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I’m considering purchasing a JTech laser add-on for my X-Carve and had a few questions for current owners:
Which laser should I go with? Obviously I’m drawn to the most powerful one, but is it worth the extra cost or would a lower cost/lower powered model be sufficient for most engraving and cutting?
With all the upgrades I’ve been through on my X-Carve (Shapeoko 2 to X-Carve, to 1000 mm X-Carve, to Nema 23s, etc.) I realized I probably have enough left-over parts from my 500 mm model that I could build out a separate machine to run the laser. Besides the fact that it would take up more space in my shop, and that the laser would be half the size of my 1000 mm X-Carve, potentially preventing me from lasering larger items, would it be better to have a machine dedicated to the laser?
I ended up getting the cheap K40 laser cutter in addition to my X-Carve, but may someday end up getting the JTech as well.
One benefit of adding the laser to the 1000mm X-Carve is that if the X,Y offsets between the spindle and the laser are known you could move from carving to lasering without moving the material and needing to re-align it.
Not having any enclosure for the laser does strike me as a safety concern. The other thing is that the laser generates quite a bit of smoke, so you would end up creating a 1000mm X-Carve sized ventilation enclosure which will take up space.
For my testing I set up G54 aligned to the lower left of the material for spindle work zero, then I use a measured offset to set G55 to align an alternate tool with the same location (right now I’m using a side mounted pen, but would work with the laser as well).
Then for spindle work I use G54 and for pen (laser) work I use G55. No re-alignment necessary between tools.
I currently have the 2.8W Jtech on my 1000mm Xcarve and am very pleased. I ended up not using the mounting kit I purchased and went a different route for my installation. The 2.8W has done an excellent job on my first project which was some engraving in oak. My logic was that if I want to cut I’ll use the router, so I decided to go with a balance between power and spot size.
Thanks for the replies! You’ve given me some things to consider, but I think not having to re-align if going between two machines is a good point. Building an enclosure also hadn’t factored into my planning, so I’ll have to consider the cost of that as well since it won’t be cheap to build something to enclose the 1000x1000 machine, but maybe I can look at getting laser-safe panels when I do that.
