Laser engraver for wood

[normalus]

Hello! I read all thread "low cost laser cutters" there is much talk about china machines. I understand that you get what pay for but in my case i only need engrave wood not to cut something. So i think that is easy job for a laser machine right? i just need that laser would be able to burn small diameter line for example on 8mm wooden circular part. So is it worth looking into these cheap china machines for this easy job? thanks in advance people!

[davidmb]

Hi Normalus,

There are some quite cheap (£60) 500mW solid state lasers available on eBay, because you only need to move in 2 axis ( z not really required ) and you are only moving the laser head ( no cutting forces ) it should be quite easy to build a reasonably cheap machine, how much are the cheap Chinese laser machines after adding in the import duty and frieght charges?

[Ergoman]

Greetings normalus! I've been using a 40 watt water cooled CO2 laser I bought from e-bay... one of China's finest. I've had it about two years now. Like you, I just needed to engrave wood. Setting it up had a few problems. Chinglish is really tough to understand sometimes, and I showed my the manual to my friend who can read Chinese... He said it didn't make much sense in Chinese either. It figures.

Did you know that hot glue can be used in place of loctite? Neither did I... but that's how my machine was built. They just squirted some on each nut and most times it fell off in shipment, so I'm finding the strange blobs of hot glue from time to time. Kinda funny. Also, the control boards have chips that had the id information ground off of them. Hmmm. My laser engraver hooks up to the parallel port but there is also a USB key that you have to insert for the software (Newly draw) to work on the computer. The Chinese don't want someone to steal their software.

Bottom line is for 1/5 of the price of a high quality laser, my Chinese model does everything I need it to do right now. You need to remember to manually set the table height (not a problem). Also, you won't be able to vary the cut depth during a cut (instead set the laser intensity via a potentiameter on the control panel). You need to provide distilled water that is chilled (I throw a gallon in the freezer for a hour before cutting). No question an Epilog is much, much higher quality but sometimes sorta good is good enough. I'm still saving up for an Epilog laser someday.

[normalus]

Yo thanks for respond!I can imagine how Chinese people making these machines [nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H-abkO-9Sw"]YouTube - ULTRAFAST packing cards![/nomedia]
Well i saw there is 40W USB CO2 Laser 1159$ shipping 350$ non USB is cheaper about 950$. Im thinking that usb would be better.
Its said that next levels of machines cost much more, and im person that "better get high quality thing and no money in a pocket or get nothing"
but in this case i still don`t know where to get 1500$ so i don`t have much options. In the other hand maybe i don`t need something expensive.. just can`t figure that out! Yes i had ideas maybe i should make myself something, but still im a little afraid that i will spend good amount of money and i don`t know what i will get after that! and if i save just few hundreds is it worth..


Model STRONG SG-40B
Engraving Area 210 X 205mm 8.2"x8"
Laser Power 40W
Working Mode Engraving/Cutting
Engraving Speed 0-500mm/s
Cutting Speed 0-40mm/s
Connection Port USB 2.0
Lift Platform Manual, up and down 6cm
Cutting Depth 0-3mm(arcylic)
Minimum Shaping Character 1 X 1mm
Resolution Ratio 0.0254mm
Power Supply 220V(*110V optional*)±10% 50HZ
Resetting Positioning Accuracy ≤0.01mm
Gross Power 500W
Operating Temperature 0-45°C
Graphic Format Supported PLT、DXF、BMP、JPG、GIF、PGN、TIF
Water Cooling(Yes/No) Yes
Laser Tube(life hours) 800-1000 Hours
Spare Laser Tube 40W CO2 Laser Tube (spare 170USD/per)
Software Newly draw 1.5
Equipment Dimensions 81X51X26.5cm
Shipping Weight 56KG
Shipping Dimensions 95x67x42cm
*Optional transformer (110v to 220v): 50$

*Optional Honeycomb table:45$

[Ergoman]

My pleasure! Happy to help. The picture you've posted... that's pretty much the one I'm using - mine is an Artsign. There are a bunch of little shops in China that just buy the parts and put them together. They market the laser engraver under their name, but don't actually make any of the components the componets. If you are importing directly from China - I've heard that dealing with customs can be a pain... The laser must be FDA approved or they won't let you pick it up. I bought mine from an importer here in the U.S.A. They have changed their name, I think it is called MSNWholesale now. It is cheaper now than I paid, about $1200 with free shipping.

It is a bottom dollar engraver, but mine has worked for me. For a few years, I was holding out for a top of the line laser. I know it would have been money well spent, but I'm not running a big operation here and I don't depend on income from CNC or Laser Engraving. I just want them to pay for themselves. Payback time on a $10,000 laser would be several years at the rate I'm going now.

