It's almost like I'm a professional. www.3dpprofessor.com/2024/01/08/laser-showdown-longer-b1-30w-vs-wizmaker-l1-36w-laser-cutter-showdown-with-minton-lasercam-video/
Thanks. I’m having a lot easier time with a diode laser than 3D printing or CNC, so I’m glad you’re covering lasers as well now. The size is an issue, space only in a tight corner of my basement and difficult to hook up a laptop to it. A camera is a good idea to more safely watch for fire.
I'll be interested to know how well the enclosure and the exhaust fan work. I have an Atezr P20 and I ended up with an 8" exhaust fan in a home-built enclosure to get all the smoke smell outside. The 4" and 6" fans just didn't move enough CFM to clear out the smoke/particles.
"doesn't come with a cutting surface" is fine for 1-10w laser engravers, where you're only expected to mark the top surface of a thing. I use a Raspberry PI to run my engraving laser, I can operate it either from a tablet or my desktop computer in the other room through a web interface. And I set up a cheap webcam through it to monitor it from within the enclosure I built which doesn't have a window.
The issue I've run into is plywood. The plywood that I've tried using had spots of filler between the layers. They cut out the knots and patch them with wood filler and you can't cut through the filler. You also don't know where these are because they are inside the plywood. Until I can afford to buy the more expensive plywood my laser sits on the shelf. :P
Yeah, I've found this out as well. There's a plywood we got that nothing cuts though. I don't know what the middle layer is, but it's convinced me that wood specifically sold for lasers are worth it.
Sir, although I'm not ready to move into the laser cutter arena soon, you mentioned "Sprawl". I can already see this happening as I have 2 3D printers and wish to expand into lasers and wide format printers within the next few years. Can these laser cutters be mounted on the wall "vertically"? If not 90 degrees, say anywhere near 45 degrees? Wall space I have. Floor space not so much.
I actually experimented with it. The problem is both LaserGRBL and LightBurn have a bad habit of turning off the power to the steppers frequently, meaning that if you hang it vertically, gravity causes the arm to fall. Theoretically a counterweight system could be devised to prevent this, but I was unable to engineer it myself.
@@stewartpalmer2456 Unfortunately its an effect of the software more than the hardware. I'll admit I don't know enough about this area to know if there is one that locks the motors in this price range.
My issue I have with diode lasers like this that are not already enclosed like the glowforge or gweike is why do they cost so much. Other than the laser itself the structure has very little design and engineering involved to make it.
Everybody is on the laser bandwagon. Thought your thing was 3D printers, Oh my bad, everyone else started with 3D printing and then also jumped in the lasers too. G_D Wonder what's next?
Also just the fact that laser and FDM compliment each other with their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to making stuff and will only become more viable and popular as prices drop