I use my 40w laser at 5mm/s only about 50% power to cut 3mm MDF. I noticed that I have a hard time cutting after a while, but once I clean the lens off, it cuts right the way through again. Just wondering if you've been cleaning your lens and mirrors regularly?
Have you used the rotary attachment as of yet? we did and it went over axis and we had to send it out and it took them 3 months to get it back to us- needless to say- im afraid to use it again.
I know this is an older video and not sure if someone mentioned this but it looks like the laser head is really far from the material. Most import laser machines come/came with a 2.5” focal lens which for optimum power meant the head needed to be about 7mm away from the material. But then again I don’t know what you have in your machine but I do agree it seems to take too much time for those pretty simple tasks. Thanks for the video!
how did u set the speed, min and max power of the machine in order to get a clean cut without burning mark? did u use different speed, power for cutting and engraving?
Hi Chad, The laser tube in the "50W Laser Cutters" are really noyl ~35 watts max. Mine tests at 32-33watts. Still at that wattage i can cut through 3mm Birch Plywood as 15mm/s and 6mm ply at ~9mm/s. I think your tube might be end of life as they give the tubes a 1000 hour life... BUT this is actually 1000 hours of shelf life, as in it degrades even when not used as the gas slowly seeps out and the tube power goes down. The really good REAL 50w tubes will be in the 5-10,000 hour life span and generally put out in excess of 50w when driven at rated amperage. Tube upgrade is high on the list for G350, once if fix this damn HV power supply again haha :)
Hi Chad. Good video. Are you still on your original tube? The tubes they put in the Chinese lasers are not what they advertise. My machine is the larger red and black one that you may have seen on Ebay. Once I replaced my tube it became a much better and whole new machine. I can cut 1/4" ply no problem at 20mm/s. Also I put my laser at 65% power (which is 18Ma output or full power drive for my tube) and 400 mm/s for engraving glass. Seems to work really well on that. Let me know if you ever want to chat and trade stories and tips.
Hi Chat, I am Marco from Italy, I have one question for you.... What is the cutting thickness of this laser? I would also like to buy a laser but it is difficult to understand which one. I do railway modeling in 1/87 scale H0, if i send you an Autocad file you can try for me if it works? I use wood up, 0.4 to 1 mm. Do you think you can try it for me? If you do this pleasure, what format do you need for the file? I hope you can help me, many thanks, ciao Marco
Hi. I guess you don't have an ammeter installed. For the 50W laser, the max current is 20mA (if I remember correct). This is around 65% power. If you raise it to 90%, beside killing the tube, you will have less power than at 65%. Also, a 3-4 years tube is pretty much wasted, no matter if you used it or not... it is consuming just sitting. If the rest of the components are ok (mirrors, alignment...), with a new tube you should cut that piece with no problem. Hope this will help.
Hi Chad. I have the 60W Chinese laser and found that at max mA output, for the tube, I can only run my laser at 56%. If I run it any higher I will be overdriving the tube and it will degrade its efficiency. If you are running your laser at 80% you may be over driving the tube.
Their has to be something wrong with ur machine or ur doing something wrong ... I have a 40w laser cutter and it cuts threw 1/4 inch poplar 10mm/sec on one pass 50%power .... u may have the wood out side the correct distance for the focal point of the laser and u are trying to cut with an un focused beam or ur software settings are turning down the power to the machine or ur mirrors are out of align or Lens is dirty but something is off that laser if operating correctly can do all that stuff easy and a lot faster then u are showing in the video
chad you probably know this since you made this video, but during your tests you have a laser tube on its way out or the power supply going bottom up. i have the same laser that custs 1/8 like your cutting at only 45%power and at 10mm sec, so saying the machines weakness is cutting was only a result of the poor performance of your particular machine. also you should never go over 60% on these blue white machines or u will infact shorten the life of the laser tube drastically, if you run a meter you should really stay under 15mA 22 max. if you dont have a mA meter installed i would do so its fairly easy. just some insight.
some thing is wrong with your lazer tube, and or you beam alignment and lens is not hitting dead on center. if you are even having such a hard time cutting threw just 3mm wood at 5mms Tho when I also heard you mention that was also up at 90% power means something is defintly wrong. and if you are running the tube at any thing higher then about 65% on one of them china 50 watt cutters you are over doing the lazer tube and it degrades the co2 in the tube which becomes an exponential problem as it loses power then compensation by trying to turn the power up higher. which is what kills co2 lazor tubes.
