Cheap 40w Chinese laser from eBay

[Allen Scott]

I do not own a business that relies on a laser. I just do a couple jobs a year where i need to make little name tags and plates out of plastic. I have some experience with a few different laser engravers and Corel over the years but didnt want to invest in purchasing an expensive laser for such little work. So I purchased one of these $400 ebay lasers from china just to see if it would work for what I am looking for.

I am wondering if anyone has one of these, or knows someone who has one? I have mine and set it up and seems to be working. but there are a few questions i have and I am unable to find the answers.

For one, i set my corel page to 300mmx200mm, yet when I print to the engraver it doesnt seem to always start in the top left corner. How do I utilize the entire engraving area? Also, is there a way to setup and save settings for my material? my machine has a turn knob for the power, but im assuming the power will change depending on if i am engraving or cutting and wondering if there is a way to set that in the software rather than the knob which would be difficult to always get back to the same power.

[Clark Pace]

You have to run 2 jobs if you have two different power settings. The knob controls the power on this machine not th e software. So if i had to engrave and a cut i would engrave then run the vector cutting and turn up the knob

[John Noell]

Based on previous posts, be careful about how much power you set as it is common for those machines to over-power the tube and ruin it. In my experience, if you do not keep the power to a maximum of 85% of what the tube is rated for (not what the power supply can put out) you wil greatly shorten the tube's life.

[Bill George]

Welcome to the world of a Cheap laser, that on a good day May output 30 watts..... at least for a while. Software sucks, controller is junk, mirrors and optics as cheap as they can make them. Not even a good frame work for upgrading. You will want to upgrade, replace this and that and soon you will have a couple thousand invested in something that is too small to really use. There are users on here who have done just that and I hope they step up to help you out. LightObject and a few a eBay vendors sell the upgrades.

[Clark Pace]

So the ebay laser was the first chinese laser i owned. While it was not perfect iwas able to make many fun things with it. I had it for 2 years. Learned much about chinese lasers. It at least sounds like you got a working unit and that is a good start. I upgraded to new machine since

[Allen Scott]

Thanks guys. I realize (now and before i purchased it) that it is what it is. Again, i am not running a business off this thing, but really only a couple simple small jobs a year. Nothing major and mostly just name tags that will be engraved, then cut out of thin plastic. That's really it.

So if i ever do an upgrade, i think i may want to upgrade the control board on the front. I wish it had an LED power setting rather than the knob. Other than that, it seems to work pretty well (at the moment at least) for what I am needing it to do. I would just prefer to manually put the power setting to a specific number rather than guessing and turning a knob.

but right now, my main questions are this.... and would greatly appreciate anyone who could help!!

1. in corel, do i set my page up to 300mm x 200mm? or do i set it up as the size of my material? Right now I am getting material pretty much the size of the entire table, so i am setting up my corel layout to 300mm x 200mm and then positioning my name tag in the top corner, engraving then cutting it out. However, it seems like when i send the job to the laser, it doesnt always engrave where i want it to.

2. i am used to creating a thin "box" in corel with a red outline (clear inside) and that would vector cut. then anything black would raster engrave. does this machine work the same way? it seems like the 2-3 jobs I have tried so far, the only way i could get it to engrave was to make a black box and use white text? basically backwards of what i am used to. and i havent tried vector cutting yet.

3. last question... kinda piggy backs on #1.... how do you get the XY arm to home in the top left corner? seems like when i turn on the machine, sometimes i homes up there, but sometimes it tries to keep going down until it goes too far and knocks.

thanks again guys. I know its not ideal machine, but i think i can get it to work for my needs with a little help.

[Bill Carruthers]

What software is the machine using? No one can help without knowing that.

[Clark Pace]

So i made a circle with a hole with numbers in clockwise and placed it over the knob. That way could kinda of know what power i was at. I made the circle with the laser it self. I also made a simple air assist. I have some videos i made on you tube if inyerested.

[Allen Scott]

here are a couple screen shots. However, where it says MAINBOARD, i have changed that to M2 as directed from the supplier i bought it from. I do not recall exactly the full description, but it ended in M2

[Allen Scott]

bump. anyone?

[Bill George]

bump. anyone?

Allen your not being ignored, but I think Clark is the only one on here that owned a machine as yours. If you want to head over to Lightobject dot com Marco has a Forum where some of your questions might be addressed.
PS Its also known as a K40 laser.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-...-Laser-Cutter/

[Clark Pace]

bump. anyone?

If-you-have-any-questions.Please-ask.Although-my-machine-is-older-and-I-think-they-have-changed-a-bit.My-keyboard-space-is-not-working-sorry-for-the-dashes.

[Bill George]

If-you-have-any-questions.Please-ask.Although-my-machine-is-older-and-I-think-they-have-changed-a-bit.My-keyboard-space-is-not-working-sorry-for-the-dashes.

I have the same issues sometimes, only on this Forum with Space bar not working. If I go to Advanced to reply its back to normal?????