kmmcrafts Posted May 31 Report Share Posted May 31 2 hours ago, rjweb said: Talking about lasers, just received Woodcrafts monthly sale book, and they are having a demo on lasers in next month, it seems that woodcraft is realizing that lasers are the way of the future, another tool in the shop, RJ Choosing a laser is like trying to choose a scroll saw blade for a said project.. first you get what you pay for.. a lot of folks get a laser solely to do engraving.. quickly find that they wish they could cut with it also.. then you get one that does both but cheap ones are soooo slow to do the job it's about worthless if you're trying to make it something profitable to sell. Kinda like dialup internet vers DSL vrs. cable etc.. LOL.. Then you get a cheap powerful one and find that the workable laser area is too small for many projects. My laser is powerful but too small to make much other than ornaments or keychains etc.. I do have a large 24" wide x however long you want if you tile the project and do in sections but the power is not there so it's very slow and will only engrave. If you're thinking of investing in a laser a Omtech CO2 unit is a good start for the money.. many of the cheaper open frame lasers will say they can cut through x thickness of material but what they don't say is at what power level and how many times you have to go over the cutout before it actually cuts all the way through that material. My cheap 40W CO2 will cut one pass clean through 1/4" plywood.. at 7mm per second speed or two passes if it's the good BB plywood. I mostly cut 1/8" BBply and run it at 10 - 12 mm per second cutting or 400 mm second to do engraving.. plenty of power to go 500 mm second or more but details get blured some at the faster speeds.. probably the cheap ( free ) software I use on it isn't capable to keep up with the machines speed capabilities.. This is what my two lasers are.. though the price is double what they were when I got mine a couple years ago. I really wish I had the funds to go with a larger 80 - 100 watt one.. even a 40 watt one is plenty of power just my workable area is only about the size of a sheet of paper.. so even a 40W with a much larger work area would be way better improvement. https://omtechlaser.com/products/40w-co2-laser-engraver-cutter-usb-032b-us OCtoolguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjweb Posted May 31 Report Share Posted May 31 Kevin, is that the laser you have, can it cut 1/4 inch wood, thx RJ OCtoolguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmmcrafts Posted June 1 Report Share Posted June 1 Yes, both my lasers are like the one I showed.. then my other one is a attachment that mounts into the router on my CNC router which is a Nextwave Shark HD4 but the one for my router is very low powered.. It came with my CNC and I've never even tried it.. LOL Mine will cut 1/4" but it depends on the density of the ply.. sometimes you have to run it 2 and sometimes even 3 times to get it to cut through if using the good 5 ply BBplywood.. Cuts through 1/8 pretty easy though, and will cut through 1/4 of the cheaper plys pretty decent too. How it's tuned makes a huge difference as to how well it cuts too. Think of a magnifying glass in the sun if you get it focused just right you can set things on fire.. but if the focus isn't good it isn't quite as hot.. lasers work in that same kind of principal.. You don't want to cut if you don't have air assist and most the smaller lasers didn't use to come with it but it is easily added. I added that stuff to mine.. some of the newer ones come with air assist.. Air assist kind of works along the same principal of a oxy acetylene torch cutting metal.. get it hot and then blow the air and it cuts, without air assist you might just set the wood on fire, LOL.. Anyone with a laser should be prepared with a fire extinguisher close by.. never know when something might jam up on the laser and it just keeps firing the laser in the same spot.. don't take long to get a fire started. LOL OCtoolguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjweb Posted June 1 Report Share Posted June 1 Kevin, thx for the info. That doesn't seem to bad of a price to get started, I don't do too much scroll saw work, its just a hobby for me, I may be asking more questions down the road, Thx RJ OCtoolguy and kmmcrafts 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Simmons Posted June 1 Author Report Share Posted June 1 On 5/31/2024 at 12:07 PM, rjweb said: Talking about lasers, just received Woodcrafts monthly sale book, and they are having a demo on lasers in next month, it seems that woodcraft is realizing that lasers are the way of the future, another tool in the shop, RJ I mean... if you're going to stir the pot I'm going to stir it right back. kmmcrafts and OCtoolguy 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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