Just ordered mine today, does else use one of these? Also, where can I find patterns and projects to rip off?
>>1020935
Holy fuck, typos what am I drunk?
Does anyone else use one of these?
>>1020936
Yes, though I mostly treated it as a kit with most of the parts I wanted to start. They're kinda crappy without some work.
>>1020935
I've found that 40W is wholly insufficient for most phased plasma rifle builds. You've got to get up into the 50W range to really put some oomph downfield.
>>1020935
Look for vector images on google
Thing looks pretty cool, but im skeptical of how cheap it is.
A decent 40w laser should cost almost as much as that whole machine
>>1020949
(OP) Its low cost china crap, but its a great way to get your foot in the door, learn, modify, and repeat.
Anyone know some halfway decent software that can drive one of these things?
Or is it better to just gut the electronics out of the fucker and drive it with mach 3 via parallel port or something?
The extremely chinese software that came with my boss' laser thing is borderline unusable, to the point where he's considering having me pull all the laser gubbins out and use the cartesian bits for a large scale 3d printer
>>1020935
i had one and it STRUGGLED with plywood.
I really just could not get it to work for most of the projects i wanted it for, i scaled some of them back HEAPS, but my plywood was always horribly burnt or would take several passes.
Im sorry OP but i would've shelled out for the next model.
I know a lot of people would say "It's a great entry level one, and with some extra parts it can be great"
Postage for me for those extra parts more than doubled the cost of the thing.
I hope you get more out of it than i got from mine, i mean fuck if you were Australian and could get to my doorstep i probably would've given you mine for a slab.
>>1021589
Where are you? I'm Australian and I'd pay a slab for a laser.
I'd actually love to have my own cutter but because I work at a laser cutting and welding shop I've become too dependant on proper machines so I'd have to shell out 100k minimum to be satisfied with the machine. Instead I just cut anything I need at work during the weekends when the shop is closed, free machine time and free materials. Just recently finished a triple VESA monitor mount made out of 5mm thick steel.
>>1021591
fuck off abbo
>>1021598
I'm not even black :(
>>1021596
I feel this pain with 3d printers. My high-school used to have a nice setup from straysis that had one of those nice heated build enclosures and dissolvable support material added to the print automatically, features all but non-existent in hobbyist models. getting used to industrial tooling is one of the worst things you can do if you ever want to get into hobbyist grade tooling. It ends in disappointment a lot.
>>1020935
This guy on YouTube uses a similar cutter, check out his vis, he sounds nerdy but does reply to comments
https://youtu.be/UKWmqagvMIg
>>1021785
>amper emeter
>>1021786
Wut?
>>1021780
Running dual extruders with one being PVA is trivial. Also its not that hard to build your own enclosure.
You would be surprised how cheaply you can build a printer that put outs decent prints.
>>1020935
I've seen people mod the crap out of these to get something decent. Adding things like better water cooling, a safety shutoff so you don't cut your fingers off, and larger build sizes. Ends up jumping up the cost, but it can be a start. A lot of modding later using its optics and tube can do well.
>>1021859
Any idea what the hell happen to the on going 3d printer general?
>>1022459
Hit bump limit. I would restart it but I don't have the copypasta
I want to get a laser cutter/engraver to make things with, should I get this cheap shit or spend more money?
>>1022695
Me either sadly. Its fun but fuck its a headache there are so many variables I feel like I never know what the hell is wrong with it.
>>1022933
Depends on how far you want to take it. Half the time unless you are getting an industrial machine its the same-ish chinese tube in them.
What the cheap ones lack is good boards, safety features, and software. I've seen people take the modest priced chinese one, add a kill switch, add a bigger box, replace the rails, and toss out the main boards for an mach 3 and run them off Linux.
More or less take the laser and optics and rebuild the rest to something decent. At that point you are tossing in a grand or two, but at least it gets you to start with a low investment. Even ran across some crazy bastard that used it as a blue print to make a plasma cutter.
I've come into some internship money, and I'm thinking of buying one of these with the bank, I have a bunch of 3d printers, but I feel like a laser cutter could be a different kind of fun to work with.
Unfortunately, I love to mod shit, and this will probably be no different. Realistically, I'll proably scrap the board, print a better fan thing, and be able to fix all the little issues and make it a decent laser cutter.
Before I pull the trigger, I'm curious about some other things from those of you that have it. How hard is it to change the laser tube? How long does a tube last? Do you think instead of a bucket and their shitty aquarium pump I could use a resivoir and radiator like a PC cooler? How protective of the air radiation is that plastic cover?
>>1022459
>Any idea what the hell happen to the on going 3d printer general?
I had made every single general since day 1.
About 2-3 generals ago some guy got into a thread war with me trying to be "the guy" who posted generals.
Like I give a shit, so I let him make them.
There was a reason the OP pics looked different and that the sticky stopped being updated.
Looks like he has given up already, there hasnt been one up in like 2 weeks
