Chinese lasers - they're here !!!

[Rodne Gold]

You can move the head manually , jog the head , set the jog factor , set a co ordinate from home or start in 10 different positions on the job
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IE any of those positions relative to the engraving to be done

You can tell it to go back to the start point , home or stay where it finished once the job is done

It uses stepper without feedback , so you cannot pause a job , move the head and then get it to resume , you can just pause.

We tried the 50mm lens I ordered for $22(15mm diameter) in our spirits and it works just fine , even used one of the mirrors , works just fine.
They can give you the lenses in any diameter so one of their cheaper lenses will fit the mercury

Power is limited by tube length , the smaller machines cannot use lets say a 130w tube , unless you have it sticking out somewhere.
I saw the double (top and bottom) die board cutting lasers work , didnt see any very large scale machines working tho.

There are many options
This is what I suggest
1) Uprated chiller if you using an 80-100w tube , from a cw3000 to a cw5000
2) Reci tube and not a cheap glass one
3) Motorised table , not a manual one
4) Red dot pointer to be coincidental with the beam path , the ordinary red dot is just a diode near the head and dioes not go thru the lenses and mirror path
5)18mm lenses and not 15mm ones
6) Knife edge and honeycomb table , get both
7) you get 2 rotarys , you can see em in my pic , buy both , they round $325 for both (1 is $180 the other is $140)
8) Get these spares: tube , tube power supply , a full belt sat , a stepper , 3 mirrors , 2 spare lenses , a 40mm lens , a 50mm lens , a 70mm lens , stepper motor driver , motherboard , led panel , red dot pointer , bearings
9) Tell em to set the machine up so the origin is top left (nearest the beam exit) and not top right
10) Ask them to make a removeable inspection hatch at the left side of the machine where the beam exits , just like on the other side
11) get a stronger blower if they have one
12) throw away their air assist , its rubbish ,you need a much better compressor than they provide
13) They will paint your machine any colour you want , we went blue/grey , but you can have purple/yellow if you want
14) with packing , tell them to put NOTHING on the honeycomb table
15) make sure they get your voltage of your country right
16) be careful of low shipping costs that they quote - rather get your shippers to ship the stuff to you ... not sure of the american way , we just got a FOB price and let our shippers do the rest
17) You generally pay 30% up front and the rest when they ship , I elected to pay it all up front , I am a trusting soul - ended up they owed me $81 for some reason or another , when I was there they wanted top pay me back in cash , I told em to keep it and credit my next order.
You can really be confident dealing with em

Be aware that the bigger the table , the more trouble you will have with it being level , we are making a micro levelling frame , so dont be tempted to go for a massive machine , limit yourself to a 1200x 800 or a 1300 x 900
Also dont be tempted to go for a potent tube unless you intend to do mostly cutting , the more potent the glass tube , even reci's, the less ability you will have to do very low powered engraving , be aware too that these machines arent superspeedsters , so trying to go real fast with higher engraving powers to compensate for the fact the engraver wont fire properly or well at very low power setting wont work that well.
If you want the best balance between engraving and cutting , an 80w reci tube is the answer.

An 80w 1200 x 800 set up with all those "upgrades/options" , including spares and both rotaries shouldnt cost more than $6k

One thing I noticed today with my machines is that they are not completely sealed , they have a slot front and back , almost like a permanent pass thru on the gcc machines , not sure whether that is a blessing or a curse , means I can feed thru long object , but will most likely wreak havoc with exhaust , but easy enough to seal with a strip of perspex. I would either specify or not specify that..depending on what you want.
You cant add the slot if you dont have it , and as I say , easy to seal if you dont want it. You could use a roll to roll feed with the slots if you were cutting rolls of fabric etc.
Heres pics of the "slots"

slot small.jpgslot 2.jpgslot.jpg