Session 01 – Buying a Laser Machine

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The Concise RDWorks Learning Lab with Russ Sadler. Session one: Buying a machine.

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Welcome to another Chinese lasers A to Z. To be fair, it’s just a title we’re not actually going to work our way through the alphabet at all.

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What we’re going to do is try and work our way logically through the process of buying and learning about Laser, Chinese laser machines.

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Whether they’re Chinese laser machines or whether they’re very expensive American machines or Austrian machines.

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It really doesn’t matter. The technology is the same. The cost will be different and the quality of the engineering will be different. By that,

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the more you pay, the better the quality of the engineering.

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But there are certain fundamental things that you should look for when you decide to buy a machine.

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Now, the very first thing that you must do, is decide what size machine do you want?

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What do you need the machine for? Are you a hobbyist? Are you a small business?

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If you’re a small business, you might not want to go down this Chinese route.

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Because you may well be buying a project rather than a machine. But on the other hand,

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if you buy a project and you learn about this machine, you will be your own 24/7 technician.

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You won’t need to use and pay for the services of some very expensive technicians who will probably say, “ooh, I don’t like the look of that.

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That’s, that’s probably, I think you should probably spend 300 pound to buy a new one of those.”

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Or, “We ought to fix this. You know, it’s going to cost me 200 dollars just to come and visit you.”

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Now, first of all, that’s not the sort of cost you want when you’re buying a relatively expensive machine.

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You want the expensive machine to be reliable and you don’t need service.

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These are not expensive machines. But surprisingly enough, once you’ve got your hands on them and fix them, they are quite reliable.

Transcript for Buying a Laser Machine (Cont…)

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I have to say, quality control is not an optional extra that you can buy with these machines.

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They are what they are. As I described in the first session, these are basically a do it yourself kit that arrives fully assembled.

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So, you know, you haven’t got to hunt for any pieces. You might have to make the pieces work properly.

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But essentially it’s all here. So maybe you want to work on card?

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Maybe you want to put pictures onto slate tiles, onto tiles or granite.

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Even anodized aluminum, as we’ve shown you already. Or maybe engrave on wood? Here, we’ve got examples of deep engraving, raised text on wood,

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and here we’ve got something else that’s quite fascinating that you can do with these machines, and that’s 3D engraving.

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You can do that on wood or you can do it on acrylic. You can see this particular machine, which is 300 by 500 millimeters.

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This is probably really a starter machine to go any smaller than this,

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we’re talking about a different sort of machine with a different sort of technology, a different price,

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and you get what you get. You pay a little, you get a little.

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I’m not disparaging the K40 machine, but I will show you what K40 machine looks like in a minute.

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Because I’ve got an example here that I was given, but this really is a starter sized machine.

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This is 500 by 300mm.

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Now, this is a small machine, that has all the attributes of a large machine.

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And these are the sorts of things that you really must look for when you’re buying a machine.

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The first thing is you need this sort of rail system here.

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Now, don’t go for Round Rail Bearings, Round Rail bearings are supported at the end only.

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And that means in the middle here, they have a tendency to flex, not a good move.

Transcript for Buying a Laser Machine (Cont…)

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So always go for this style of, sort of square bearing rail, which is called a HIWIN style.

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They’re not made, these are not made by HIWIN.

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But people would know that as if you like, a generic style. But the great thing about these is, first of all, they are very stiff.

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And they are fixed all the way along, whereas the round rail system is fixed at both ends and the middle can, in fact float around a little bit.

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Not a good move when you’re trying to drive the machine at high speed, backwards and forwards in this direction.

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Now, in this particular machine, we’ve got a rail that’s mounted on the front here for carrying the x axis.

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This is by far and away the most important axis of the machine,

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because this is the one that’s going to continuously keep flying backwards and forwards.

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So it needs to be capable of remaining stiff so that it doesn’t wobble in either plane and it enables it to go quite fast.

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And it’s got to last a long time because if you do an engraving, you will be thrashing hell out of that bearing. The next give-away you must look for,

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is this still a keyboard now.

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There are lots of keyboards out there that look similar to this, but you need to be very careful that it says, but it won’t say on the keyboard,

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but you’ll be able to recognize this pattern of colors and the layout of the X and Y keys that we’ve got here.

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This is a RUIDA, R. U. I. D. A. It’s a Chinese manufacturer.

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It’s an industry standard controller. Now, the controller is tucked away in the electrical cabinet there,

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we’re not going to look at that at the moment, but the controller always comes with this style of keypad.

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So you can tell what the controller is just by looking at this keypad.

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This is the thing that you must look for. As I said, this is a small machine.

