2019-10-14, Laser Cutting Ornaments
Laser cutting some Christmas Ornaments for the local church’s bake sale.
Cutting Card Stock on K40 Laser
Cutting a batch of card stock on a K40 laser. Normally, I would secure it better, but in this application, it don’t matter. The frames for for a school craft.
Antenna Analyzer Box
Now that I have both a VHF/UHF and now a HF antenna analyzer, I figured it would be a worthy investment to get a decent Harbor Freight “Pelican Case” for them. However, I couldn’t stop there. Figured I’d have some fun with the laser making some labels for the box. I also laser’ed my name and contact info in the paint of the actual analyzers as well.
Read the rest of this entry »School Teacher Cup
Laser cut a tumbler for my wife (who is the Librarian at the local Elementary School). I’m finding I like the ease of engraving on the pre-painted tumblers.
Pencil Holder, Cups
Cut my wife out a pencil holder, using the K40 Whisperer software (http://www.scorchworks.com/K40whisperer/k40whisperer.html). Highly recommend the software over what comes with the unit. I was running in Linux, and had some difficulty getting all the dependencies straight (a few more to sort out than what were in the directions). But worth it. Forgive the photos, they are somewhat out of focus.
Read the rest of this entry »Thoughts on the K40 Laser Cutter/Engraver
I love my laser cutter/engraver. However, I don’t think it is for everyone, serious care needs to be taken to mitigate some serious issues. Here are some rambling thoughts.
- View this thing as kit. Do not think of it as a plug and play or turn key.
- The grounding on this thing is crazy. The high voltage supplies on these things are often grounded to chassis. So, if anything ever goes wrong with your house ground, or an internal ground, you’d find out about it when you touch it and wake up dead. Also, the resistance between your house ground rod and the device is probably enough cause problems. Plan on modifying grounds to make this thing safe. If this doesn’t make immediate sense to you, don’t buy this thing.
- In keeping in mind with the above, drive a ground rod dedicated for this thing. Ground the laser cutter’s chassis to it with heavy gauge wire. Use the ground rod! Make sure it stays connected.
- This thing can blind you instantaneously from only reflections. You can’t see the laser light, so it can lull you in a false sense of security.
- It does not even come with a micro-switch to cut off laser power if you open up the lid. Don’t say, “I’m not stupid enough to open the thing when in use, so I’m good.” One, yes you are that stupid, you are human. Two, you might not the only one that comes in contact with the machine. It would be hard to live with blinding some youngern (perhaps your own). INSTALL A MICRO SWITCH. I just put a micro-switch inline with the laser enable wire, that kills power to the laser if the door opens.
- I WILL NOT BE IN THE ROOM WITH THE THING WITHOUT WEARING WAVELENGTH RATED LASER GOGGLES. If anyone else is in the room, make them wear googles too. This thing was made in China, as cheaply as possible. Think about it.
- You are an idiot if you you don’t have a fire extinguisher handy.
- Installing an e-stop is a good idea.
- Air assist is not an option or a luxury. Consider it safety gear. It keeps fires to a minimum, and greatly increases the quality of the cut/engraving. You can buy aftermarket nozzles, or focusing heads for dirt cheap.
- Get a water separator for your air assist. I didn’t do this, and ruined a lens. Lens are not expensive, but you don’t want to loose the cutter right when you want to use it. Probably not a bad idea to have a spare lens lying around the shop.
- Do not max out the current. I rarely go over 10 mA. Laser tubes are expensive.
- A flow switch for your coolant circuit is a good idea. Tie it in to an e-stop, that way if you stop flowing water with the stupid little aquarium pump, it will cut off the machine before toasting a couple hundred dollar laser tube.
- Propylene Glycol is your friend in your coolant. Even the food grade stuff is pretty cheap. You don’t want water to freeze in your laser tube. Remember, it is just glass. Winter, I keep water flowing to prevent freezing. Spend some time considering how to prevent water from freezing in your laser tube.
- Don’t use tap water. Buy the distilled water. It don’t cost much. Not worth risking your water being conductive, and having the high voltage arc around. Can’t image anything good coming from that.
