Ian Stewart-Koster
01-12-2018, 8:00 AM
Hi Folks, rightly or wrongly, I've just ordered a sizeable laser ex China.
2500 x 1300 mm blade bed.
The specs are 2 tubes & 2 heads - Reci W8 & W2, 180w & 100w, 4" & 2" FL lens, (all in the gantry),
2 air assist pumps, red dot, CW 6000 chiller, vacuum extractor, , with a raise/lowerable 900 x 1300 table at one end, 42mm max clearance under nozzles on standard bed, if needed.
Plus 2 spare lenses, 1 spare W1 Reci tube, and a spare Reci W6- 150w tube for our existing Goldenlaser that I've just learned is a 150w peak, not 130 as I always thought.
RD 6442-S controller, leadshine driver & steppers.
Taiwan Hiwin square linear rails. Shanghai fulong belts. etc
It's a non-standard request- I wanted the 180watt for heavy acrylic cutting, but also the lower power Reci tube for engraving, but got them to fit the next to lowest instead, and supply the lowest as a spare. Also a slightly higher than normal gantry - I wanted to be able to focus on 25mm acrylic.
The 2 tubes face opposite sides.
The 2 heads can be positioned anywhere along the gantry, so that they can be beside each other, and either tube can be used singularly over the whole bed (less the width of the other head)
or they can be spaced half the bed width apart, and the net (gross?) power to each head be set to about equal, and then it'll be able to do 2 of the same at once.
They were going to supply a CW3000 with the W2 tube, but I already have one here I'm not using- so I had a bit of a discount there - and the 3000 is a pretty poor thing. I'll rig up something better. (I have a 5200 in use anyway on the Goldenlaser.)
There was another option to have a pair of 140watt Jongli tubes = 280w, but it was pushing the price boundaries for our current needs, so I stopped at the 150/180w W6 Reci tube.
Currently both the Goldenlaser & the little ULS M-300 are pretty flat-out day in & day out.
When our big one played up the other day, I asked 'locally' who might be able to help me fill in an order, and no one within 180km had a machine close to ours in capacity... the thought of doing 20mm acrylic was beyond most, let alone 25mm !
Over Christmas, I needed a 2400 x 900 mm photo image engraved into acrylic, and only one company in Brisbane has a machine big enough to engrave that size. Plenty have machines that will CUT that size, but not engrave. Hence my requesting this mish-mash of sorts mentioned above...
The Goldenlaser also has been slowing down in its max tube power- the last month, 100% in the software sent only 18mA to the tube, (compared with 21.5 mA last July), but today it grew back to 20.5 mA... Sorry, I can't explain it - the water is set permanently on 19.1 deg celcius. There is seldom half a degree variation.
_____________
ON a different but related note, I disconnected the air pump on the Goldenlaser, and piped in the air-compressor air, with a tap, so I could set a stronger blast, to help put out any fires underneath 20mm acrylic.
That worked OK for about a month, but today's humidity caused the nozzle to be dripping with water, and the water defocusing & affecting the beam - weird. I reconnected back the old airpump with its hot dry air, and all was good, except you have to babysit it with a gun of air-compressor air in case of flames again...
____________
P.S. Thanks to various people here for answering assorted questions over time that has led me to this purchase, and to Dave Sheldrake for assorted PMs with opinions I valued. :)
P.P.S also we do have a fairly big old CNC router - it takes nurturing, and does its share of work, but the amount of 20 & 25mm acrylic stuff we've done lately really suits the laser more than the router.
2500 x 1300 mm blade bed.
The specs are 2 tubes & 2 heads - Reci W8 & W2, 180w & 100w, 4" & 2" FL lens, (all in the gantry),
2 air assist pumps, red dot, CW 6000 chiller, vacuum extractor, , with a raise/lowerable 900 x 1300 table at one end, 42mm max clearance under nozzles on standard bed, if needed.
Plus 2 spare lenses, 1 spare W1 Reci tube, and a spare Reci W6- 150w tube for our existing Goldenlaser that I've just learned is a 150w peak, not 130 as I always thought.
RD 6442-S controller, leadshine driver & steppers.
Taiwan Hiwin square linear rails. Shanghai fulong belts. etc
It's a non-standard request- I wanted the 180watt for heavy acrylic cutting, but also the lower power Reci tube for engraving, but got them to fit the next to lowest instead, and supply the lowest as a spare. Also a slightly higher than normal gantry - I wanted to be able to focus on 25mm acrylic.
The 2 tubes face opposite sides.
The 2 heads can be positioned anywhere along the gantry, so that they can be beside each other, and either tube can be used singularly over the whole bed (less the width of the other head)
or they can be spaced half the bed width apart, and the net (gross?) power to each head be set to about equal, and then it'll be able to do 2 of the same at once.
They were going to supply a CW3000 with the W2 tube, but I already have one here I'm not using- so I had a bit of a discount there - and the 3000 is a pretty poor thing. I'll rig up something better. (I have a 5200 in use anyway on the Goldenlaser.)
There was another option to have a pair of 140watt Jongli tubes = 280w, but it was pushing the price boundaries for our current needs, so I stopped at the 150/180w W6 Reci tube.
Currently both the Goldenlaser & the little ULS M-300 are pretty flat-out day in & day out.
When our big one played up the other day, I asked 'locally' who might be able to help me fill in an order, and no one within 180km had a machine close to ours in capacity... the thought of doing 20mm acrylic was beyond most, let alone 25mm !
Over Christmas, I needed a 2400 x 900 mm photo image engraved into acrylic, and only one company in Brisbane has a machine big enough to engrave that size. Plenty have machines that will CUT that size, but not engrave. Hence my requesting this mish-mash of sorts mentioned above...
The Goldenlaser also has been slowing down in its max tube power- the last month, 100% in the software sent only 18mA to the tube, (compared with 21.5 mA last July), but today it grew back to 20.5 mA... Sorry, I can't explain it - the water is set permanently on 19.1 deg celcius. There is seldom half a degree variation.
_____________
ON a different but related note, I disconnected the air pump on the Goldenlaser, and piped in the air-compressor air, with a tap, so I could set a stronger blast, to help put out any fires underneath 20mm acrylic.
That worked OK for about a month, but today's humidity caused the nozzle to be dripping with water, and the water defocusing & affecting the beam - weird. I reconnected back the old airpump with its hot dry air, and all was good, except you have to babysit it with a gun of air-compressor air in case of flames again...
____________
P.S. Thanks to various people here for answering assorted questions over time that has led me to this purchase, and to Dave Sheldrake for assorted PMs with opinions I valued. :)
P.P.S also we do have a fairly big old CNC router - it takes nurturing, and does its share of work, but the amount of 20 & 25mm acrylic stuff we've done lately really suits the laser more than the router.