I'm a retired vet and wanted take a hobby. I recently purchase a Fiber Laser. Vague instructions from vendor. I'm learning so much from your videos. Thank you so much .
Thanks for making the video. I ordered a 60W MOPA on Tuesday. Looking forward to getting it. Hopefully soon. You and the others that are kind enough to make these vids to help total noobs are great. Been running a cnc for a couple of years so hopefully my learning curve won't be as steep.
Thank you for this. I was looking for the USB but then when I watched that video that’s when I realized the USB was attached to the red ribbon on the machine. I can’t believe I didn’t see that. 🤦🏿♀️
Hi Jeffrey; I may add my experience regarding uneven mark intensity. If the lens is clean and marking area still looks unevenly etched I suggest to check if the optics (galvo etc.) are orthogonal to the marking plane. I had 0,8 deg. difference on the vertical plane...it's enough to have an uneven focus on the marking area.
#4; it's well known that the edge especially going with a large piece will always be not as sharp as the center engraving. Very common with fiber lasers is what I understand.
Hi Jeffrey, it occured to me that the goggles don't block the red pointer, and since I'm engraving jewelry, it something's reflects in my eyes. After working with it, my eyes hurt for days, and I have no idea how to manage this. Do you have an advice?
@@jefferyj hi! Yes u did for the regular laser (1064 and goggle are 850-1300) but the red laser point is supposed to be somewhere in the 600 area so not covered. I don't look in the laser while it's operating, I do however look while placing the item and check if the marking is right, that has been reflecting in my eyes a couple of times, and it started hurting after a while
Hey Jeffery- What are the safety concerns in terms of exhaust, protective glasses, enclosure, etc when it comes to a fiber laser? You see a lot of videos w/o dedicated exhaust or an enclosure but I see you've added both to yours.
I use a wen filtration unit with a vinyl hose leading from the workspace to minimize metal dust in the air. It should probably be exhausting outdoors. I use safety glasses from amazon for 1064nm, but as you can see, my enclosure is nothing special. I may build another in the future. One of the big reasons I built the enclosure was to contain dust from marking anodized aluminum. My table would have a thin layer of black dust all over it after marking 100 relatively small black anodized aluminum parts - had to control that.
Hello, if you don't mind me to ask: Do you think we should go through any course or some material before buying one of these lase fiber machines?. I really like to buy one but not sure if it'll take like some complicated course before start working well. Thanks for your material, very helpful.
I bought a 50w fiber laser and don't know how long it will take to get it but I'm wondering about the software. I downloaded several but only one would open. There are some differences to it vs your version. I assuming the laser will come with it's own. Just wanting to become familiar with the software. Enjoying your video learning a lot but can see already there's so much more to learn. Thanks for your videos. Can't wait till it gets here. I got it on Ebay just hope its not a scam as it was quite cheap for a 50w but time will tell. Keep up the good work.👍
If you search ezcad 2.14 you should find a couple download links from cloudray and a few others. There's nothing to install until you actually get your laser with the drivers. You'll be able to run the program and import vector files to become familiar with it, but won't be able to save your work while in demo mode. Also, join these three facebook groups....lots of good info there. Sawmillcreek's laser forum is also quite good. facebook.com/groups/440091022989424/ facebook.com/groups/250911899106529/ facebook.com/groups/300139820848489/
@@jefferyj Awesome thanks! I did get a program to install. I don't know if you would be willing to do a video on the power ruler in inches. I'm not great with mm. I can figure it out after seeing it done in inches as it would make more sense to me in inches. I'm old school 🤔 and not very proficient using metric. Converting YES understanding not so much. Oops 😱
@@bobreichel If you go to File>System Parameter and change the 'Unit Type' from mm to inches, you should be free to set up everything the same as you see in the video while using imperial units.
I don't have any good info on that, but I suspect it's probably a good idea to enclose the laser with an opaque material. I may be doing that in the future.