It will engrave metal with Cermark. Your cutting looks out of focus which will slow the crap out of it. To get your engraving to get a toasty colour, try putting it out of focus on purpose.
If your laser is not well focused on the cut it takes much more energy to cut through. I focus my machine to within 100 micros and make sure the bed is as level as possible. Also the optics need to be well aligned. When I say focus it is the distance from the lens to the wood. I typically focus a little below the surface on thicker sheets.
40%? WOW, I have that same machine and I engrave at 10-13% and at 40% I would have to be faster that your machine or I would be burning into it. edit: Oh, 80% is too much for that machine and you are killing your tube. Max amps for the 50 watt (really a 40 watt tube) is 18ma and safe current is 16ma which equates to about 40-50% depending (this is why the need for adding a ma analog meter).
I use my 40w laser at 5mm/s only about 50% power to cut 3mm MDF. I noticed that I have a hard time cutting after a while, but once I clean the lens off, it cuts right the way through again. Just wondering if you've been cleaning your lens and mirrors regularly?
Have you used the rotary attachment as of yet? we did and it went over axis and we had to send it out and it took them 3 months to get it back to us- needless to say- im afraid to use it again.
Bummer! This is an old video and I don't even have this machine anymore.
I know this is an older video and not sure if someone mentioned this but it looks like the laser head is really far from the material. Most import laser machines come/came with a 2.5” focal lens which for optimum power meant the head needed to be about 7mm away from the material. But then again I don’t know what you have in your machine but I do agree it seems to take too much time for those pretty simple tasks. Thanks for the video!
How does this cut on leather? Would you do a video showing it cut on leather?
Can you show how well it cuts and engraves acrylic? also how thick 50watts can cut.
Can it cut multple sheets of paper? If yes, does the top paper and bottom paper look identicle? How long does it take? How many sheets of paper max?
how did u set the speed, min and max power of the machine in order to get a clean cut without burning mark? did u use different speed, power for cutting and engraving?
Hi, Chad, please, where i can to buy the special jaws vice, which is in this video from 3:56 ? Thank You very much for answer.
Is this system able to do engrave metal tumblers, like a yeti or similar cup?
I want one like this but let me ask you about software does it work on windows 10 ?
Hi Chad, The laser tube in the "50W Laser Cutters" are really noyl ~35 watts max. Mine tests at 32-33watts. Still at that wattage i can cut through 3mm Birch Plywood as 15mm/s and 6mm ply at ~9mm/s. I think your tube might be end of life as they give the tubes a 1000 hour life... BUT this is actually 1000 hours of shelf life, as in it degrades even when not used as the gas slowly seeps out and the tube power goes down. The really good REAL 50w tubes will be in the 5-10,000 hour life span and generally put out in excess of 50w when driven at rated amperage.
Tube upgrade is high on the list for G350, once if fix this damn HV power supply again haha :)
Hi Chad. Good video. Are you still on your original tube? The tubes they put in the Chinese lasers are not what they advertise. My machine is the larger red and black one that you may have seen on Ebay. Once I replaced my tube it became a much better and whole new machine. I can cut 1/4" ply no problem at 20mm/s. Also I put my laser at 65% power (which is 18Ma output or full power drive for my tube) and 400 mm/s for engraving glass. Seems to work really well on that. Let me know if you ever want to chat and trade stories and tips.
Thanks Ron I appreciate the info, Yes this is the original tube about 3 or 4 years old. Maybe an upgrade is in order.
Hi Chat, I am Marco from Italy, I have one question for you.... What is the cutting thickness of this laser? I would also like to buy a laser but it is difficult to understand which one. I do railway modeling in 1/87 scale H0, if i send you an Autocad file you can try for me if it works? I use wood up, 0.4 to 1 mm. Do you think you can try it for me? If you do this pleasure, what format do you need for the file?
I hope you can help me, many thanks, ciao
Marco
How does do engraving pens??? Fellow turner asking. Looking at getting one for pens and game calls
dude I having a super hard time I have a 500x700 laser engraving machine but I keep getting communication error I changed both USB cord please help
I have a laser just like that one but how do I get it into english
Does it come.with a 4th axis?
Hi. I guess you don't have an ammeter installed. For the 50W laser, the max current is 20mA (if I remember correct). This is around 65% power. If you raise it to 90%, beside killing the tube, you will have less power than at 65%. Also, a 3-4 years tube is pretty much wasted, no matter if you used it or not... it is consuming just sitting. If the rest of the components are ok (mirrors, alignment...), with a new tube you should cut that piece with no problem. Hope this will help.
yes thank you
How do you select an area to engrave in the pc?
how do you make laser beam visible???