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But because it’s got this control system, these sorts of bearings on it, it becomes a “little me” big machine.

Transcript for Buying a Laser Machine (Cont…)

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But it’s got a lot more beneficial features because it is a small version of a big machine, than of a big machine. It might sound strange,

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but when you’ve got a big machine, you’ve got a lot more weight, bigger motors.

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Everything won’t move as fast and it won’t be as agile because a little machine like this.

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You find that you’ve got a big beam across here because this length will get larger and as the beam gets bigger,

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so it will become more flexible and you have more problems. The next size up is a 600 by 400mm machine, which I’m going to show you in a minute.

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And then after that, you can go on to a 700 by 500mm I think? That’s probably as big as I would recommend you go,

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if you want a fairly trouble free machine. After that, you start getting all sorts of size issues, but they still work,

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but they might not be as accurate and as easy to maintain and control and set up as these smaller machines.

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Now, on this machine, I have a Z (axis), which goes up and down, the table goes up and down.

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Right now, I put some buttons on the front here to drive the table up and down.

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The buttons were previously around the side, which is much more awkward to control.

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But the point is, I’ve got a table that goes up and down, motor driven.

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It’s not essential to have it motor driven.

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Most of these sorts of machines will be manually controlled with a big knob on this right hand corner here.

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So if you look at the pictures of machines, you won’t find these buttons here or on the side, but you will find a big silver or black knob just here,

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which tells you clearly that you’ve got to adjust the height of the table up and down manually.

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Now, that’s not a big problem, because even though I’ve got this machine here with a motorized control on it, you can see it’s not very fast.

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There are ways to make your manual table very quickly into a motorized table, very, very cheaply,

Transcript for Buying a Laser Machine (Cont…)

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and that’s just to put to to put a thread in the top and put a screw in the top so that you can use,

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if you like, a power screwdriver and you can drive the table up and down with a powered screwdriver.

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And if we take a look on here, look, I’ve even added a manual control knob because the degree of sensitivity when I

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want to set the the focus accurately for photo engraving is just not there.

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So I have to do the final focus like this.

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You quite often find, that this whole assembly here is very, very, lets say dickky.

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I think the word describes it, they’re very wobbly and the last thing you really want is table wobble.

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There is a simple way that you can do something like that to stop the wobble by gluing this plate onto the steel plate underneath.

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Okay. Or making a new little bearing assembly that goes in the top here,

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out of acrylic because there’s no load on this and you can get rid of table wobble. The last thing you really want,

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is this table moving around. So I think those are really the key features that you’re looking for. Now here is the head and nozzle assembly that

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the machine came with and er yeah, I’ve taken it off and replaced it with something a third of the weight.

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And with lots more capability, this has a very limited range of lens assemblies that I can put into that.

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Whereas this one, I’ve got a whole range of lens assemblies that I could fit onto here, and we’ll talk about that at the appropriate time.

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So you won’t have a choice about this.

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But this is less important than these rails and the controller.

Transcript for Buying a Laser Machine (Cont…)

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Now, the one thing you’ll note is that when I close the lid, it doesn’t close.

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But that’s because as, as a design, this is, to be honest, crap. We’ve got an extractor fan at the back here.

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I’ll just wind mine on. Which sucks air out the back of the machine, but when I close the lid, if I don’t have these little stops.

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I’ve got these little stops that I’ve just taped onto the corner here, which prevents my door from closing. If they weren’t there,

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how does the air get into the machine?

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You’re sucking air out of the machine, but there is no way to get air into the machine because there’s no vent holes along here.

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This is this is just. A piece of junk design.

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But hey, as I said, it’s not difficult to fix it, so let’s not complain about it too much.

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We’ll talk about the table in another session. It did not come like that,

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it came with an aluminum base platell, which is below there.

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They’re not things that you have to have, they’re things that you could fix yourself at a later date.

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Now, just as we jump between my first machine and my second machine, I’m just going to show you this. Now,

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this is a very small format machine, which is basically called a K40 laser.

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Yes, it is a laser machine. And many people will cut their teeth on these machines because they are so cheap.

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We’re talking about a machine here that will probably cost around about anything from four to 700 pounds, depending on where you buy it.

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So it will be roughly half the price of

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the first format machine I’ve just shown you, my 300 by 500mm. Now

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the first thing you’re going to probably ask is why on earth have I got this machine?

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I certainly wouldn’t buy one. I have to be honest, that’s not to take anything away from those people who have already got these machines.

Transcript for Buying a Laser Machine (Cont…)

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They actually do quite a good job of engraving because they are, relatively speaking, a very low power machine.

