Brett Logsdon
12-05-2012, 2:53 AM
Hey everybody, just wanted to say hello.
I've never used a laser, I have a friend who has an Epilog 40 watt, I was amazed with the things he could do with it. However, I really didn't feel like paying that much for something that for right now is just for learning/hobby. So I got an Artcut 3060HR, 60Watt, 27.25x16.5 engraving area, up/down table, auto-focus, red-dot (not true red-dot, kind of useless). It included the honeycomb, exhaust, air and water pump.
I was pretty nervous about buying a Chinese laser, I tried for two weeks to complete a deal with redsail on ebay (cnccheap) but after two weeks I gave up. They were unresponsive and didn't seem to want to accept paypal or take a CC... a Chinese company asking for a direct wire transfer or Western Union set off alarms in my head for some reason, and I use ING, they don't do transfers. So I gave up and bought a laser from MBKP international... I'd surfed forums but never heard of them, they were on ebay as well, but they weren't too much more expensive and shipped from the US.
I sent the money immediately following winning the auction (I think total I paid around $4600 which included free shipping to my door, still more than I wanted to pay but very happy with the machine, just hope I didn't pay too much!), I was afraid from reading all the horror stories people have had in general with Chinese lasers, and I hadn't read much at all about MBKP International but honestly was VERY pleasantly surprised when the laser showed up 9 days later, it was packaged well, nothing broken... and to my surprise after putting in the tube and testing it out, the mirrors were already almost in perfect alignment. I sent a few questions as this was my first ever experience with a laser to the seller and got a kind of "figure it out" response, but luckily, he was right and I just needed to spend some time playing with it.
At first I hated RDCAM, but I found the latest version for download and loaded it up, seems to work fine, I upgraded to the 6.0 version software (do I need to do anything with the firmware on the engraver?) I've just been kind of tinkering with it, noticed a lot of talk about setting the frequency.. but not sure how to do that? I think there are other settings I can play with but need a password... nothing in the instructions about the password though. I searched for a basic newbies guide to lasers and found some information but don't know if any other forum members have experience with Artcut? I'm figuring out slowly but any reference material is greatly appreciated as I'm beginning to understand there's a HECK of a lot I simply don't know.
I have noticed I get a lot of errors stating I don't have enough space for cutting, when I should have plenty (making sure the software has the laser head in the right position in software settings), so I have to move the laser head closer to the center of the cutting area, has anyone else had this issue? sometimes it does it, sometimes it doesn't and I can't figure out what I'm doing to cause that.
What I got was probably overkill, but I love it and would buy it again in a second. Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself, ask a few newb type questions and share my first experience with lasers and MBKP international. I will say I'm very pleased with how the transaction went, have no idea how they'll handle any support type requests but luckily I haven't needed it yet.
I've never used a laser, I have a friend who has an Epilog 40 watt, I was amazed with the things he could do with it. However, I really didn't feel like paying that much for something that for right now is just for learning/hobby. So I got an Artcut 3060HR, 60Watt, 27.25x16.5 engraving area, up/down table, auto-focus, red-dot (not true red-dot, kind of useless). It included the honeycomb, exhaust, air and water pump.
I was pretty nervous about buying a Chinese laser, I tried for two weeks to complete a deal with redsail on ebay (cnccheap) but after two weeks I gave up. They were unresponsive and didn't seem to want to accept paypal or take a CC... a Chinese company asking for a direct wire transfer or Western Union set off alarms in my head for some reason, and I use ING, they don't do transfers. So I gave up and bought a laser from MBKP international... I'd surfed forums but never heard of them, they were on ebay as well, but they weren't too much more expensive and shipped from the US.
I sent the money immediately following winning the auction (I think total I paid around $4600 which included free shipping to my door, still more than I wanted to pay but very happy with the machine, just hope I didn't pay too much!), I was afraid from reading all the horror stories people have had in general with Chinese lasers, and I hadn't read much at all about MBKP International but honestly was VERY pleasantly surprised when the laser showed up 9 days later, it was packaged well, nothing broken... and to my surprise after putting in the tube and testing it out, the mirrors were already almost in perfect alignment. I sent a few questions as this was my first ever experience with a laser to the seller and got a kind of "figure it out" response, but luckily, he was right and I just needed to spend some time playing with it.
At first I hated RDCAM, but I found the latest version for download and loaded it up, seems to work fine, I upgraded to the 6.0 version software (do I need to do anything with the firmware on the engraver?) I've just been kind of tinkering with it, noticed a lot of talk about setting the frequency.. but not sure how to do that? I think there are other settings I can play with but need a password... nothing in the instructions about the password though. I searched for a basic newbies guide to lasers and found some information but don't know if any other forum members have experience with Artcut? I'm figuring out slowly but any reference material is greatly appreciated as I'm beginning to understand there's a HECK of a lot I simply don't know.
I have noticed I get a lot of errors stating I don't have enough space for cutting, when I should have plenty (making sure the software has the laser head in the right position in software settings), so I have to move the laser head closer to the center of the cutting area, has anyone else had this issue? sometimes it does it, sometimes it doesn't and I can't figure out what I'm doing to cause that.
What I got was probably overkill, but I love it and would buy it again in a second. Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself, ask a few newb type questions and share my first experience with lasers and MBKP international. I will say I'm very pleased with how the transaction went, have no idea how they'll handle any support type requests but luckily I haven't needed it yet.