SETTING UP A LASER CUTTER AT HOME // The Full Spectrum Muse 3D
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- Setting up a laser cutter at home or in your workshop isn't as hard as you think. In this video we will take the next step in the Full Spectrum Laser Muse 3D installation. This time I will walk through the laser cutter setup and after some basic product evaluation I will make a first print. This is the 45W version of the Muse 3D that can cut or engrave wood, acrylic, leather, and cardboard or paper plus it engraves on glass, some metals and even stone. Best of all it has the software built in so there is no need to be tied to the internet, and unlike many other lasers it includes a 3D camera that makes material layout a breeze and allows for continuous autofocus while cutting and engraving.
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My Maker Space
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3D Printers
Sliced-Pi ]|[ CoreXY (self-designed)
Sliced-Pi ][ CoreXY - self-designed
Prusa I3Mk3 with MMU 2
Creality CR-10 (massively upgraded)
AnyCubic Photon S SLA Resin Printer amzn.to/3wtSVvo
Laser Cutter
Full Spectrum Laser Muse 3D
CNC Router
Genmitsu 3018 Pro amzn.to/3vgAeLb
Software I Use
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Autocad Fusion 360 www.autodesk.c...
Inkscape inkscape.org
Krita krita.org
DaVinci Resolve www.blackmagic...
Music
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Intro Track:
Bit Bit Loop by Kevin MacLeod licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, creativecommon...
Source: freepd.com/ele...
#stevemakeseverything #laserengraver #laserengraving #laserengravingmachine #laserbusiness #lasercutting #laserprojects #fullspectrumlaser #muse3d
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Thanks for all the great videos! The wife and I have been shopping for a while now. We ordered ours today.
Thanks again.
Happy to have helped
Very helpful! Thank you for showing details on how to set up.
Thank you very much. There are lots of projects to do but if there is something you like to see feel free to let me know
This is my top choice for a laser cutter and engraver I am anxious to see how it works out for you . Thanks for the information .
I'm happy to do a 30 or 60 day
follow-up video. Briefly though, the experience has so far been positive compared to previous lasers I've used, though it hasn't been completely flawless.
I've got one of these arriving tomorrow, video is giving me a little more confidence I can set it up.
Cool!
How are you liking your laser? I'm looking at purchasing and wanted some owner feedback.
I'm slightly regretful, I didn't do enough research into the software side of these lasers. I've used a lot of lasers before, and they always just turn on nearly instantly. The software lives on your computer, and you just send the file to the laser when you're ready to cut. The FS laser has kinda not great proprietary software built into the laser, so you can't run it on your own PC. It requires a constant stable network connection. And the damn thing can take upwards of 5 min to turn on, I have no idea why. Need to do a quick cut? Found a mistake in your work and need to redo something? Enjoy sitting there waiting for 5 min while the laser turns on. I have no idea what its doing in that time. The software also can't do grayscale raster engraving, only black and white, a limitation most freeware laser software doesn't have.
FS mades a decent product for sure, but in hindsight I would have gone with something that let me run the software on my PC, something that did grayscale engraving, and something that didn't take 5+ min to turn on each time.
@@baronjutter Thanks for your feedback.
Thanks for your videos. They are very detailed.
You are welcome!
Great video Steve!
Glad you think so! If there are things you would like to see please feel free to ask. This only works if we make our worlds together
Thank you very much, Steve. Very informative and helpful video. You really made it look easy... :) Liked and subscribed.
Awesome, thank you!
Thanks for demonstration for this! For the chiller/water pump, my laser just arrived and it came with a different chiller and pump. Not the one you have but one with a single tube hook up, do I need to reach out to customer support?
You should be fine. My laser is 3 years old, so no doubt they have made some updates
@@SteveMakesEverything Yeah the issue is, I think its an older pump a not newer one lol itsa pump you submerge in the water
@@Kodeations AH, that one is the old way they used to do it if you didn't buy the CoolBox. Should be fine.
I bought the one without the cool box . Can you please do a video to show how to set up with the hobby kit air compressor?
If I had a Muse Hobby I’d be happy to help. There must be a video for FSL that describes this though
Do you have any recommendations on what kind of table the Muse 3D cutter should sit on? I am wondering about the height since I plan to get the riser. thank you!
Well the laser about 70lbs so don't use a folding table. A light duty workshop table would be fine - look at some of the workshop tables at IKEA. As long as they are plywood or solid wood tops with sturdy legs you will be fine.