Haii JefferyJ, have you try to engrave tumbler stainless steel? but the tumbler has color like pink red etc.because i try to engrave black tumbler and the result is good. But when I try to engrave pink tumbler, red tumbler, or gold tumbler, the coat was peel. What Should I correct? Thanks
I don't do any marking on tumblers, but I have heard people complain about inconsistent results from color to color with fiber lasers. I think some people have gone back to CO2 lasers for more reliable results.
I see... thanks a lot for your information 😀🙏🏻 now I'm focusing on tumbler work but I'm confused about using rotary. when i use rotary, The results of the engraving on the tumbler are images that do not coalesce or even images that accumulate. is there a video where you used rotary in the engraving process?
I'm brand new to laser engraving and just picked up a 40w CNC Fiber Laser myself. Using factory settings I can engrave any of those black laser cards for sale on Amazon fine but on any other metals - nearly nothing! What could I be doing wrong? I've looked for a depth setting in EzCad which it came with and didn't find anything, I tried all different random MhZ and power settings and still no change. I can see a very slight marking if I set it to loop 10x for instance but not much beyond that yet the manufacturer shows it cutting deep into firearm slides and such. Of course out of China I'm getting no support so just wondered if any of you experienced engravers might know what I'm doing wrong?
@@jefferyj My bad, I meant a 30w Fiber Laser. Here's the machine I bought and have... ru-vid.com?q=https%3A%2F%2Fpcnc.en.alibaba.com%2Fproduct%2F62403396687-801895878%2FHigh_quality_Fiber_Laser_Marking_Machine_Price.html%3Fspm%3Da2700.icbuShop.41413.25.7d102c0ax4Waap&stzid=UgwGwEFir8mw-oJ9AgF4AaABAg.9G3SW5473Gz9GIHy6h0Wi8&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbklObE9VemZJeTY3MEgycU1TTm1FMjBFTHoyd3xBQ3Jtc0ttcDNESlBvalJHOHB6NHd4N09OcThoVTZVTTNIOElRZVNUclJ0RW9zMDAzUXdCQmhxeTJlU2JKdm5TMDdCYU9iai1jSklCWDllcjByazhteEVGa3djRzhaWTNROElLTmdsN2FHZEZwbnI3TndNbm04cw%3D%3D&event=comments
Hey Jeff, thanks for the videos. I’m buying one of these 30w lasers. I’ll be deep engraving 7075 aluminum parts and need a clean bottom surface. How do you clean up the hatch marks? Thanks
Some people like to run clean up passes between each depth pass and others run them at the end. Usually it involves increasing speed, raising frequency, and reducing power.
I just bought myself a 20watt fiber laser and your videos helped a LOT. Thank you. I still would love to have one topic covered and also a question on a strange behaivior of my laser. Topic: photo or pixel based engraving... I do not exactly know why but for me it does not work... Ince i was marking something but since then i only get a plain square all with same intensity and no picture... Maybe wrong file format or setting? No idea. Strange thing on my laser: when using cross hatch in hatches it becomes streaky and sometimes some vectors simply will not mark the cross hatch at all. Especially on single files with several forms in it. My workaround is to create a second hatch instead of using the cross hatch function. A lot more reliable to me... What could be the problem here? Thanks in advance. And greetings from Berlin
It sounds like you may have an issue with filer format for photo marking. For processing photos and other info check out these three facebook groups: N'GRAV'D facebook.com/groups/250911899106529 Fiber Laser Metal Engraving facebook.com/groups/440091022989424/ EZCAD2 Users Forum facebook.com/groups/300139820848489/ For your issue of streaky hatch marks, I could take a couple guesses. First make sure you don't accidentally have an extra hatch enabled (hatch 2 or 3). Next, if you are using "All Calc", disable it. Finally, some streaky marks between marking can be caused by timing issues. Check out my video on timing to make sure this isn't the problem.