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They’re sold as a K40 machine. But again, they’re not 40 watts.

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The very most that they are will be 30 watts and probably closer to 20 watts, which makes them an excellent engraving machine.

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But they would only be good for engraving. They’re not really a cutting machine.

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They have no adjustable table. They don’t even have a nozzle or an air assist.

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They’ve got one lens. And we’ve got this very

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wobbly head and this very unstable arm. And remember what I said to you about steering clear of round linear bearings?

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Well, here we are. We haven’t got two of them. We’ve only got one of them.

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And fortunately for it, for its size and length, it’s relatively stiff.

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But even so, you can probably see that with a small amount of load, you watch that switch.

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I can move it maybe one millimeter. I’m certainly not saying that this is a heap of rubbish.

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It is what it is. It’s a very cheap introduction to laser work, to be honest, for four or five hundred pound,

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I wouldn’t waste my money because the only thing that it got going for is that it’s a laser.

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The controller on it really doesn’t exist. You can’t do very much with this at all.

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You write a little program and you put it into the machine.

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The programing system is fairly crude and the capability of this machine is very, very limited.

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It can’t do multi-layers. You can only do one thing at a time.

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You can either cut or you can engrave. You can’t change the power.

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The power is controlled by this knob here. As I said, this is a very crude and basic machine.

Transcript for Buying a Laser Machine (Cont…)

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So not something I would recommend, but I’m showing it to you so that you know what to steer clear of.

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Now, here we’ve got my other machine, which is a completely different animal.

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Isay Animal? I love it.

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I love it because I just jump on it and it works, the other one I love because I gradually taught my little Chinese dragon all sorts of new tricks.

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It’s been housetrained and it now becomes a lovely little circus animal, it can do anything.

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This one is reliable from day one, it’s a plug and play machine, OK, it’s more expensive.

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It’s something called a Lightblade machine, which is still basically a Chinese machine, which has been carefully designed with parts in the UK.

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And then the Chinese have built it to a certain standard, a much better standard than the other one that I’ve got.

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So, yeah, I love this machine, but I’m still able to criticize it because it has got some of the same weaknesses.

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It’s got some great features in it, like it’s got the HIWIN rails both here and here in the X and Y.

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Now in this one and in this one, you’ll see that the X rail is not mounted on the front.

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It’s mounted on the top of the gantry. And my goodness me.

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Look at the size of that gantry, you know, you could you could drive a tank over that and it would not move.

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This is an extremely well-built machine,

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but it still has a few small problems which I have fixed. For three years I’ve been using it with the original standard head assembly.

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It’s very heavy. It’s about 350, 400 grams that head assembly. Whereas I’ve now, replaced it with something that weighs less than 100 grams.

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So again I have pimped this machine up.

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So it’s no longer standard, but even in its standard condition, it was a great, reliable piece of kit.

Transcript for Buying a Laser Machine (Cont…)

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Let’s just turn it on with. (Beeping)

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So the noise that you can hear is this table here finding its own zero,

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because this has got an additional feature built into it, which is a controllable Z.

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So not only have we got X and Y, which is programable, we have Z on this machine, which is programable as well.

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Now, most of the time you do not need Z programable, but there are a few occasions when, depending on your application, you may find it useful.

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Now, the main reason for having a Z control on this machine is because it had another feature which is built into the machine,

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which is called AutoFocus Feature. Basically, it’s nothing more than a switch and I’ve taken it off, and there’s the top half of the switch.

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And it would normally have fitted on here somewhere.

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But, show you how much I need it or want it, because first of all, you can see here I’ve taken my red dot pointer off, and secondly,

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I’ve taken my auto, I’m taking my auto focus switch off and the auto focus,

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sits over there out of the way. Because, well, I think the fact that I’m not using it, tells you a lot about how I think about the autofocus system.

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It takes a long time to set up. It has to be set up every time you change your lens.

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It’s a tedious process to find because you have to hunt down the menu to do an autofocus, to be honest.

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Pain is one word I would use to describe it. And you can focus the machine up very quickly and reliably with nothing more than a simple step gauge.

Transcript for Buying a Laser Machine (Cont…)

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So. But the Z feature is on here, and I have found some uses for it from time to time,

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but they’re very few and far between. We will go through the feature at an appropriate point in time.

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But it’s not a key feature that you should look for when you buy a machine.

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Again, you will see just here we’ve got the RUIDA keyboard.

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So this has got a RUIDA control on as well,

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which is great because it means both the machines work off the same piece of software. Nice looking machine, well-designed.