Thanks for this video!! I couldn't find this on FSL's youtube page (although it's probably there), but this was exactly what I needed! Liked and subbed. I'm about to peruse your video library, but if you haven't made a video on how to upgrade the ventilation via fans, a video on that would be fantastic! I'm not too tech savvy, so I don't want to do anything unless I'm 100% sure I'm doing it correctly. :-)
Glad it was helpful! Look at the laser mistakes video and you will see what I do with ventilation
just wondering what extra stuff you bought with yours thinking about buying one thanks great video
When I originally bought my laser the only upgrade I did was to go to 45W from the standard 40W CO2 laser. Since then though I have bought the Riser/Rotary box and a longer lens so I can engrave larger items and engrave on round items such as water bottles and wine glasses. These are things that are simply not options on a GlowForge.
Steve, I've watched several of your videos, but I haven't yet seen a table or some compilation of materials and settings. Do you know if such a table exists?
The reason you won't find a definitive table is because the setting for power, current and speed will vary from laser to laser. While I have a Muse 3D laser, even other Muse models and other FSL laser setting will differ. If you have something like a Glowforge there is a community driven spreadsheet for most materials, but even here you will see many rows where users provide different settings for the same general output on a given material.
The simple answer here is that you just need to experiment a bit to see what works for your specific laser (it's part of the fun of owning a laser 😉). I did do a couple of material videos and if you happen to own a Muse 3D you can download my starter material settings project for Retina Engrave 3, but those settings for common materials are specifically for engraving rather than cutting.
Did you mean to say that “water in” -> “water out” and vice versa? Because the manual says the opposite
As long as you connect water out from the pump to water in to the laser you’re doing it right
Hello. I love the videos. I was wondering is this setup complete or do I need to buy the cool box separately
You need nothing but distilled water and electricity. The cool box Is included, though you could replace this with a separate air pump and chiller if you wish
I'm going to be living in an apartment. You think anyone would mind the fume duct to the window lol. Would they hear any noise? From maybe 20feet away
Sticking a duct out the window should be pretty easy when you're using the laser, especially if you are in a place where there is no winter. There won't be much noise heard from the duct outside, and as long as your walls aren't paper thin no one would hear noise from the laser either, though it might be a bit noisy for you.
Most of the noise will come from the air assist pump so you could probably dampen that by wrapping the sides and top of the pump box in foam - as long as you leave the ventilation holes clear.
Of course you might also want to consider a diode laser. They are small, portable and certainly quieter and depending on what your use case is, they may be just as capable (also for a lot less money). You would still need to have an enclosure but they are available to buy or you could make one easy enough.
any issues putting a mixture of coolant in it?
Shouldn't be any. I use about 25-30% propylene glycol in my laser during the winter months.
Thanks for helpful videos. Do you have any video about where I can buy the materials? Thanks so much.
No specific video. I buy most of my high end materials from places like Trotec and regular daily materials on Amazon. But there are many places to buy materials, even including places like your local hardware store
@@SteveMakesEverything Thanks.
Steve do you have and use the riser for your laser? I just recieved mine and I opted out on getting the riser. Did not think I needed it as I dont plan on engraving anything big but now I am wondering if I needed it to do tumblers.
I do have a riser which I just leave in place. You would only need this if you plan to engrave on taller items or if you want to use a rotary attachment
@@SteveMakesEverything I figured lol any chance you could share how tall the riser is?
@@caneloANDRETTi The Riser adds about 6 inches of extra space. You pull the bottom plate off your laser and install it on the bottom of the Riser and then put your laser on top. You can still have your honeycomb grate in the same place so it doesn't change anything when you are doing normal cutting and engraving.
Did they send the printer to you to review?😃😊
I’m working on reviews for a couple of diode lasers
Awesome video Steve - so helpful! My Muse 3D is in shipment and will be on my doorstep in just a few days. I'm a bit unsure about whether or not I should be looking into adding an external inline fan. My preferred spot for my Muse will be 10' from a window so my feeling is I'll need one. Is the device fan used in tandem with an inline fan, or would I remove or disable the device's fan if I install one inline?
I added an inline fan even though my laser is on an outside wall. I used a 4" fan but I'd suggest you get a high flow 6" and a 4" adapter on the laser side (and the output side if you don't have 6" pipe). More airflow is best - my 4" fan is 195CFM but 6" fans can go to much higher rates. I also ditched the foil pipe that came with my laser since it is pretty low grade. Since there is no heat going down the pipe, I used a high grade plastic pipe instead. It isn't full of holes like the foils stuff (If you don't believe me, cover one end and look through it in a well lit room) ;-)
By itself the laser is just adequate at moving air. The external fan really made a difference for me.