Hey Jeffery. Nice work with all of your videos. Can you plan to make a small video about the lasercontroller? Free Input and outputs? Which controllercard is installed. Just for an example. By the way you wear everytime laserglaces? Kind regards
If I ever learn about the card, I will. It has a BJJCZ control card. I do wear safety glasses, but I make a point of not looking at the laser while it's marking.
if you could go back would you have gotten the 50w? I ask bc it seems if your not trying to cut, most of these 20, 30, and 50 variants are often sub 50% power to get really great engraving on aluminum and stainless. since those are the two metals im dealing with and need to mark on, do you see any reason to spend the extra cash on the 50w when the 20W seems to do everything in the 20 to 40% power range. love the vids man. you have been a huge help
Hello Jeffery Your information is priceless thank you so much! I have been looking at 20 watt fiber lasers locally I found a guy who sell them locally he tried to demo it to me he couldn't get it to work He had the head and adjuster stem on a riser. my question to you is what is a good rough focal length form the center of the lens to the top of the work piece. I saw a 30 watt today that worked great for what I want by the way I want a dark mark on brass copper and rose gold thank you so much!!
There is a split line on the scan head that people normally use to measure to from the workpiece for initial setup. On my laser with the 150x150mm lens, the distance from this line to the workpiece is about 355mm. The length will be greater if the working area of the lens is larger. You can also start at the top or bottom and continuously mark until the light/sound is most intense and you should be within
Really appreciate your videos and the time you put into making them. I have searched through your videos and tried to look through as many comments as I could to prevent from asking a repeat question. I couldn't find any info about the supplier you used or the process to pick one up. I'm looking for a 50W split laser and having a hard time figuring out where to start. I have seen them on eBay from China for $3600 from a seller with no feedback all the way up to $25k from reputable American companies. $20k+ is outside of my price range and I wouldn't trust a seller from China that is offering one for $3600 with no reviews. I have seen a few around the $6k range anywhere from Amazon to eBay and that's a price I can definitely handle. Any advice on where to look and make sure it isn't someone selling a 20W laser and advertising it as a 50W or any other big issue?
I rolled the dice on an ebay seller for about $3325 or so. It's been fine for about a year, but I received zero support or training and the seller no longer even sells lasers. If you wanted to be reasonably safe, you could contact a Chinese seller directly. There are many and I hesitate to recommend any seller that I haven't used. Check out this facebook group facebook.com/groups/440091022989424/ Keep in mind that it's run by a Chinese laser company so a lot of the people in the group are very biased toward that particular company.
JefferyJ thank you very much for getting back to me. I actually rolled the dice myself about a week ago and bought a 50W from an eBay seller. I spent a lot of time contacting sellers and getting very terrible or useless responses. I ended up spending more with this seller but their support was awesome and the machine is already sitting here in the US and shipped from California. It shows up tomorrow so I’m excited. I’ll wait to comment on the seller until after I have the laser up and running but they have been great so far
@@mpmachining7227 That's the same route I took; a Chinese seller with inventory in California. From purchase to delivery it was about 3-4 days. Sounds like you'll be up and running very soon. Good luck!
Yes, it's actually fairly forgiving. Depending on the material being marked and the power settings, you can be out of focus by 0.25mm without major issues. It will mark, not engrave, several mm out of focus also.
I’m looking to purchase a 30w 150x150 soon and Iam curious if I purchase one from China off Aliexpress is there usually a extra fee for the import fee? Would you think spending the extra amount to buy one from the US would be less expensive in the long run? Thx Mike
The tariff is at least 25% if you buy it from mainland China. You can buy one already in the US, or you can buy from a company in HK where the tariff is only a few %. Check out this facebook group facebook.com/groups/440091022989424/
I just purchased a fiber laser and your driver installation tutorial helped me tremendously but I'm still having an issue. I get to the very end, click on the folder with the driver, and it says "Windows was unable to find driver." What do I do now? Please help!
Thank your for your help, I was wondering if you can comment on the situation I'm in; I cannot achieve white colored engraving on stainless steel with my 30W laser, even with the minimum power and max speed.
I have 50W Fiber Laser Marking machine with 220mm lens. If I large like 220mm the marking on the stainless steel was very light marking. If I mark small area the will be perfect one. Why like this.
5 days now and I do not know how to get the laser power on to mark, the red preview comes on but pressing the foot switch or the "Mark" button doesn't work, Help!!
