would suggest start at about 30-40% power and set the speed at 400-500mm/sec, on your machine control panel , if those settings are too much or too little , you can actually change the settings while the laser is doing the job to improve things. Be careful that engraving laminates you use are actually laserable ones, the normal rotary lams use an abs core and will engrave not so well.

[manolohpm]

Thank you.

I'll try.


Regards. Manolo.

Originally Posted by Rodney Gold Speed on most of these machines is actually mm/sec not a percentage like epilogs and some others. The PWM freq is actually the freq of the control signal for the laser tube , I dont think you can change it to anything other than what its set at if you have a glass tube. If that is plastic engraving laminate you were engraving in the first pic , I would suggest start at about 30-40% power and set the speed at 400-500mm/sec, on your machine control panel , if those settings are too much or too little , you can actually change the settings while the laser is doing the job to improve things. Be careful that engraving laminates you use are actually laserable ones, the normal rotary lams use an abs core and will engrave not so well.

[manolohpm]

Hi.

Mike from XYZ confirmed me that max speed is 800 and how to use the autofous tool and how to set banding parameters.

Forgot to mention in my previous messages that everything I have asked to XYZ has been answered in one day or less. There's has been some messages not answered quickly because Mike was at holidays and I didn't know.

So I have to point out that Mike is very helpfull hand.

Regards. Manolo.

[yasam2002]

Is it a good product to buy or not , does it work without problem for you right now, because iam planning to buy one from their service?