You're going to want to play with speed and power for that laser. There is no need to leave the last at 100% for all uses. Higher power means you are more likely to burn the material and make more smoke. Lower power means less burning, but you'd need to use a lower speed to compensate. Ultimately it is a balancing act between speed and power, and the balance will depend on the material in most cases.
This video had me sold, until I looked at their website, and more specifically, their warranty. You have three days to unbox, calibrate, and run this thing before your warranty dies. If you can figure it out that fast, and something IS dead, the return postage is up to you, THEN they repay you, and then the replacement shipped to you is only covered up to 35% or a max of $40. Sounds like the customer is doing all the risky stuff to please the company. I'll keep looking for a more customer oriented company. Nice video btw.
I've started looking into a laser engraver to make custom wood cutting boards. There's a lot on the market but this model seems to meet my price range and be something I can start using with a smaller learning curve.
Just received my laser. Your video is the best out there. put it together, got it wired, downloaded the software & driver, got to the point of turning on the laser weak power mode button, and i have no light or possibly power. Followed all instructions, what am i missing..doing wrong? all connections are tight.
If I remember correctly it came with a little PCB module that you can use to test the laser. Search for the eleksmaker forum it is pretty good for any issues.
Hi Mate, great video! I'm needing some advice, Would you recommend tjis or the 3018 CNC, i will be cutting wood veneer and printing onto acrylic and woods, I like this machine but would like to know which you prefer? Thanks!
Hello, very good information and fine explained . I ordered mine yesterday and i hope i will get them. Maybe i will contact you if i have problems!? And questions... Sometimes i saw that they have problems at beginnin... Bye thanks
Hello, I would like to know which machine is more suitable for laser cutting natural leather sheets in order to make handmade bags, the 2500 mW or 5500 mW. Thank you
Thank for the reply. Can it cut leather 1.6mm to 3mm thick? have you tried? Im interested on the 2.5w or the 5w and i need some direction. I would like to use it for cutting my leather pieces for leather work including engraving my leather pieces etc.
I saw in one of your previous answers you can not use it to cut / carve anything white. So would this not be any good for cutting rc plane parts out of 5mm thick white foam board (no paper) ?.Great video by the way .
Great video! I will probably get one after watching your video...I only need it for CUTTING out 2mm to 3mm thick hobby type plywood in rectangular & circular shapes. I dont really need to do much engraving, but will probably do some. Can you please tell me, what is the MAXIMUM length of a rectangular shape that can be CUT out? I need to be able to cut a 14.5" or 368mm in length by 80mm with various smaller rectangular & circular openings within the larger rectangle. Also, is there a setting for cutting, or do you just increase the laser power? I may get the 5500mw version for cutting. Thanks for the help!
@@techydiy I dont do alot of cutting, but I need an occasional wood part for my model airplanes... I was thinking this would be easier than fabricating the parts I need... I was thinking that the 5500mw laser version may be better for cutting?
Really enjoyed the video and tips on construction. Have you cut any fabrics like cotton or synthetics with it? I'm curious about the speed and the edge quality. Thanks!
Excellent review video! I wanted to test the water of the laser engraving world with something inexpensive like this....my only concern is that I want to be able to cut and engrave clear acrylic. This doesn't sound possible with this unit?
How stiff is this laser? I mean if I wanted to change the electronics for uno with grbl and fit in Z axis and maybe mount dremel or another router/spindle solution, would you say that this construction stiffness will be good enough for small milling jobs? Thanks for your answer
Hello and thank you for this video. I am interested in this laser engraver, and I would like to know if it is possible to cut nylon-polyester type fabric? thanks
Your talking industrial strength to cut 10mm. A CNC router would probably be a better option. Diode lasers can realistically cut to about 3mm with air assist. The co2 laser I just reviewed will cut to 6mm.
Hi there, I just set up my unit but I am not sure that I have installed the belts correctly as they seem to be very loose, how did you secure them tightly at the ends?
Hey...I have a problem with my EleksCam laser . It shows the preview of the print but when I give it for engraving it moves but it doesn't engrave anything. Can you please help me with this ?
Did it etch the mirror too or just take off the reflective backing? And what settings did you use for that? Also if it did etch the glass, is there a way to just get the backing off? Sorry for all the questions, i really want one ant their $200 right now
It takes off the protective paint layer, the aluminium layer and it also etches into the glass. I think it would be difficult to just remove the backing as the heat melts the glass, but I haven't tried it so it might be possible.
Great video thank you! Are you able to import graphic designs? I would love to be able to import old maps and engrave them on to a piece of wood. Also, do you know the max size that this will produce? Thank you !
