Members Bert03241 Posted January 24, 2022 Members Report Posted January 24, 2022 I'll scream again DON"T BUY A GLOWFORGE !! You can import a decent Chinese CO2 laser 60 watts 14 x 24 bed with pass thru front to back and a z axis for under 4K most likely under 3 K OK Last question I saw was soot in the holes. Few things to do here that fix this problem. What I do is use the lowest power that gets a good clean cut and I make the holes smaller then the finished hole ,I then take my dremel with the right hole size bit and drill out the holes. Yea takes time but I find it worth the effort. Another trick is if you hand stitch is to pull and extra foot of thread thru the needle, so your pulling 2 threads thru the hole for a foot or so, this will clean out most of the soot before it gets to the good thread. Quote
Members ToddW Posted January 24, 2022 Members Report Posted January 24, 2022 I am past the GlowForge (hate sounding wishy washy but hear you) and looking at the Chinese.. I sent an email to OMTech, Rabbit, Boss, Thunder trying to get pricing and options.. I know I want 50+ watt preferably 60w.. as big as a cutting area as I can afford.. front loading.. camera.. good venting... camera... not sure about water chillers, external filters, options, etc.. Quote
Members Bert03241 Posted January 24, 2022 Members Report Posted January 24, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, ToddW said: I am past the GlowForge (hate sounding wishy washy but hear you) and looking at the Chinese.. I sent an email to OMTech, Rabbit, Boss, Thunder trying to get pricing and options.. I know I want 50+ watt preferably 60w.. as big as a cutting area as I can afford.. front loading.. camera.. good venting... camera... not sure about water chillers, external filters, options, etc.. Theree are no real 50 watt co2 laser tube, whats being sold as a 50 is really a 40 watt tube pushed at start up to 50, tube is over driven and will not last. get a 60 watt tube, make sure of the length and Dia of tube is 55 x 1200mm = 60 watt tube.anything less is not a real 60 watt. 40W Laser Tube Length=1010mm, Diameter=51mm Edited January 24, 2022 by Bert03241 Quote
Members ToddW Posted January 24, 2022 Members Report Posted January 24, 2022 Ok.. appreciate that... Quote
Members mchaney2003 Posted January 24, 2022 Members Report Posted January 24, 2022 (edited) On 1/23/2022 at 7:22 PM, ToddW said: ok.. definitely sounds interesting and price is very attractive..and agree bigger more powerful than a glowforge. If you don't mind, which 60w did you buy as they are $2,800 + shipping on OMTech's website. The 50w are more along the pricing you mentioned. Also interested in the upgrades you chose as I see fan's, chillers, filters, etc.. I would like to work through the unit and options to see where I am at.. Lightburn does work on a mac and supports camera.. Also looks like OMTech has financing.. what would be nice is to take a pdf plan.. import it and hit a button to cut. What I would engrave is branding/logo's on my wallets.. OMTech has raised their prices twice since I purchased my machine. You can get these exact machines on Alibaba or AliExpress and save about $1000 to $1200 dollars. The thing is, you're taking a much larger risk in that situation. OMTech is basically just buying these in mass from China, fixing what comes damaged, and selling them. OMTech does NOT have good support. That's a known factor. That Facebook group is fantastic though - it was started by three guys who got into OMTech machines like a year and a half ago just before OMTech hit their big popularity boom and began jacking prices up every six months. An OMTech comes with a lot of work -, you will need to upgrade the Air Assist immediately imho, and install a ventilation system. I cut a six inch hole in my house and use an S8 for ventilation, basically eliminates the bad leather smell. Anyway, all this info and more is in the Facebook group. I hope OMTech responds to your email, but they are notorious for failing to do so. I love my OMTech machine, but it's not plug and play. I've had to replace a couple limit switches, re-level bed, my lens came installed upside down from the factory - but I knew to expect each of these issues and check for them because I did my research on YouTube and the Facebook groups. Depsite those issues my machine cut great on day 1 after flipping