New to me 50W CO2 Laser

[beloitdavisja]

A friend of mine upgraded to an Epilog laser, and was looking to get rid of her old laser, so I bought it at a pretty good bargain price. This thing is HUUGE. It's a 50W C02 laser, 20x12 working area bed. The whole unit is roughly 24" deep x 40" length x 24" height She had been using this to run her personalization business. Came complete with water pump, compressor, and rotary attachment. This is a big upgrade over my previous laser (2000mW diode, posted in a thread here). The old laser did fairly well once I got it dialed in, but was painfully slow, and wouldn't cut anything.

She was running it using RDWorks software. I have some learning to do on it, but the good thing is is that the previous owner is close by and can show me the ropes (after her holiday order rush is over). It's completely different than the software on my old laser, Benbox. Benbox was ok, but pretty rudimentary and was difficult to get connected and setup at first.

I am planning on making a mobile stand for it to get it off that plastic foldout table. I also need to get the ventilation worked out so I don't gas myself. There's a lot to learn, but I have some exciting things in mind for it.

 

[Roy G]

James, what do you anticipate doing with your new laser?

Roy G

 

[beloitdavisja]

James, what do you anticipate doing with your new laser?

Roy G

Should replace everything i'm doing with my old laser, which is basically just doing small engravings, putting my logo on the bottom of bowls, etc. Some of my larger stuff I was outsourcing to a local guy, but I'm thinking I can do that in-house now. I'll also be able to engrave my pens, but I'll have to modify the rotary jig for pens if I do anything that's multi-line. Otherwise I can get by without using the rotary.

With this one I can do some laser cutting. It can easily cut 1/8" baltic birch plywood. I think the first thing to come out of the laser other than test pieces will be one of those wooden dinosaur skeletons for my son to put together. :-D

Beyond that, not sure! I'll be exploring what it's capable of, for sure.

 

[Roy G]

Does it burn the wood if you cut out pieces?

Roy G

 

[beloitdavisja]

Does it burn the wood if you cut out pieces?

Roy G

The side edge of the wood will be black. There can be some haze on the face near the cuts, but once you get the settings dialed in, there's less of that. The person I bought it from said you can also use transfer tape to protect the face of the wood, or you can just do a light sanding to get rid of any marks.

I built a cart for it last night. Have to put the shelf on it tonight, and then I might start firing it up and testing it out.

 

[beloitdavisja]

Here's the finished cart:


At the recommendation of the seller, I threw away the cheapo plastic exhaust vent and got a semi-rigid metal duct pipe from HD along with a flange to mount it to plywood. I put some pipe foam on the top and bottom of the plywood so it can sit in my window sill, and I can close the window to the plywood. It's not meant to be permanent, I remove it from the window when I'm done.


I finally fired it up and did some tests with my logo. First engraving is about 2"x2" on 1/8 birch ply.

Next I wanted to test doing some laser cutting, so I did a 1"x1" logo and cut out around it. same 1/8 birch ply.

I'm thinking of putting these on the bottom of my bowls, and/or gluing them to the front of my pen boxes. I also have a few different files for pen boxes that I can cut out.

But next up on the tasks: Cutting my son out a dinosaur....

 

[blackhawk]

Those look pretty good!

 

[sawman101]

First you go over to the dark side of woodworking, and now it appears you've projected yourself into deep space! Congratulations James on the great upgrade to your shop, and the upgrade to your skills as they develop. Looks like you've got your New Years resolution sitting right there on that bench. Hope to see you at the Mid Winter Blahs Picnic again this February.

 

[mkepke]

James - the medallions looks good with fine detail (no raster lines that I can see). I remember your posts about the laser diode rig.

A laser is on my 'someday' list.

-Mark

 

[beloitdavisja]

James - the medallions looks good with fine detail (no raster lines that I can see). I remember your posts about the laser diode rig.

I had the good fortune of the previous owner teaching me a few things and showing me what settings she was using to run her stuff. Otherwise it would've been a lot of trial & error.

First you go over to the dark side of woodworking, and now it appears you've projected yourself into deep space! Congratulations James on the great upgrade to your shop, and the upgrade to your skills as they develop. Looks like you've got your New Years resolution sitting right there on that bench. Hope to see you at the Mid Winter Blahs Picnic again this February.

Just call me Darth Sawdust. This is definitely a new beast compared to my old laser. I do plan on going to the picnic again this year (do we have a date yet?). I haven't ever been able to make it to the annual picnic, so it's nice to be able to meet up with everyone at the mid winter one.

 

[mgreene93]

First you go over to the dark side of woodworking, and now it appears you've projected yourself into deep space! Congratulations James on the great upgrade to your shop, and the upgrade to your skills as they develop. Looks like you've got your New Years resolution sitting right there on that bench. Hope to see you at the Mid Winter Blahs Picnic again this February.

I haven’t seen a post about the mid winter picnic. When is it? Same location?

 

[sawman101]

I haven’t seen a post about the mid winter picnic. When is it? Same location?

It all has yet to be determined. I'm having left hip replaced in January and know I won't be up to the task this year.

 

[beloitdavisja]

Did a neat proof-of-concept. 8 layer mandala, 6" diameter. Painted each layer using alcohol inks, then glued together with CA. Got the design file from an Etsy seller.

 

[ScottM]

James there is a pattern designer who designs a lot of layered projects like the above. His name is Alex Fox. Here is site: Scroll saw patterns (fretwork, bowls, layered, 3D) by AlexFoxUA