I won one of these machines yesterday in a raffle. No clue what I’ve gotten myself into as far as another new learning curve.
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Congratulations. You’ve just entered into another rabbit hole.
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Because you have the basics of CNC down, well, that won’t help you, lol. It is all about speed and beam intensity now. Several bits of advice: 1, NEVER leave a project unattended. 2, be careful with your material selection. PVC is a dangerous material. 3, above all else, wear safety equipment all the time. A split second could make a difference.
Good luck and have fun.
Not sure what type of projects your are going to do, but here is a new online image generator for lasers that might be useful. Imag-r
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Congratulations Dave,
Nice to see someone win an online YouTube raffle. Enjoy your new toy.
Russell
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Thank you Sir.
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I’m guessing you got their 30 watt 18 by 12 unit. This is similar in capacity and capability to the low end Gloforge. An MSRP of 12 thousand dollars seems a bit high for this unit.
Harry, I bought 100 dollars in raffle tickets for it. If it’s worth 1200 dollars I still win.
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Yeah, this can’t be overemphasized. Anything with chlorine in it can generate chlorine gas which (while is insanely toxic on its own) turns into hydrochloridic acid vapor in your laser and corrodes the laser cutter badly (plus the risk to you, although in theory your fume extraction should blow it out the vent. But then if your kids are in the yard nearby you blow HCL onto them. Always check the MSDS for any material you’re gonna laser cut. The laser is a huge companion to an x-carve. I use my glowforge and x-carve together a lot
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And you will set something on fire (be extremely careful with corrugated cardboard), so you need something to deal with a real fire (an ABC halotron is your best choice - that way the laser isn’t destroyed by dry powder or cryogenic CO2). And a wet towel (wool or cotton) that you can use to tamp out small smoldering pieces. Not uncommon to get a tiny little fire going (think candle sized blaze) which you will see since you’re right there, and can tamp out with a wet towel. I have a small quiet bottle with water in it to wet a paper towel to tamp these out. The air-assist certainly helps, but they still occur.
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This is one of the most popular lists on what is or is not laserable.
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Thanks Half. Appreciate it.
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I’ve got to start going to better parties. The ones I’m at usually have a table decoration as the raffle prize.
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HAHAHAHA. 