Hi Guys,
we have received our long awaited Co2 Laser from Bodor CNC ( http://www.bodorcnc.com) 4 weeks ago. While we were under the impression, after a lot of research into the topic, that we selected one of the better manufacturers out of China.
Rest assured we now know better. We ordered a full sheet size machine, with twin lasers ( 150Watt Reci for cutting and 60 watt reci for engraving).
The machine was ordered with panasonic servos and ballscrew drive on the axis. We went with the Ruida control and find ourselves rather disappointed.
We received our machine, which was damaged in transport and upon unpacking found a miserable panel work for starters.
The entire blade bed was smashed with blades bend and the rails that the support the blades were mounted on flimsy 1.5mm hand bend right angle brackets that would never have the strength to support a full sheet of 16mm acrylic.
Opening the control box, we found the cable connections on the laser power supplies were loose and half of them not even connected.
After sorting these issues, ( re-alligning the bed,figuring out the electronics, no diagrams provided, and getting tubes installed), we found the optical system was completely out of alignment so we did the usual target practise.
During alignment we found that the burn marks on our targets would grow significantly between the extremes of X-axis travel.
On one side we would get a 8mm burn mark, while on the other side of the x- axis stroke we would get a 16mm burn mark.
After closer examination of the mirrors we found some serious scratches on the optics. Images attached.
After a lot of teeth pulling (needless to say that the response from bodor was:"Mirrors are fine this is normal"), and threatening to return the machine, we eventually got two sets of new mirrors and lenses.
This improved things somewhat. We now have a 6.5mm burn mark after mirror no 2 on side of travel and a 8.5mm burn mark on the far side. However, I think this is still far from good over a length of 1220mm.
Our laser heads sit on a 4-5 degree angle to the gantry, another thing to fix.
I am not sure if there are other users here on the forums that have bought of Bodor but this turns out to be rather bad overall.
Also what are your speeds like when raster engraving smaller details. ( Talking light cuts of vectors, not scanning)
Every smaller circle, below 12mm in diameter turns into an uneven octagon unless we bring speed down to 7mm/s. Is the ruida control not up to it or are the servos badly tuned?
Any help from your end regarding proper geometry output on Ruida controls would be very much appreciated...
Best wishes Chris
I wish I could help, but I have a stepper controlled machine that I just received. I know that when I am using the laser in "etch" mode, I set a power level of 9%, and a mm/second speed of 75 for very tiny etching. If I am doing long straight etch lines, I set the power for 10-11% and a speed of 100mm/s to 150mm/s. I don't know much about servo drives, so this is a guess, but I think I'd agree with your assessment that the servo drives are poorly tuned.
My machine arrived in much better shape than yours. I am sorry to hear that you had a poor experience. Hopefully it was shipping damage rather than manufacturer damage. You can't blame Bodor for shipping damage.
I am surprised about your issues with mirrors, etc... Mine were in perfect shape, and I didn't even need to "tune" the laser alignment as they were perfect from the factory.
I have a 1300x900mm laser, and I see no discernable difference between beam size from one side of the machine to the other.
BODOR CO2 150Watt/60 Watt
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