the lens - even then, it will cut okay with the lens upside down lol It has made me put out products four or five times faster. Oh, and in regards to your pdf comment, it depends on the pdf. Some PDFs are basically vector files so you can convert then with a program like Inkscape and import them into Lightburn natively. To make files for the laser, you need to be good with a computer - it is graphic design after all. OR, you can just buy premade files from Etsy for a few bucks per pattern. Do a quick search on Etsy for laser pattern and you'll see what I mean. I do a ton of graphic design and have since high school so for me, the laser was a natural shift since it is an intersection of several of my skillsets. For people who aren't comfortable with Photoshop / GIMP and Illustrator / Inkscape, there are lots of other places to source your laser files, many services that will convert a picture to a laser file for you for a few dollars, or dozens of YouTube tutorials so you can learn to do it yourself in just a few hours. It's super nice to be able to take a customers logo and engrave a perfect copy of it. Edited January 25, 2022 by Northmount removed excessive white space Quote
Members mchaney2003 Posted January 24, 2022 Members Report Posted January 24, 2022 (edited) Here are a couple videos I took when I first set the laser up. Edited January 25, 2022 by Northmount removed excessive white space Quote
Members ToddW Posted January 24, 2022 Members Report Posted January 24, 2022 boy.. diving into the Chinese laser world is like the 3D printer world on steroids.. LOTS of units.. LOTS of modifications.. LOTS of sellers.. LOTS of videos and opinions... milage definitely varies.. I am off the GlowForge as the size, power & Cost are definitely attractive.. The Boss, Rabbit, etc seem out of my budget $7K + so spending the time on the Chinese variants. Really looking for a point in the right direction on vendor to buy from (I am ok with Alibaba as I bought my 3D printer there). I am ok with adding add-ons or options.. I will be cutting Chrome Tan so need good venting or a good filter. Water chillers vary from a bucket with pump and water to contained ones.. Back of the envelope is around $3K for the 60W chinese with the options I want including Lightburn and camera. Quote
Members ToddW Posted January 25, 2022 Members Report Posted January 25, 2022 ok.. I have spent the last few days catching up on the Chinese Laser. OMTech definitely dominates the Ads and SEO as most searches bring them up. What I was wanting to do is save the extra dollars and order from China but I really can't tell what vendor to use. I joined the Facebook groups but pending acceptance. I do want the bigger unit as its only a few hundred dollars more, but now starting to worry about space. I don't have room in the garage.. Where I wanted to put the glowforge was upstairs where I do leather work but don't think I could get the unit up the stairs which has me putting it downstairs in my home office. When you start adding better water chillers and better filters, its going to take up a lot of space. Before, money was more my limiting factor but now finding space to be my challenge. I emailed OMTech and their responses have been very short and brief.. not very helpful when I am trying to buy.. https://omtechlaser.com/collections/mid-range-co2-laser-engravers/products/55w-co2-laser-engraver-cutter-usb-6b46-us vs https://omtechlaser.com/collections/mid-range-co2-laser-engravers/products/50w-co2-laser-engraver-cutter-usb-5g3r-us vs https://omtechlaser.com/collections/mid-range-co2-laser-engravers/products/50w-co2-laser-engraver-cutter-usb-5b3r-us then.. you get to what upgrades.. I have sent a few emails on Alibaba but its been a back and forth thing which is now on day 3 of trying to get to a build of materials.. This is why the glowforge was attractive to start.. I'm committed on the Chinese Laser now, but really just want some manufacturer to tell me what to buy and I pull the trigger. Quote
Members Bert03241 Posted January 25, 2022 Members Report Posted January 25, 2022 contact https://www.gweikecnc.com good laser good support decent prices Quote
Members ToddW Posted January 25, 2022 Members Report Posted January 25, 2022 1 hour ago, Bert03241 said: contact https://www.gweikecnc.com Email sent! Quote
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