I have the same settup, eleksmaker laser, and came to the same conclusion within days about the software. T2laser is great, the software developer is very attentative if you have isues, i also added the Z axis and end stops(both suported in T2laser) z axis for cutting deeper/thicker material and adding a pen to draw. Mine will take the anodizing of aluminium. There are various mods on thingiverse from anything from air nozzles to belt tensioners and longer legs. Together with inkscape and T2laser covers almost all my needs, after all it is a little better than a glorified toy. Apparently the 500mw cuts better as the beam is much thinner and focus is the key (to the 2500mw too). Give it a try on Slate stone, looks great.
Nice to see decent priced T-Shirts! Why are so many people being *greedy* over their RU-vid merchandise. Another good video. I like your calm + informed style, you have a new Subscriber.
Good to see progress from the first video. There had to be something wrong to make so poor engravings, even though the laser is not very powerful. I was expecting some sloppiness in the build, or too low amperage on the stepper motors to be the cause of the inaccuracy before. But this same unit can be found in many videos with much better results than you last time, so it's not surprising you traced it back to a slack in the belt. The skipping of parts, probably could be helped just with better settings ? Also the software that usually ships with these are voted down and out by all that has tried them. There are free and better options out there. The reason the good laser engraver/cutters has air blast, is exclusively to help the result and avoid excess burn outside the focus. It looks much better, don't it ? Not exactly helping on the fumes, but of course will blend it so you don't get the concentrated smoke straight into your nose, if that's what you mean. Many put the thing in a box with extractor fan, especially when plastics, paint or other surfaces make toxic fumes.
Lasers are quite fun for sure! I've thought about using an aquarium pump like suggested already on mine. Where did you find that checkering code, that looked great!
Nice! If you're looking for a (imo) really good program, go for "Lightburn". The first 30 days completely free (fully functional) and then it's only about 45 euro or so iirc. Does a great job at the stuff I need it to do on my Chinesium laser.. not only on designing the stuff or importing pics/dwg/svg files but also generating gcode and if you want connects to the laser right away and acts like the controller. You might need to update the grbl firmware to a newer version though, so it'll turn the laser on on G1, G2 and G3 and off on G0, instead of M3/M5 every time you need to turn the laser on/off. Mind you, that's not a fault by Lightburn and it'll churn out whatever you want, it's just that the controller might not be able to interpret it because the manufacturer put the older firmware on it. Easy enough to do, takes about 15 minutes and a couple of programs.
any suggestion for a laser engraver for a novice that works out of the box, instead of having to reworking half the thing? Since it is just to try out, I don't want to blow 500€ on the regular 'starter' options I find recommended elsewhere
Excellent video sir. I wonder if an aquarium air pump would have enough volume and pressure to accomplish what your air setup is doing? I’ve considered retrofitting my xcarve with one of these inexpensive diode setups for engraving/checkering and light cutting.
I know this probably isn’t up your ally but maybe it is, yesterday my Eleks servo motors were working just fine and then all of a sudden they quit after it made a cut I tired to move them with the back and forth buttons and nothing I looked on the Eleks forum and they talked about the Micro USB cable can go bad so I bought another one and its still not workin, the laser comes on when I change screen but no movement what do you think? the error im getting is Still in Running and it skips and its cutting
Laser is using heat only at the point of impact on the object. It's not like a flame, so no, the air blast doesn't create an issue, and the suction will not work in this application. It's the opposite of the goal which is to remove the smoke from the light impact area.
