Opinions on G.Weike LC6090 laser

[Matthew Herrera]

Aloha guys,
I am new to the forum but have been spending quite a bit of time lately reading through posts and trying to determine what laser to purchase.
A little about me, I own an OX CNC mill that I built which had a small 3 watt laser attached to it. This is a Hobby grade CNC and I am no stranger to designing in Inkscape and with converting files for use on my CNC. I’ve even dabbled slightly with editing G code. I have a small wood shop and I would like to start a small side business making unique items that I will sell at our local farmers market here in Hawaii. So I am looking for a decent laser Cutter / engraver that I can use for this business. If business grows I can upgrade to something bigger or better quality but I have read good things about the G.Weike brand and wanted to get opinions of anyone who may own or have used one of these laser cutters.

Do you feel that an LC6090 100w CO2 laser could be a good choice as an entry level machine for this type of work? Think small art, coasters, engraved water bottles, wood jewelry, ect...

I do not plan to seek out large orders from outside businesses at this time. I have work that I will continue to do so this would be more of a side thing for now that I would like to transition into more of a full time gig if business is steady enough.

I have looked at Boss Lasers but learned these are basically upgraded Chinese lasers. The price is double the price that G.weike quoted me. Although US support would be nice, I have a technical background and understand mechanics pretty well so I don’t think it would be impossible for me to solve most issues I might come across.

Am I making a good choice with the LC6090? Thanks for the help!

[Bert Kemp]

Sounds like you did your home work. Gweiki from what I read here seem to be OK . The only thing is I think 100 watts is more then what you need. If engraving is going to be a large part then you might want to go with an 80 watt machine, simply because its harder ti dial down the power for light engraving on smaller objects like you mentioned.

[Michael Henriksen]

I have a LG900 from G. Weike with a Reci W4 100W tube. It has been in daily use for 10 months now and works fine. The only issues was a limit switch that had to be moved a bit. I also have a 5 year old LG6040 that has been trouble free. I have not had the need to contact GW for support for many years so I can't comment on how good or bad it is. Lasers aren't that complicated and I can do my own servicing and troubleshooting if the need arises. As Bert says, if you mainly do engraving then a W2 80W might be a better option.

[Wilbur Harris]

G. Weike, Shenhui, etc...all about the same. I'm going with the 80 watt deal as well. Tubes are cheaper and you've probably got a saw for anything too thick for 80 Watts. Alternatively, you can buy a Trotec and be done.

[Matthew Herrera]

Thanks for the feedback, Michael have you done any engraving Work with the 100w laser? How did it turn out?

[Matthew Herrera]

Bert, you hit on one of my main concerns. I really want an all around type laser. I actually asked specifically to the G.Weike rep if the 100w laser would be too strong for engraving and she replied no that I could dial down laser power for engraving. However what I’ve been reading from the guys in the field so to speak is that there is a minimum voltage required to trigger a laser and that voltage is higher with a 100w tube vs an 80w tube. Meaning you can only lower the power so much before the laser won’t turn on and that might still be too powerful for fine detail engraving in a 100w tube. Am I understanding that correctly?
Of course it would be nice to be able to cut 1” thick wood but I think I could live with 1/2” cuts.
What about doing multipass cuts for thicker material? What thickness of solid wood such as Maple could I expect to cut with an 80w tube? Is there some reason a mulitpass cut is not desirable such as charred edges or wider kerf?

[Dave Sheldrake]

Not a big fan of Weike these days, they used to be great but I've seen and been told of quite a few occasions where aftersales when there has been a problem has been dire or non existent.

Personally for imports Sinjoe have been outstanding with quality components (CCM cutting heads etc) and aftersales to match (Felix Yi)

course it would be nice to be able to cut 1” thick wood but I think I could live with 1/2” cuts.

an "easily affordable" laser is the wrong machine to be cutting 1/2 inch anything with, 1 watt will cut 1 inch wood eventually, it will look terrible and be slow as ice cold molasses but it will do it. The question is what is an acceptable speed for what you wish to do?