Hello, can you help me. I have a 50w Fiber laser machine (Oree Laser). The machine stopped marking from one moment to another, it only scans the red laser. I have changed the laser cable and there is no solution, I have restarted Ezcad2 with no solution, I have traveled the height of the head looking to focus, but the machine does not emit laser. What will be the problem? Can someone help me please. Thank you so much. Christian from Chile
From your experience witch brand is a bit better to buy. All are from the same factory but still. Split unit or cabinet? Also is it true the more wattage(more marking area) you get less dens marking you have? Thanks a lot!
It would be nice to buy from a supplier who is responsive to your questions and can support the machine long term - although I haven't needed any support yet and have had mine for almost two years. For your second question, the marking area will depend on the lens field. The larger the field, the less power you will have.
Hey JefferyJ, do you have any good idea how to square galvo head to the table? Mine is crooked, I can tell because one corner of the 100x100 area engraves differently than the opposing one...
Man I have gathered a lot of info from your videos. My question is.... lol Does the settings change in split mark opposed to flat marking? In example I have written down the settings that looked good on splitmark. Ran same job on flat and it was WAY different.
Hey Jeffery I almost purchased one of these Ebay lasers but stopped short as i saw another buyer's picture of warped thin engraved metal, maybe stainless steel. I have 80w co2 laser and it makes thin metal warp when engraving. I read that fiber laser would not do that thanks to the different wavelength but that picture makes me worry. In your experience so far do you think thin stainless (0.01-0.02) can be engraved without warping? When I say engraved i mean permanent mark that can be felt with fingernail. Thank you for your videos Peter
If you have a dense hatch, your part may warp. If you just need to make a quick mark that won't be removed, it might be fine. I can't say that I've engraved anything 0.010"....but I may have some shim stock on hand.
Thank you for your videos as they are very detailed and thorough. I ordered a machine similar to yours and received it a week ago. I have tried everything (either found on youtube or told to me by the manufacturer) to get rid of the demo mode but no matter what i do it will not "find the dongle". Many messages back and forth from china but nothing has worked. Do you know of a North American source of technical support?
There are a few companies I know of who sell Chinese lasers in the US...Full Spectrum Laser, San Antonio Laser, and Boss Laser. I'd imagine none of them will be eager to help you if you didn't buy from them. There's a good chance you have something wrong with your BJJCZ board or possibly you have a malfunctioning counterfeit board. Others have had similar issues. My advice would be to visit this facebook group and ask for help: facebook.com/groups/440091022989424/
Very helpful videos thank you. When I turn on my light it gives me a red rectangle for the engraving area. I see you get your machine to show the actual text. How do I make that happen?
You can toggle the prediction to a box or actual outline by clicking the 'show contour' box on the bottom of the main screen. If you have an older version of ezcad, you'll have to go into the f3 parameters, other tab, red light pointer button, then click show contour.
Blake Libby, I have always made money with every piece of equipment I have purchased. From a sawmill to loaders and a backhoe and all sorts of hand and power tools, they have always made money. So my wife doesn't question the tools I buy. She did one time and that tool made us an extra 5 grand in one week over what we were making and we continued to do over a grand more per week than what we were doing. Now that I am retired I just tell her I am using my cigarette money. I have never smoked! In fact I just pulled the plug on a 50 watt fiber laser today with a rotary attachment.
How do you pick a lens for the laser and how do you decide between getting a 30w or a 50w laser - I’m just looking into getting started with fiber lasers. I want to be able to do surface etching and deep etching. I also want to have rotary capabilities for cups/pens etc - thanks for any help you can give me or any sources of good information you can direct me to
Higher wattage will get you deeper, faster. The lens size only needs to be large enough to fit your workpiece. Any larger than that and you'll be giving up power. Some people do choose a 300x300 lens for the wider angle when they're marking cups without using the rotary.
Hi Jeffery. I have seen some of your videos, thank you so much for valuable information. I need help, My machine is acting up, its only 11 months old. Sometimes the laser pointer goes from right to left by it self and the machine makes a buzz noise. I can send you a video to show you whats happening. I will really appreciate if you let me know what is wrong. Thank you in advance. Nasir
@@jefferyj Thank you for your response, I will check. Is there any way I can send you a video may be via email and you can take a look. You may have an idea as well.
