Phil's 2.8w Jtech Laser Journey

Looks awesome Phil. Is it the picture or does the text have varying levels of darkness? How did you do that? When I run a laser engrave it’s at one constant power, I use vcarve as an aside.

@PhilJohnson you should try painting a surface and then layering off a image. Ive had best results with metal. Ill dig up some pictures.

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Try it on aluminum.

Suggestion for your laser mount file @PhilJohnson. I did away with the jtech laser/fan mount all together and simply mounted the laser itself then drilled 4 holes to zip tie the fan directly to the mount. Looks much cleaner.


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The funny part is u have hand grenades to be able to be used as props…

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Doesn’t everyone? I have several of those floating around my house.

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I used to have one when I was a kid

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Not sure there would be much left of the cutting board after using a plasma cutter on it! :open_mouth:

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So I have received approval from the CFO, wife, to order the laser for my Christmas gift!
A few questions:
I’ve seen it mentioned that you can use V-Carve, with the JTech PP, new Laser Tool settings, and still do any text, clipart, etc out of V-Carve just like normal, right? Can you also still use Easel as the gcode sender?

I’ve seen it mentioned to buy either the ebay lens or the one offered at J-Tech - which is the most recommended?
Does the 2.8W Kit not come with a lens?

Thanks!

Can’t speak for the V Carve stuff but as for the lens. The kit does come with a lens. The lens from ebay is just easier to focus and more forgiving than the Jtech lens. The ebay lens you hear about is round while the Jtech is oval. The tradeoff is the ebay lens is slightly less useful for cutting due to the lens design but not by much at all. There is nothing wrong with the Jtech lens that comes with the kit so long as you make sure you take the time to properly focus it. I ended up going with the ebay lens since my eyesight is terrible and I had trouble getting it to focus. I believe Phil is still using the stock lens and is getting fantastic results now though so you could go either way.

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Phil beat me to the reply button lol. :rofl:

So it looks like all I really need to purchase is the 2.8W Kit and that’s it?
Unless, I get some of the shielding too I guess.
I have a Prusa, so I can print a mount myself - thanks to Phil’s files of course! :slight_smile:
So would Pic Engrave Pro be the next recommended purchase to accompany the laser?

Is there any flashing/changes that I need to do to my X-Controller? Or is it all specified by commands in the gcode?

Just for info- I currently do designs and toolpaths in V-Carve Desktop and then use Easel to send the gcode.
I understand I will need to use UGS, I’m guessing, to send any laser gcode.

PEP is a fantastic addition to the jtech for doing image engravings and I highly recommend it. Its not a necessity but you can flash the X-Controller with Larrys 1.0c dual mode grbl and pair that with PicSender if you are getting PEP anyway. These will let you switch back and forth between the spindle and the laser setting files on the fly.

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I can’t really tell from their description, if you get PEP does it come with the PicSender functionality as well? Or do you have to also purchase PicSender?
If I flash with Larry’s 1.0c, I’m guessing that is a one time deal? As in I could do it then I can still regular carves using V-Carve/Easel, etc or do laser engraving with no further changes needed to the X-Controller specifically?

Thanks!

Sorry. I was definitely not very clear about that PicSender is separate but it pairs very well with PEP. You can get one or the other or both. PicSender is $25 I think now. In regards to Larry’s grbl yes, you only need to do that once. If you are running picsender there is a toggle selection for spindle and laser. It lets you store the grbl settings for the laser and the spindle in two separate files and switch back and forth depending on what you are using. This makes it so you only need to set the configuration for the spindle and the laser once. You wont need to constantly change grbl settings. Hopefully that was a better explanation.

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Ah OK. I knew you could do it in UGS just wasnt sure how it handled it. I didn’t want to comment since I dont use UGS.

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Ok, but Larry’s 1.0c still needs to be flashed to the X-Controller, correct?

Wanted to thank you Phil and everyone else. I don’t post much as I’ve only had my X-Carve 6 months and do not feel I’m knowledgeable to answer questions and don’t ask any of my own because I always find answers by searching. Anyways I recently added my laser and wanted share my appreciation. I’ve made about 100 ornaments so far and you have expedited my learning tremendously.

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All laser. Yeah… don’t like being that guy who asks before searching. Love the inventables forums. I’ve learned so much and increased my woodworking abilities by 100.

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Is this the laser section?

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