Yes you can. It is a good tool for that application. The maximum size is A3 ( 297 x 420mm 11.7 x 16.5in). You can engrave larger areas by moving the engraved material under engraver and then engraving in a tiled fashion.
Great video. Interested to know more about the copper etching you briefly showed. I was looking at etching a circuit out of copper polyester taffeta fabric, then using the laser to cut out precision holes in the fabric as well. Can I ask how you did the etching, and do you think the laser could cut through the fabric to shape it?
By coating the copper with black spray paint (as an etch resist). Engraving an image (burning off the spray paint) with the laser. Then etching it with an etchant (sodium persulphate) I don't know, the laser wont cut copper but it should cut coloured polyester.
@@techydiy Thanks! So I'm lasering off what I want removed and the remaining spray paint is the traces, right? Did you use any special kind of spray paint?
Hi Nigel, First of all I wanted to thank you very much for your video, it's a great review of the laser engraver EleksLaser A3 Pro and it's also very informative. In minute 9:15 of the video you successfully show how to etch a PCB using black mate spray paint, I recently purchased the EleksLaser A3 Pro and I've been trying to get the laser to burn the paint, but I haven't been successful yet. I was wondering if you could share with us the type of paint that you use for your PCBs. Also if you have any advise on how much tension the belts should have, I haven't been able to find any video o tutorial online that show or explains a technique to make sure that you have the right amount of tension on the belts. Any information that you can share with me would be highly appreciated. Thanks, -- Freddy
Hi, thanks. I made the belts finger tight, removing the slack and not putting much strain on the components. For the pcb, I have used various types of matt black car spray paint, it doesn't seem to make much difference, just use the cheapest. Another option is to use an etch resist pen or marker instead of the spray. Spray a very fine single mist coat onto the pcb board, you don't need to put on as much paint as you might think. Test for the minimum amount of spray paint on some scrap copper clad board. I etch the paint with three passes of the laser. Then I clean the pcb with water and washing detergent. It is very difficult to see if all of the paint has been removed, so I check the tracks by scratching the copper surface to see if any of the paint film is still masking the copper. I have found that you can scrub the pcb quite hard without damaging the paint layer. You also might want to try some rubbing alcohol or similiar to remove the etched paint film. The other option is to use multiple single passes of the laser and then clean the board in between. For that you need to be able to accurately re position the pcb each time. It did take me a few attempts, but ultimately the key to getting it to work was to make sure the tracks were cleaned right down to bare copper. If the copper doesn't start etching straight away then its more than likely that there is still a film of paint on the tracks. Hope that helps.
Thank you. I tried the cheapest matte black spray paint I found in the store and it worked very well. You were right about the fact that cleaning the board before the second pass of the laser does help getting better results.
What is the actual run time for the wolf design and the "Please Ring The Bell" word design? I've heard many people say it is many hours for such designs to complete.
Does anyone know how to control the size of a text ? For example I'm trying to write 2 text lines on different burns and they come out as different size.
Brother, I need a mega help, I have an EleksLaser-A3 Pro 2500mW but I haven't been able to cut it yet. I would like to know if it has the power to cut a 3mm MDF sheet ... do I not know how to regulate the laser and speed or do I not have the power for that? Thanks in advance, great channel, one more writing !! sorry for the text, i'm brazilian.
my laser is not engraving. i'm using grbl 1.1 and laser engraver. the problem is that at low speed it burns and at higher speed it does nothing!!! did you know what would be the problem?
hey man what a good video, I would like to know how was the procces cutting corrugated cardboard, I work with this material making decorative figures and I was thinking in buy this machine.
Hi I tried doing the mirror burn with my laser...can't get it to burn ...do you by any chance remember how many passes and at what rate I used .. It will help me alot thanx
I think I did three passes, not sure of the feed rate but it burned easy enough. You should be burning the back rather than the front. It was a Glass mirror tile from Ikea with a grey back. You could always try spraying the back with matt black paint if it doesn't burn easily.
Hi I found a link you gave of the avenger sign .. thanx so much it came out great...may God bless you... hopefully U could something in the CNC router field would be awesome
I have a svg file fit to the size of the wood I want to engrave. When I load it into the engraver software it expands it beyond the size of the engraving surface. Any pointers on how to fix this?
Cool video man! I was checking around for an engraver for my woodworking projects and saw one on Glitzer but this one, although similar, looks way more refined. Have you had to deal with any warranty issues with the unit? Someone reviewing the Glitzer unit said to upgrade to grbl software? Any advice? Thanks much~
No it still works fine, although I only use it infrequently so I don't know how it would hold up to daily use. I think its worth upgrading to the latest grbl and using other software like laserweb.
Nice video thanks . and i want to know if we can engrave on wood stylus not only a name ? i thinks for engrave a small think around ? do you have a trick ? thanks a lot