Can the power supply for 130W RECI be used with 80W RECI?

[john banks]

Suspecting not, can anyone confirm? Our main interest is cutting and we've limited our wood thickness around the laser, but we also want to engrave so the spec we're soon to order is 80W RECI, with a spare 80W RECI and PSU. Wondering about changing it and having a 130W before I finally push the button.

http: //www.chineselasersupportforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=271 in this post Vicki reports good engraving with 150W water cooler glass tube.

Has anyone here seen poor engraving from the higher power RECIs?

[Dan Hintz]

Generally, going down in power isn't an issue... going up can be.

[john banks]

I have been trying to find some tech info on the RECI power supplies to see if they have settings or jumpers or similar.

Apologies for the hyperlink didn't realise against the Terms. Should I edit my first post to take out the remaining text of the link? I pasted the link as it shows, but before Ken edited it was clickable, now it isn't. I did wonder before why I had to copy and paste links from posts on here rather than click them.

[Dan Hintz]

Text links to other forums (when appropriate to what's being discussed) is fine... hotlinks aren't.

[Vicki Rivrud]

Hi John,

I do not have the brand "RECI" tube - I have generic chinese laser bulbs.

I have been corresponding with several chinese laser tube companies as to the longevity claims & smaller spot of the "RECI" but its like anything from over there-once it gets into the mainstream and becomes a hot topic- people think its the newest and greatest. No disrespect intended to the firm.

I am engraving with the same "generic" 150 watt tube for going on 3 years now. No signs of weakening or overkill either. I just tweak my settings in Lasercut and do a practice run on the SAME material before engraving the final product.

I just engraved pistol grips on the single 6 Ruger grips using Edwardian font and the font size was barely .33 - I also engraved the soft bamboo usb stick from JDS - 2 examples of engraving a hard wood vs soft wood -Cocobola vs Bamboo. I engrave everything from glass to brick/marble/granite to all types of wood & depron. When I want a smaller spot I use a differant lens and vice versa. I also kiss-cut medical research film for chromosome developement & cut/engrave Romark products and acrylic. But I did have to work hard on finding the right settings - as everyone does. The 150 watts come in handy when I have to cut carbon fiber and heavily glued woods.

With upgrading several of our machines we have found that the power supply can not be lower than the wattage but we haven't yet had a problem with a higher power PS - we use the 150 watt PS in our machines so they can be upgraded. Hope that makes sense.

I asked Rodney for his opinion on RECI and his response was that he does primarly cutting not much engraving.

I am waiting for Ken Shea to get his new laser running and looking forward to his opin on his RECI tubes.

Happy lasering,
Vicki (from the chinese forum)

tn_gabriella.jpgusb.jpg

[Michael Hunter]

Cutting and engraving wood will be very quick with 130W to play with and should present no problems at all.
You would probably be able to cut 9mm BB ply fairly cleanly and even 12mm if you accept the need for a bit of sanding afterwards.


Some of the materials that the very high power *might* cause problems with are -

Rowmark Laserlights (sticky label stuff - great money maker), particularly with kiss-cutting (cutting out the label whilst leaving the paper backing intact).
Some colours of Rowmark LaserMark and LaserMax.
Anodised aluminium (again a great money maker for me).

The above materials can use 20% or less power on my 60W machine for best results. Some kiss-cutting (when it needs to be very accurate) I do at 1 or 2% power and slow speed.

So the power choice comes down to whether the laser is for general purpose use (in which case go for 60 - 80W) or for wood only, when having 130W will be brilliant.

[Rodne Gold]

Your best option might be 2 lasers, a 1200 x 800 130w and a 600 x 900 60/80w. I would initially go for the 130w if cutting wood is the main application, you can always buy another lower powered one at a later stage if you need delicate engraving

[john banks]

Thanks all!

I'm presently working on two options: 100W (about half the price of 130W tubes) to give a slight bias to cutting, and thinking also about dual tubes.

With a dual tube 2 x 80W machine like George from Laserarts has, RDCAM can independently control each tube on or off, and the power. However, instead of dual head, the beams could be combined to one head? Should allow delicacy and power? How practical would it be to combine the beams early on, presumably you have some length to spare with an 80W RECI in a 1280 machine so you could mount the lasers with a gap before the first mirror and combine them? A UK machine of similar size used 2 x 50W RF tubes to get its 100W, but the RF lasers are smaller I think.

If you have a dual head machine and only have one head operating, can it cover the full area of the bed?

Vicki, is it possible to cut or even engrave paper or thin fabric without overpowering it with your 150W tube?

[Vicki Rivrud]

I do all the time . . . I make cupcake toppers, cards using Vellum and light cardstock and cut & engrave/etch fabric as well. I use copy paper to laser cut make my alignment squares. No burning no scorching. I am in the process of making our Christmas cards

Again, I have found it is technique & settings as well as "perfect" alignment, level, focus . . . I generally use the 63.5 lens.

Having a Chinese laser, I do have to be careful of not taking below 10% as the machine becomes flaky, but using very low power and faster speeds - delicate & kiss can be achieved. It comes with practice, practice, pratice and keeping record of the found settings. Being in Florida I do have to adjust from time to time if it is a high humidity day. Woods can be tricky due to glues, moisture content, ply and composition.

We use 1 machine for cutting carbon fiber,wood,abs,depron to cutting paper & films - to etching denim, engraving/etching cutting quilting fabric and more delicate fabrics . . . it can be done but it took me about a year+ to really "know" my machine and I am still amazed at what I am learning.

IMHO - get all the watts/power that you can and learn to adjust to your needs.

Hope that helps,

Vicki