Looks like you are about have some fun! I'll be interested to see how this laser works for you as I might interested in one of their smaller units.
Mike
I got a nice surprise when John, the owner of Novakon called and said he was going to drop off my Bodor laser today
The machines were in a Charlotte NC warehouse and John was willing to deliver mine on the way back to his shop in Winston Salem with some of the other machines. He was even nice enough to stay and help uncrate it. Now that my friends is customer service. Here are a few pictures of the delivery and uncrating. That's John working the lift gate.
More to follow as I get it located and up and running.
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Looks like you are about have some fun! I'll be interested to see how this laser works for you as I might interested in one of their smaller units.
Mike
Here are a few more pictures of the Bodor. It is pretty big and built like a tank. I was happily surprised with the quality and gauge of the metal used, it seems a very rigid and well constructed with a really nice finish.
So far I am more then pleased with the quality, fit and finish.
If it runs as good as it looks I will be a very happy guy, If I can find the plumbing parts locally, and install the electrical I hope to get it going by the middle of next week
The machine is finally sitting in position, set up and running. Having read a few horror stories about imported lasers from e-bay I was expecting to spend at least a few hours tweaking and adjusting it after a 30 day cruise on the high sees and a road trip from NYC to Charlotte. Needless to say, I was more then happy when the Novakon Bodor ran perfectly right out of the box. The toughest part of the whole deal was waiting for the extra 16 foot of exhaust hose i needed to exhaust the smoke outside the shop.
That's all behind me now and I was able to make my first two test parts The logo of my daughters business on a piece of scrap ply wood and a cutout of a Victorian lady and the backing board it is mounted on, both are cut from Mat board. I hope to try Acrylic in the next day or so. I am amazed at the number of things you can produce with these machines I think I could use it every day for the next year and not scratch the surface of what can be done.
Last edited by ram48; 02-11-2017 at 10:08 PM.
Received my Novakon/Bodor Laser cutter/engraver this week. The Novakon/Bodor laser machine is well built and performs flawlessly. The laser was shipped in a wood crate with a top and bottom metal tubing skid added for protection. A user manual, instructional videos and software were provided on an enclosed USB flash drive. The documentation was user friendly and easy to understand. Novakon provided a well written RDWorks English software manual. I was able to uncrate the laser machine, install the laser tube, hook up the water chiller, the exhaust fan/duct work and air compressor lines, and cut the first part within a day. I like the fact that the Novakon/Bodor laser includes Wi-Fi (In other words, you don’t have to use A USB cord to connect a computer to the laser). Novakon pricing is excellent for a US supported laser machine. The attached pictures shows my progress in uncrating the machine and rolling it off of the shipping skid.
We are pleased to announce we have our first lasers in stock! Our first shipment arrived and you can see two lasers that were already delivered with illustrations posted below. Initial inspections of the lasers turned out to be very good and the operational results were even better. Packaging was solid and shop installation was very easy also. Novakon has western "real" English manuals for the RDWorks software. This is a real plus over the "Chinglish" manuals out there. More information will be posted on our store soon. Over the next couple of weeks, you should see some excellent sample products produced, representing the full capabilities of our new laser.
Welcome again and come and see our laser on our web page. Novakon Laser
My first project using the Novakon/Bodor 1006 BCL X Laser is complete. The Atec calendar was produced using Corian and is 23" in diameter. The engraving was performed with a 120 watt laser at 20% minimum and 70% maximum power settings at 150 mm/sec. The one half inch Corian sheet was cut using 70% min/max power settings at 1.5 mm/second. The laser focal lens is 63.5 mm (2.5").
After using the Novakon/Bodor laser for two weeks, I give it a five star rating. It is a super machine available at a reasonable price with US support.
The Aztec calendar looks pretty good. How long did it take to engrave?
The Atec calendar took 35 minutes to engrave. The total length of engraving was 4,214 inches. The same size calendar engraved on a CNC mill would take over 8 hours (Assuming that your mill could handle a 24" x 24" piece of Corian).
The laser is better at engraving Corian than a CNC mill. The surface flatness of Corian can vary upto five thousands of an inch, but regardless of the flatness of the surface, the depth of the laser engraving does not vary. When using a CNC mill the tip of the bit stays the same, therfore the depth of the engraving can vary upto five thousands of an inch.
The Novakon/Bodor laser continues to impress me in the scope of materials that it is able to be used on.
here is a picture of engraved leather on a guitar strap that a friend is making. The process took three min. and the settings were 25 min power 25 max power and 150mm.sec speed.
I am learning more about how versatile this machine is every day, I think I will start to see what I can do with Acrylic or maybe granite this week.
The Bodor laser machines that Novakon is selling can do 3D engraving. The supplied RDWorks software allows you to use up to 256 shades of grey to create a bit mapped image. You enter a minimum and maximum power setting for the image. The RDWorks software than assigns an individual power level to each shade of grey that is in the image. The lighter pixels are assigned a lower power level and the darker pixels are assigned a higher power level. In other words, an image with sixteen shades of grey would have sixteen different laser power settings equally divided between the minimum and maximum power levels entered into the RDWorks software program.
The quality of the 3D engraving can vary greatly depending on the material being engraved. A 3D image engraved in MDF is usually poor quality. Different types of wood provide varying levels of quality.
My first 3D project. Christmas Train DXF file can be downloaded on Thingiverse.com
Made with 3mm MDF. The project required approximately 8 hours total time to cut out and assemble.
Most 3D laser cut projects are like a puzzle in that they have virtually no assembly instructions.
First attempts at etching Granite and painted aluminum.
I am absolutely amazed at the different kinds of materials that can be laser etched.
I picked up a scrap piece of Granite and drop of painted aluminum just to play and I'm very pleased with the results.
Next I think will be glazed and un-glazed ceramic tiles, I also cut and etched some acrylic and really like the results I am getting.
I am starting to get comfortable with the laser.
Here are two things I cut from 3 mm acrylic on the Novakon/Bodor BCL X 1006 machine.
Settings for my 130 watt Reci tube were
Cutting... 40 min 40 max at 15mm sec speed
Etching (scan) was 25 min 25 max at 400 mm sec speed and 0.01 interval
Is that painted or powder coated aluminum? Have you tried just polished aluminum?
Keith
It is factory applied paint I picked up a drop at a local sign supply place just to try it. Powder coated aluminum would produce similar results.
Polished aluminum would need to be coated with a topcoat called cermark or a similar product then laser etch the aluminum and wash off the remaining cermark. it would produce a dark grey to black mark according to the power / speed you engraved it at. Cermark is also used on other metals in order to etch them with a CO@ laser
You need to be careful with any polished or reflective surface as the laser bean can be reflected back at the lens and easily destroy it.
Last edited by ram48; 03-02-2017 at 03:44 PM. Reason: Added information.
So no etching mirrors?
Lee