My question is getting white markings mine come out brownish. Also mine has 2 dots you are supposed to align? But why when all my parts I mark are different heights?
I'd suggest running the speed/power grid to get a sense of what different power and speed settings do. You may also want to try raising your frequency a little assuming you're not seeking depth. Your two dots are supposed to converge to find the focal point. This needs to be adjusted to accommodate different height workpieces.
Could you please help me. I have a 30w fiber laser. I am having a problem with the text fading to almost nothing. It starts out really good but the last letter or two will be barely visible. This happens whether the text is 3" long or 1 3/4" long I have cleaned the lens to no avail. Is there some setting in the parameters I can change to fix this? By the way, Thanks so much for the videos you have posted. They are a big help.
I found my problem. I had a bad lens. After removing it and cleaning it two times, with no change to my engraving, I changed the lens to a spare 110mm lens I had. It now works perfectly. Now I need to find a reliable source for a good 175mm lens. Thanks Jeffery for your videos. They really save folks like me a lot of time.
Ok, but what should i do when I press mark, and nothing happens? It just uses the scanner to show the shape i am trying to mark, but it does not do engraving!
@@jefferyj Yup, Thanks, I already figured it out. By the way, does this laser need some time to start engraving, or its ready to go just right after switched on?
No, I bought mine on ebay and have only had a few interactions with Chinese laser suppliers. Talk to a few and go with what sounds good. Keep in mind if you buy directly from China you'll be hit with the tariff.
Hello, I am Jessica from China Our company's products include laser engraving machine, laser cutting machine, CNC Router and a series of ion cutting machines. If you are interested, contact for quotation offer Whatsapp:+86-13285336692 mail:Jessica@danuomachinery.com
@@jefferyj hello Jeffery, I head your Channel via my other clients, they buy machine from me, and I do the after sale service for them. but later they told me they could look at your video to know how to use the machine, thanks for your time and video!!! by the way, welcome you in my group! and ...facebook.com/groups/COCOSONGLASERS
Hello, I am Jessica from China Our company's products include laser engraving machine, laser cutting machine, CNC Router and a series of ion cutting machines. If you are interested, contact for quotation offer Whatsapp:+86-13285336692 mail:Jessica@danuomachinery.com
Hi Jeff. I have leveled my laser table with waterpass, and I find that my galvo head is a bit tilting, should I level that too or is it alright that way?
Ideally, the head and lens will be coplanar with the table so you minimize variation in how the laser acts upon material placed in different parts of the workspace. For some applications, small differences will make a big difference and for others it will make no difference. Make some test marks and if you're not happy with what you see, make adjustments.
Hello, I am Jessica from China Our company's products include laser engraving machine, laser cutting machine, CNC Router and a series of ion cutting machines. If you are interested, contact for quotation offer Whatsapp:+86-13285336692 mail:Jessica@danuomachinery.com
hello, thank you very much for that helpful video If you please I need the drivers for my wid10 64bit laptop , I can't find it. It works properly on win7
hi sir, I just want to ask u, u dont know if ezcad is compatible with mac os? coz I want to buy macbook to fiber laser, but dont know if I am able to install it on mac os, also with fiber laser drivers -.-
It will depend on the material. If you just want a visible mark, it'll be a matter of seconds. If you're looking for a black 'anneal' type mark on stainless, it could be a few minutes.
Haven't heard of them, but there are tons of companies selling these lasers. It's a good idea to confirm that the BJJCZ control board is genuine so you can use the most recent version of ezcad2 regardless of which seller you choose.
@@fatkidontheblock201 That's a little odd. If you're using adequate power and a fairly low frequency while being in focus, I'd expect it to make some kind of mark. Did you check if your lens is clean? Also, did you happen to try running the test grid files that are available in the description to this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gAhNCu6hHME.html
JefferyJ I figured out a few things when I adjusted the parameters correctly to my knowledge. The laser body had the parameters on the black plate which told me how to set it and by checking the manual for remaining specs this help get a more noticeable engraving but nothing deep. It did help with the frequency allowing me to go beyond 20,000kgh.