- The platform that comes with the device is crap. Plan on making your own.
- Learned this weekend the joys of custom jigs to hold your work piece. Take the time to make one, if you plan on making more than one of something.
- I typically use 1/8″ door skins for my wood cutting and engraving. The laser will blow right thru it on one pass. I set my speed around 8 mm/s. Again, air assist is your friend.
- If you are looking for things to cut, Dollar Tree is your friend.
- Spend time with your exhaust system. The one that comes with the device is worthless. Just replace it. You do not want to be breathing most of the things you are cutting. Many ply-woods have glue that is formaldehyde based. It’s what cancer smells like.
- I’ll sometimes use dry-molly to mark metal. It is MUCH cheaper than CerMark. However, no telling what this will do if you eat it. I can’t image it will do anything good to you. Clean it and then clean it again. Rubbing alcohol seems to take off the excess pretty good.
- Don’t cut in your house. You want to do this in a detached building from the one you live in. Perhaps a garage, but this is iffy.
- A respirator is a good thing to have around. When in doubt, wear it.
- I moved and replaced the micro-switches used to zero the table. You can get a few extra inches out of the device if you put some time into this. Especially, if you modify the exhaust duct that goes way to far into the cutting area.
- Put a web-camera inside the cutting area. It makes watching the cutting process much more pleasant and safe.
- One of the first things I cut was a “laser in use, do not enter” sign. Not a bad idea to have one, and hang it on the door when using the machine.
- The software that comes with it sometimes has a mind of its own. On occasion, mine will finish an engraving.. and for some reason move over and down about an inch and start engraving over again. This software will do stupid stuff. You’ll get used to it, but you will ruin work pieces. Don’t put anything irreplaceable in it.
- Make some sort of a log for the settings you use on various materials.
- If you are not comfortable doing modifications like this, this thing isn’t for you.
- K40 Whisperer is your friend. I wasted far too much time using the buggy software that came with it. Ditch it. Ditch it as fast as you can. K40 Whisperer makes the experience MUCH, MUCH more pleasant. I’m even toying with putting it on a Raspberry Pi, and a touch screen. Nice stuff.
- Despite all the above, it is great fun. I’d buy it again if I had it to do over. I enjoyed modifying the cutter/engraver almost as much as using it. But view it as a kit. Don’t forget how cheap a piece of kit it is. The tube is around a couple hundred bucks, so they didn’t spend much money on the rest of the cutter. … but it is a freaking 40 (30 really) watt laser that mere mortals can afford.
This thing is kinda a death trap, so no warranties expressed or implied on the accuracy, completeness, or safety of my comments above. This is all at your own risk. You are buying a cheap laser from China. Your safety is your responsibility, not mine or anyone else. Don’t rely on some random person on the internet to keep you safe.
Cubicle Name Tags
Laser cut a set of cubicle signs for my teammates at work. Backed the name tags with self adhesive Velcro. Applied painters tape over the entire plywood. Engraved and then cut. Then I painted the burnt away portions.
Name Tag, Hair Dresser
Created a custom name tag for a friend of ours whom is a hair dresser. Painted the entire plywood white. Let it dry. Covered the entire sheet of plywood in painters tape. Engraved and then cut it. Then painted the engraved parts black. The painters tape made a great stencil. Then I epoxied magnets to the back.
Ham Badge
What self respecting ham, doesn’t have a call sign badge? I laser cut this badge. Bought some blank badges. Painted the entire surface black. Used the laser to vaporize the paint off, for the writing.
Stainless Cups
My five year old daughter drew the picture. We gave them as a gift from her to her grand-parents and great-grand-parents. Sprayed the cups with dry-molly lubricant. The lubricant sinisters the metals in the lubricant to the stainless cup. Just make sure you clean them REAL good with rubbing alcohol.
Laser Cutting Coffee Mugs
Cut some coffee mugs to be given out as Christmas presents for my wife. Figured I’d post some videos of the rough process. Some of the videos (unedited) drag out. Feel free to fast forward, or skip.
I’m using a fairly heavily modified (and contraption-ed) K-40 laser cutter.