I have a K2 CNC router table also, top quality machine, and I'm really happy with it. Before I bought the laser engraver, I researched just adding a laser to the K2 myself. Lots of problems with that. The two things work so differently. The laser engraver has a glass tube that is about 3' long and then uses mirrors to bounce the beam around. Mechanically, it is more like a plotter than a CNC. Also laser isn't something you want outside of an enclosure, it can seriously mess up your eyes.

[Ergoman]

Sorry normalus, I didn't see that you were in Lithuania. Please ignore what I wrote about e-bay. Direct from China is good. You won't have to worry about U.S. customs... or the FDA. I'd recommend doing some research on Strong to see if their customers are happy with them. At the time I bought mine, Artsign was one of the better shops. I'd recommend the USB model only if you have a newer (say less than 2 or 3 year old) computer. I'm using a computer that is 7 years old and parallel port works great with mine.

[normalus]

Only way i can see now to buy this thing is with Ebay and still they ship it form china. Would be cool to buy from UK cuz would be no custom fees. Best thing for me would be bought cnc router and able to upgrade it with laser. Would be cool to have these two things in one and don`t use co2 laser tubes. So what is the biggest problem if you want to do such a thing on cnc plotter? what laser needed to engrave wood like 1-2mm deep?

[Ergoman]

I'm sure you could buy from China through e-bay. Someone in Lithuania is probably already importing them and selling them in Lithuania. That would make it much easier. My family is from Romania and I was visiting them two years ago. I was surprised to find several businesses that were importing both CNC machines and laser engravers, as well as stepper motors, controllers, etc. I thought those things would be hard to find, but it was easy with the Internet.

I'd recommend starting with a good CNC table. There are many more things you can do with one. Using sharp v-shaped cutters, you can engrave very nicely. I did a lot of work that looked like engraving with a 0.5 mm endmills before I bought a laser. You can use a CNC to engrave easy enough, but you can't really use a laser engraver to mill and cut wood. Cutting wood with laser takes more power than my 40 Watt has... you need compressed air to blow the smoke away, and since it burns though the wood all edges are black. My 40 Watt makes a lot of smoke.

To get easily 1 to 2 mm deep in wood, you'll need a pretty big laser tube or just make multiple passes. I've seen some guys take the laser out of a DVD burner and use that with a CNC table, it works but it just doesn't engrave deeply and it doesn't last very long.

The problems I've seen:

1) The biggest problem is finding the right laser with the right power and duty cycle to fit in a CNC. Powerful compact lasers get expensive and are illegal to own in many countries.

2) Another problem is containing the laser light (it is invisible but damages the eye) and containing the smoke the laser makes. You'd need to vent an enclosed CNC with a laser to the outside.

3) CNC control software doesn't work the same way as software for a laser engraver. Plasma cutter software comes pretty close, but with software that comes with a laser engraver, it is much easier. I do CNC work in AutoCAD, but for all the Laser engraving I use CorelDRAW. Engraving with a laser engraver is pretty much like printing with a printer. Laser engraving with a CNC would take more work.

Many people want to do what we are talking about - adding a laser to a CNC but I don't know anyone who has really done it well. Most just get two seperate tools, a laser engraver and a CNC router.

I've got some good information about CNC on my website at Stdwoodworking... Setting a higher standard of craftsmanship! Just click the CNC at the bottom of the index. You can see the first CNC table I built before I bought a metal one.

[normalus]

Thanks Ergoman!!! i think that in first place i need CNC router . So you have K2 CNC right? where you bought it from?

[brcguy]

Him

I am using a 60 watt cutter from Full Spectrum Engineering. It's a chinese made machine sold and supported by an American company. They're in Vegas and they sell 40w engravers for around 1600. Tell em Dave from Curious Customs sent you and they'll give you $50 off.

I recommend their machines to anyone who can deal with some level of DIY, especially with the water cooling aspect and eventual changing out your glass CO2 tube.

I'm using their machine to make this stuff Curious Customs | Lanterns, Lamps, & Lights | Wood, Metal, Handmade Stained Glass & Fire Sculptures and it works quite well, once I figured out what I was doing.

Full disclosure - I have a banner ad on my websites in exchange for a discount on replacement parts, that's how we set up the "get 50 bucks off" deal.

[brcguy]

Sorry, you can find them at Full Spectrum Engineering

[FijiJohn]

normalus, you might see if this guy in Lithuania (Viktor) can help at all.