@@SteveMakesEverything thanks! Yes, the common dryer venting really is junk. So just to be sure, you run the Muse's internal fan and your inline fan together, effectively a dual fan setup, right?
@@wparker8258 Correct. The first fan really just passively directs smoke to the output. With the second inline fan running I can actually watch smoke coming off the laser and getting sucked to the back of the cabinet and pushed outside.
Can you see the live view from the computer also ?
Yes, though "live" is subjective. If you're on a wifi network you will endure whatever latency your network has, but in general it's within a second of being live video.
Thanks for the video, I'm researching to get into a laser cutter, did you bought the combo? ....what about noise level ...probably with a inline extra fan might be less noise? ...any help would be appreciated. And how has been the experience so far. Thanks.
The noise level isn’t too intense. It’s really just a couple of fans running. I originally bought the laser then added the riser/rotary combo to cut round items and things that are taller. No regrets! If you’re buying one make sure to use my coupon code to save a bit of money.
@@SteveMakesEverything If you decide to use an inline exhaust fan (external), can you turn off the internal one to reduce noise? Thanks.
@@wilmercb I suppose you could just pull the plug on the fan, but it probably wouldn't benefit you much from a noise perspective and may even be more of a problem, since that fan is crucial in grabbing smoke out of the laser cabinet. It's just a 120mm cabinet fan and is probably the quietest thing in the set up.
- Other sources of noise will be the air pump used to blow air onto the work being cut
- The water pump keeping the laser tube cool
- The power supply fan
All of these generate more noise than the exhaust fan.
In the end it's a laser and they are just noisy. The Muse is quieter than the GF but neither is what could be called silent. However the noise isn't like running a table saw so it's something you can live with and unless you have a baby sleeping beside the laser, you won't have siginifcant problems.
Does the machine have led lights in the working area?
Sure does, and it's a welcome feature. There's a strip across the front of the top glass. It's nice because it lights things up without blinding you when you are trying to see what's happening inside
I can get everything hooked up, the water is flowing, the compressor is blowing, but the laser's screen won't turn on. The interior lights turn on and the sighting laser turns on and the noisy little internal fan starts to wine, but ever after waiting 5 min the screen stays black :(
Well that would require FSL support. You could take the panel off the right side of the laser and look for an obvious connect floating around. Shippers and laser aren’t always compatible.
It can take some time for the display to fire up though, especially the first time. Also does the laser do an obvious homing operation after a couple of minutes? That would at least let you know if the rest of the laser is operational.
@@SteveMakesEverything I'm in touch with their support folks but they take a day or two to reply. They had me take off the panel and re-plug the touchscreen, didn't seem to help. Fan turns on, laser pointer turns on, and interior lights turn on, but the laser never homes and the touchscreen never turns on. Might be a bad unit and they'll have to ship me a new front panel. Hope that's all!
Thanks for the reply despite not being FSL support :)
@@baronjutter Well I guess that means you have power at least
@@SteveMakesEverything I just needed to wait 5 min for the damn thing to turn on. That seems like an excessively long time for the laser to just sit there with a black screen before getting to the "accept" button.
@@baronjutter Ah this is what I was getting to when I said it can take some time. It doesn't normally take this long but if it's doing a software update it might.
On the plus side, you're up and running. 😀
Just wanted to rant a bit about this laser. I have the Muze core and I've used it only around 10 to 15 times. Small jobs, nothing difficult. Cost me around $6k to bring it to Puerto Rico, shipping included.
Now is the most expensive paperweight I have on my shop. Can't even cut 1/8 inch wood at full power and 30mm speed. I just hate this thing and people should know it is not the best machine out there and not the best company either.
I already calibrated every mirror 5 times and still the stupid machine can cut.
So frustrating!!!!
While I'm not an employee of FSL or any other laser company, I can tell you that there are only a couple of reasons for low power output at the material. First is the tube or power supply, but you can quickly verify this by putting a piece of thermal paper right on the end of the tube and taking a test shot. Second is alignment, and even if you've tried to align it 100 times, this is the most obvious thing to go wrong. Note that everyone understands the need to align the mirrors, so yours might be fine, but it is also crucial to the beam passing through the center of the lens and exactly perpendicular to the material.
I did an alignment video for my DIY laser (th-cam.com/video/W8peZE16GVw/w-d-xo.html) and while it isn't a Muse, the beam path is exactly the same, and in that video, I go into a lot more detail on how to make the alignment perfect. (If you watch it, start a couple of minutes in since the first bit is about aligning the tube, which should be fine in a Muse.
I have stated to many people many times that CO2 lasers are not an appliance like a toaster. They are precise instruments that require regular attention.