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I am adding a fiber laser to my shop for engraving jewelry and firearms. Has anyone had any experience with CamFive or any other reliable brand, and yes Chinese machines are fine.
I am curious also if a 30 watt machine is powerful enough to engrave hardened firearms or do I need to go up to a 50 watt.
You guys, and gals, have always been helpful to me and I appreciate all your suggestions.
Thanks
I'm out of touch with who sells decent fiber lasers now so I'll let others speak to that. As for firearm engraving 30 watts is plenty. 50 would more than likely get the job done a bit quicker but I'm not sure by how much and if it's worth the expense. I have done hundreds of firearms over the years and laser time was never really an issue with my two 30 watt machines. Although my machines have stood up well I will never spend another dime on anything G Weike due to the extremely poor handling of three improperly configure machines that I bought in a group buy. Their mistake in neglecting to build the machines as ordered with a power Z axis cost the three of us lots of time and a few hundred $ to cover import fees, etc. to send the power Z to us. So I can't tell you who I would buy from but I can tell you who I won't!
I've been very happy with the performance of our Radian that we have. It's a 3D MOPA machine, so has quite a few capabilities. They are ultimately a Chinese import that has been manufactured for a US seller that provides support here. Tom, their CEO is a great guy and has always treated us well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Young
My el-cheapo ebay machines have worked great for real close to a year now, made me a lot of money. My 'name brand' Triumph has worked great for almost 4 years now, save for a glitch where the engraving went stupid. I fiddled with all the connections inside the machine and all seemed well afterward, but Triumph replaced the scanhead on warranty anyway, no troubles since. (to this day I'm not sure if the scanhead was the problem)
As to needing lots of power for engraving, a "smaller" lens can help. I have 220's, 150's, and one 72, which is really aggressive. Only catch is the 2.2" working area, but AR info is usually within 1-1/4" so 2.2" is plenty. I've never had a 100-ish lens but I want one just to see how well it works for machining. Lately the bulk of my fibering is labeling or marking anodized, SS (anneal), delrin and polycarb, all of which could be done with 10 or 15 watts.
I engrave gun barrels with a 220, which seems counter-productive but they turn out nice :)
Galvo fibers, these things only have 2 moving parts, the rest is all cheap to replace electronics. I could likely replace an entire machine for the price of a 2 year service agreement on a mid 5-figure machine-- and then there's the issue of the mid 5-figures!
Boaters who want a "reliable" boat buy boats with at least 2 power plants. With fiber's so inexpensive, if reliability is a concern, it makes sense to just buy 2 of the things! You'll have WAY more flexibility, and if one quits working, you can still get back home... eerr, I mean you can still get the work out :D
--flexibility and 'getting the work out' is why I have 19 machines ;)
What type of fiber laser did you end up going with Gary? After some lengthly discussions with my husband we are thinking of just biting the bullet and buying both a CO2 and fiber laser. We're looking at one for firearms primarily (at least for now). I've been on the CamFive, Radian, Triumph, LaserStar websites. I would like something with some sort of support in the US but would prefer not to spend a ridiculous amount. What really makes the difference between a $5-7,000 and $15-20,000 fiber laser? If they are the same wattage and engrave a similar surface area... it seems like the general consensus is to not spend a bunch of money on one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sarah Fischer
very happy to give you 20 -30 minutes information, set up google voice - it connects to regular cell phone, you will be able to disconnect it instantly so nobody will contact you again ever on google voice once you unlink it later on. Happy to explain price differences, builds, laser sources, materials, etc...... once you have google voice, please provide it and you will know what is what and why, unless all the info acquired here on the forum totally and fully explain to you everything. Kind Regards.
Support is and availability of parts if something breaks is probably your biggest thing. Only word of caution I will give you is on CamFive. I have a CamFive CO2 laser, and their support is absolutely horrible. They were fairly good through the sales process, but it's been a pain since then. Had a couple of issues during warranty, and had to fight tooth and nail to get them to replace parts. They always wanted me to remove and send them the parts to test before they would warranty, which would leave me down, as the laser was still functioning, just had intermittent issues. E-mails to their support often go days before you get an answer, etc. Have been very happy with my Radian fiber though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sarah Fischer
The 2 ebay lasers I bought, referenced above, have been working nearly daily for over a year now. My Triumph is going on 4 years...
Right now the same basic 30 watt ebay units, the brand is 'Vevor', are on ebay selling for $3300 to your door. I spend more than that at Delvies every 3 months! At that price, I consider them 'dixie cup' machines. If something goes awry and I can't figure out which $300-$400 part I need to replace, I'll just hit ebay and have another one here in 3 days.
I've noticed something 'new' in fibers that's actually a very cool idea, and fwiw, this machine is essentially identical to my ebay machines:
Attachment 425044
--marrying the case to the machine itself. Portable like my Triumph, but incorporates the tower, MUCH more versatile...
I've a 20 watt Ray Fine, I use 150mm lens almost exclusively, (came with a 100) and I I have a 330mm lens. I have done a number of handguns and long guns with the fiber with good results. If I were to buy again, a 30 watt would be on the table, 50 is overkill. And I would probably try an eBay if I were to get another. Especially knowing what to look for and being able to determine if there is an issue quickly.
Thank you Everyone! Do you need a MOPA fiber to laser colors or is it just finding the correct settings? I have seen mixed information on this.
I believe you need a MOPA for colors, but my understanding is that producing colors is quite time consuming and frustrating as the settings required for the same material can vary from material batch to material batch. That being said, the larger range in frequencies can come in handy for more than changing the color of metal.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sarah Fischer
Thank you for the info Matt!
For 'full color' like this, yes you need a MOPA.
Attachment 425332
And yes, very slow-- based on watching a Trotec video and estimating engraving time (roughly 5 minutes per square inch), I guesstimate this flag-card took between 11-1/2 and 13 minutes of engraving time...@ $90 per hour machine time, that's an $18 engraving charge. Okay for a one-off, item, but for a dozen you're well past $200! So there's the paradox, very cool laser engraving, but hard to sell in anything but low quantities...
These pics are all of the same test plate plate I did trying to zero in on good annealing settings. As you can see, from most viewing angles the engraving looked mostly black- but get the right tilt with the ambient light hitting it just right, and colors start to show up...
Attachment 425334
Attachment 425335
Attachment 425336
Attachment 425337
--pretty cool, and unusual, but realistically, mostly useless ;) (THEE trick is to have it look BLACK from all angles instead of 'washing out')
That's pretty cool. But I do understand the inability to realistically make money on it now. I didn't know it took a bunch of extra time to do it.
Would not buy from Camfive. Just my experience. It is no different from buying a laser on ebay or alibaba. All the parts are the same and interchangeable. Thank God. Their customer support is horrendous to say the least. I need a new focus head and they can not get. Their machine with their name and they can not get me a replacement head? Really? Needless to say I had to re-engineer my setup just so I could replace the focus head. Not to mention you think you are paying for a quality machine since it is in the US but nope, not so. For Fiber I would recommend either wisely laser or rayfine laser. Both are just as good as boss fm's. Just my 2 cents.