1/2 inch at production speeds or profit speeds is in the 200+ watt range (so figure on $5,000+ for a glass tube like an F220)

Multipass cuts are a bit of a bug bear that tend to lead to wider kerf sizes and quite a lot of burning on thick materials and kind of negate the purpose of using a laser for the job to begin with. For cutting woods I rarely ever look at anything over 3/8th if it's for work and that's with access to multi kilowatt CO2 lasers here

[Bert Kemp]

Correct the higher the tube wattage the more power it will need to fire on the low end. as for cutting 1/2" wood it will take more then 1 pass with an 80 watt probably even with a 100 watt , 1 inch your gonna need a lot more power.

Bert, you hit on one of my main concerns. I really want an all around type laser. I actually asked specifically to the G.Weike rep if the 100w laser would be too strong for engraving and she replied no that I could dial down laser power for engraving. However what I’ve been reading from the guys in the field so to speak is that there is a minimum voltage required to trigger a laser and that voltage is higher with a 100w tube vs an 80w tube. Meaning you can only lower the power so much before the laser won’t turn on and that might still be too powerful for fine detail engraving in a 100w tube. Am I understanding that correctly?
Of course it would be nice to be able to cut 1” thick wood but I think I could live with 1/2” cuts.
What about doing multipass cuts for thicker material? What thickness of solid wood such as Maple could I expect to cut with an 80w tube? Is there some reason a mulitpass cut is not desirable such as charred edges or wider kerf?

[Matthew Herrera]

Thanks, good food for thought. I can’t afford to justify spending 15-20k on a laser cutter at this point. I still need to nail down the product and market I will focus on. Maybe I’m better off sticking with the CNC mill for thicker materials. It takes quite a while but it gives me a clean finish and 1” is no problem.
I’m honestly not too worried about after sales support. I believe between help on this forum and my own abilities I can probably figure out most issues. I will take a look at Sinjoe though as I haven’t researched them much. Sounds like 80w is the way to go since I do plan to do some fine engraving work such as the pens my son and I make on the lathe.
Would you say then 3/8” could be cut in one pass with an 80w?

By the way happy New Year’s Eve to everyone!

[Matthew Herrera]

Just found this video of a guy cutting 10mm plywood with an 80w laser.

https://youtu.be/PAcpPGD4Lgw

[Kev Williams]

I've cut thru 20mm cherry with my 80w-
ch1.jpg

this corner I lopped off in one pass, at 1mm/sec-
the cut length is only 35mm, so over 30 seconds- but it did it-
this was with a 2" lens....
ch2.jpg


So I put in my 3" lens thinking the longer focus range would help.
Not even! The lower beam density came into play big time...
look close and you can see that each pass only penetrated about 1/4 the way into the wood-
took 4 passes! I didn't have the cut line long enough to go out the other side, so I snapped off the
piece- notice how angled the kerf ended up at the stop-point--
ch3.jpg

Ok for a personal project if you have plenty of time, but I can see where even double the power wouldn't be that much faster. Would help with thinner stock tho

[Dave Sheldrake]

but I can see where even double the power wouldn't be that much faster

Inverse square law Kev double the power add's 50% to the speed

Matt, that video is cutting maple box ply, the stuff is dry as a desert and cuts easily but has a really sooty edge, it's common for Chinese companies to use box wood as a demo as it cuts very quickly and even thick sections will cut. The video also uses high pressure air (I would guess around 25 - 30psi) on thick woods this is to make some of the cut Oxygen assisted rather than cut using raw laser power (in effect the laser starts the burn and the air causes it to cut)

[Dave Sheldrake]

Would you say then 3/8” could be cut in one pass with an 80w?

I don't cut anything over 1/4 with an 80 watt or it is too slow to be practical. Remember materials vary a lot as well, 80 watt will cut 1/4 maple ply (liteply) nicely,but will struggle with 1/4 MDF or any hardwoods

[Matthew Herrera]

Thanks Kev, good to know what it is capable of. Arguably impractical from a time/production stand point but still good to know it is possible!

[Matthew Herrera]

Thanks Dave, In your opinion what is too slow to be practical. What cutting speed do you use for say 1/4” maple?
I also saw a video of a guy cutting 1/2” material by cutting 1/4” on one side flipping the material and cutting another 1/4” to finish the cut. It gave him a clean cut but obviously doubled the time. I’m definitely leaning towards the 80w because I really want the good engraving capability. Rather then a slightly faster cut time with the 100w which I’m not sure would be that drastic anyways.