![]() ![]() ![]() Several of the shops had had Kern service out for the problem many times over long periods of time, but with no improvement. It was also unpredictable in which direction along the x axis it varied, and by how much. After detailed discussion with the owners, it was learned that they all exhibited the same trait of holding better tolerance down the center line of the table, and it got worse the farther away from the center line you worked. very important to learn and know.Īs far as Kern flat-bed machines are concerned, I was very interested in them myself up until, as part of my 'homework', I visited several laser shops who were running them. Either that area has been improving, or my exposure has been to the low end, as I was unaware that high quality glass laser tubes were available. Good first-hand information on glass tubes Rich, thank you. There are people there with cheap eBay machines and there are those who run large businesses with dozens of machines - and everything between. The engravers section is very active and there is a huge wealth of information there on all things laser. I highly suggest you join the Sawmill Creek forum. I would have had to pay more than eight times as much to get a mainstream machine and it still would have been smaller than mine - mine is more than twice as big as Epilog's largest model. You'll notice that going up in bed size will cost many thousands of dollars, even though all the important bits remain the same. Mainstream laser companies follow the "charge as much as you can get away with" pricing model. Nothing to stop you from using US made optics if that is what you need. I could pay $400 for a lens or I could pay $40. Assuming of course you don't get the absolute cheapest, worst quality lens to begin with. You won't notice any difference until you run hundreds of watts, maybe thousands. When I test fired mine into a block of acrylic the crater left behind had a TEM-00 profile.ģ- Optics in lasers are very simple - a single plano convex lens - maybe a beam expander. Not all glass tubes are equal either, there are cheap ones and there are good ones.Ģ- Maybe, that is what people say anyway. When it comes to rastering, that is where a mainstream machine will excel, especially a Trotec.ġ- Sometimes important for engraving, not cutting. My glass tube machine cuts as fast and as well as any mainstream machine. I fully support US made metal laser tubes also for three main reasons:ġ - The rise times of US made metal laser tubes is hugely superior to that of glass tubes, in the tens to hundreds of thousands of times better.Ģ - Beam quality is far superior to that of glass tubes.ģ - The US made optics are much higher quality, although this seems to be improving some over time.Īll of these add up to much better energy delivery, much more machine and material capability and far better cut quality and end result, at a much higher speed. Rich - I looked very hard at the Kern flatbed machines mentioned in another thread, and in doing so, discovered a pretty serious design flaw and so turned another direction. ![]() Savings are in the works for a 'box' style machine, and so the reason for wanting your drawing feedback as it relates to cutting. ![]() I have studied the laser subject for several years, but until now have only worked with a Synrad Galvo system and remained within it's proprietary software. Obviously the printer properties dialog has a few more options, lol. I print straight through using the Epilog driver just as if it was a plain old inkjet printer. It may vary for different laser cutters, but with my Epilog I NEVER do any exports or conversions of my drawings into another format to be able to send them to the laser. I have played around with other programs as well and have successfully cut stuff from Word, Excel, MSPaint, IrfanView, Draftsight Free, and even Firefox. That way I can utilize the actual PCB data from the original gerber data directly. When I make jigs or alignment tools for PCBAs, I usually generate the data in Graphicode's GCPowerPlace gerber editing software. My Industrial Engineer uses AutoCAD and Solidworks to create stuff on the laser. My AutoCAD usage is low so I don't keep my speed/knowledge up to use it more. Many would say I am nuts, but I have been using Visio for so long to do drawings that it is very easy for me. (same one as Parallax's) Personally, I do all of my drawings in Microsoft Visio. At work I have an Epilog Legend 36EXT 75 watt laser, 24x36 bed size. ![]()
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