Chad. Did you make a jig for pen barrels?
Do you have a test on leather?
Hi Chad. I have the 60W Chinese laser and found that at max mA output, for the tube, I can only run my laser at 56%. If I run it any higher I will be overdriving the tube and it will degrade its efficiency. If you are running your laser at 80% you may be over driving the tube.
Great info thanks William,
Chad, I was at a show this wk end and a guy was selling clocks installed on vinyl records with complicated cut designs. How are they doing that?
there was a youtube video and a guy was using a woodburner with a sharp knife edge to cut it. imagine the fumes and smell, lol.n
Can't be too hard as he had stacks of them.
Their has to be something wrong with ur machine or ur doing something wrong ... I have a 40w laser cutter and it cuts threw 1/4 inch poplar 10mm/sec on one pass 50%power .... u may have the wood out side the correct distance for the focal point of the laser and u are trying to cut with an un focused beam or ur software settings are turning down the power to the machine or ur mirrors are out of align or Lens is dirty but something is off that laser if operating correctly can do all that stuff easy and a lot faster then u are showing in the video
How much this engraver laser??
Awesome video! Ever engraved a full size leather football ?
can it cut 1cm acrylic? Loving your videos btw! they help a lot!
I want to know too
On equipment like that I often wonder what I'm going to do do with it when it brakes.
with these you just have to find a way to fix yourself, it seems enough people have them you can find others who have done repairs and can help.
you can also often purchase parts and aquire technical support from the manufacturer.
chad you probably know this since you made this video, but during your tests you have a laser tube on its way out or the power supply going bottom up. i have the same laser that custs 1/8 like your cutting at only 45%power and at 10mm sec, so saying the machines weakness is cutting was only a result of the poor performance of your particular machine. also you should never go over 60% on these blue white machines or u will infact shorten the life of the laser tube drastically, if you run a meter you should really stay under 15mA 22 max. if you dont have a mA meter installed i would do so its fairly easy. just some insight.
Can you engrave a T-bone?
you may need a better lens
i have a 35 watt cheapy that will do 1/4... it doesnt like to but it will...
Is this a 40wt machine
They call it a 50wt. probably not even close in reality
From what I have been told a 50 watt Chinese machine is equal to a 25 watt American machine.
some thing is wrong with your lazer tube, and or you beam alignment and lens is not hitting dead on center. if you are even having such a hard time cutting threw just 3mm wood at 5mms Tho when I also heard you mention that was also up at 90% power means something is defintly wrong. and if you are running the tube at any thing higher then about 65% on one of them china 50 watt cutters you are over doing the lazer tube and it degrades the co2 in the tube which becomes an exponential problem as it loses power then compensation by trying to turn the power up higher. which is what kills co2 lazor tubes.
That’s a 50w laser the 40w is only 10” tall and doesn’t have the lower access panel.
It will engrave metal with Cermark. Your cutting looks out of focus which will slow the crap out of it. To get your engraving to get a toasty colour, try putting it out of focus on purpose.
yes you can mark metal with Cermark, Not sure how focus can change the speed?
If your laser is not well focused on the cut it takes much more energy to cut through. I focus my machine to within 100 micros and make sure the bed is as level as possible. Also the optics need to be well aligned. When I say focus it is the distance from the lens to the wood. I typically focus a little below the surface on thicker sheets.
Great to know thanks for sharing,
Great info on that laser...
Thanks Robert,
Your mirrors are misaligned or your laser is toast. That laser should of cut through that wood at 40% power.
Guy Who Reviews Stuff probably mirrors
My 40w can cut over a half inch in one pass at 12 percent
to cut you have tray 100W LCE.
Shot glass pkease
40%? WOW, I have that same machine and I engrave at 10-13% and at 40% I would have to be faster that your machine or I would be burning into it. edit: Oh, 80% is too much for that machine and you are killing your tube. Max amps for the 50 watt (really a 40 watt tube) is 18ma and safe current is 16ma which equates to about 40-50% depending (this is why the need for adding a ma analog meter).
It takes some balls to set your phone there.
Can you engrave a cat? It'd be awesome to have a personalized cat!
horrible music good vid though
seams real weak
yes at times. thanks Brian