radiation with laser door open ?

[Kasey Maxwell]

out of curiosity, if for some reason I might someday need to do a job to large to fit in my machine and I'd have to leave the front door open and use magnets to bypass the safety, about how much radiation would I be exposed too or should I just leave the room till it has finished ? :)

Thanks

[Joe Pelonio]

It's not a microwave. In fact that's why you can take the sides off the Epilog and stick a bat in one end and out the other. Just don't stick your fingers in there while it's running, and do stay back, there could be a reflection or malfunction that deflects the beam and gets you. Only the beam is dangerous. It would also be a violation of OSHA to defeat a safety device, so don't let an employee do it, and if there was an accident, your insurer might deny your claim.

[Kasey Maxwell]

I'm the only one that operates it and I might be getting into engraving frames to large to fit so I might have to prop the front hatch open, if I could only figure our a way to put a hidden switch on it to easily rig it instead of magnets :)

Thanks

[Rodne Gold]

Trace the wires coming from the magnets to the motherboard , use a switch to make the circuits tween em when you want to do the door open thing.

[Tim Bateson]

I run mine without the front panel maybe 50% of the time (machine pre-dates magnets on the front panel).

[Mike Null]

I run mine with the top open (for small repetitive items) and with the front door open whenever I need the space.

[Wes Moore]

Given the damage a laser, particularly a 30 watt rated or more laser can do to your eyes I would certainly
wear protective eyewear for the specific wavelength you are using. Retinal damage can happen darn fast
and often not recovered. The interlocks were placed on the machines not to just protect the ignorant but
also those of us who may forget we left it running. (I am guilty as charged) The machine represents a
substantial financial investment, margins are tight and one wishes to recoup every last penny, but ......
What are your eyes worth? YMMV.

[Dee Gallo]

And I would certainly NOT leave the room when it is running with the door open! Stand back, yes, but leave? No!

[Matt Turner (physics)]

Given the damage a laser, particularly a 30 watt rated or more laser can do to your eyes I would certainly
wear protective eyewear for the specific wavelength you are using. Retinal damage can happen darn fast
and often not recovered.

Just put on some safety glasses if you're going to run with the door open. Polycarbonate does a great job of blocking the 10.6um laser (and yes, I can back that statement up with scientific research :)). In fact, just about any standard lens is probably sufficient, and definitely better than nothing. As a note, though, it'd be really hard to get retinal damage from one of these lasers. The eye is completely opaque at this wavelength, so all the energy would get deposited in the cornea. I've worked in labs with lasers closer to the visible, and you definitely need to be more careful with choosing eyewear for those wavelengths, because the laser can pass into the eye and be refocused on the retina, but in the mid-infrared the dangers are different.

I did get a dose of "radiation" from our open-bed 400W system last week when I cut aluminum for the first time. The beam must have reflected off the surface in just the right (or the wrong?) way to briefly give me a heat-lamp feeling on my face. The beam diverges so quickly with the short focal length lenses that these reflections aren't a big deal. Just don't try working on anything with a concave surface, like a spoon, that might re-focus the beam :).

[Dan Hintz]

As a note, though, it'd be really hard to get retinal damage from one of these lasers. The eye is completely opaque at this wavelength, so all the energy would get deposited in the cornea.
Corneal damage is just as problematic, just so newbies don't get the wrong impression.

[John Johnson 2]

A 400watt laser is just a teensy weensy more powerful that our 70watt jobs. I run with the lid open 60% of the time. I've nicked myself a couple of times and its not such a big deal.

[Jason Roehl]

Corneal damage is just as problematic, just so newbies don't get the wrong impression.

Right--the cornea is actually about 2/3 the focusing power of the eye, which is why laser surgeries can be effective (with ~1W lasers...).

[Doug Novic]

Mine is open a lot as it runs. Never had a problem and the family likes my glow at night too. Helps them see in low light.:D