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It’s even got a grille across the front here to the air into the machine.

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But hey, look at them. They’re so small, they’re almost worthless. On this machine, we’ve got my one inch blocks which allow the air to slide in through here.

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Now, on this machine, it’s better than the other machine because here we’ve got the worktable sitting basically level with the frame.

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And this is a nice feature to have. If you can find it. It’s not essential.

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But if you could find it, that’s great.

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So you will often find that these machines, some of these machines will have a safety switch built into them and here it is.

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That’s a safety switch. I’ve disconnected it so that I can use my machine.

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Like this in the open, because I have to do lots of video work, this could be a small business machine and you want other people to use this machine.

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You are legally bound to make it safe. The way that I’ve disabled the switches on here.

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It wouldn’t be considered safe for somebody else who is not experienced to use.

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So you have to be very careful with the legals when you, when you start buying a machine.

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I mean, the Chinese machines that come in are not technically illegal to use probably with other people using them.

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Certainly in this country with regard to the law, they would be illegal.

Transcript for Buying a Laser Machine (Cont…)

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And I suspect that is the case in most countries. Now, this particular machine has got an extract system, that is actually hiding over the back here.

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OK, now that’s a fairly big unit. It’s called a PUREX recirculating extract unit.

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And what it does, it sucks

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the air from here, puts it into that chamber, passes it through a primary filter, like a bag filter, like a vacuum cleaner filter.

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Then it passes it through a HEPA filter and then it passes it through an active carbon filter,

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which removes the smell and then sends the clean air back into this workshop.

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Now, that’s a great idea during the winter months. I mean, doesn’t matter here because this is not a heated workshop,

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all right. But if you had a heated workshop and you had your air going to the outside world,

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you would be sucking heat out of your workshop and adding to global warming.

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So, but it’s an expensive feature you probably paying,

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You’re probably paying about fifteen hundred pound as much as as much as a small machine just to have the facility to recirculate and clean the air.

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Plus, a disadvantage is that after maybe a year, you’re going to have to spend maybe 400 pound replacing the filters in there.

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So, if you’ve got an office, for instance, an architect office, where you want to run a machine like this to make models,

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then it’s an essential thing to have a recirculating air filter.

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So these are nice, fairly small format hobby machines, although probably at about five or six thousand pound.

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This is not necessarily a hobby machine. This is a small business machine.

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But if you can afford that sort of money, you’ve really bought yourself a super piece of kit.

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I mean, the next stage up from here really is only the expensive industrial machines.

Transcript for Buying a Laser Machine (Cont…)

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Now we’re going to come back to my Chinese machine here, because here we’ve got the vital part of the machine, which is the laser tube.

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Now, I’m going to warn you, if you buy a machine from eBay or from an Amazon marketplace vendor,

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almost certainly you’ll be buying from a private person. They may look like a company, but they won’t be.

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And the reason will be very simple. The people that built these machines do not want to be directly associated with you.

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So what happens is, they build these machines with, particularly this which is an expensive part of the machine.

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This will be a big grade reject tube that you get with your machine.

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It will work, but it won’t necessarily work very well.

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And the idea is they will build 50 of these machines, put them into a container and ship them to various parts of the world into warehouses.

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And then there be a guy in China with his PC who will try and sell them to you for commission

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via eBay. So you will not be ever talking to and you will not have the warranty from the factory.

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That’s just a load of tosh. You’re dealing with a private individual in China that can disappear at the stroke of a pen if

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you start jumping up and down and squealing about the quality of your tube or your machine.

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Just a word of warning! You’re buying this as though it was from fleaBay, not eBay, basically sold as seen.

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So when you buy this machine for twelve to fifteen hundred dollars,

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factor in the possibility that you’re going to have to spend another two or three

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hundred dollars replacing the tube with a good quality tube, an A-grade tube.

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The chances are from my own experience of five years dealing with people around the world,

Transcript for Buying a Laser Machine (Cont…)

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you’re going to finish up with a 90 percent chance of a junk tube, you will buy it as a 50 what tube.

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It will not be a 50 watt tube. It will be a 40 watt tube that happens to fit into this format.

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So it’ll be 40 watt to start with, not 50. And then it’ll be a B grade 40 watt tube, which will probably deliver 25 to 30 watts at the most.

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We’ll talk about the tube later on. I don’t want you to have any surprises.

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The fan that comes in the back here is pretty useless. So you’re going to need to replace that fan with something.

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The something generally will be a small centrifugal fan like that, so you’re going to have to allow maybe 50, 60 pounds for an additional fan.

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The great thing about a centrifugal fan is, it’s got a six inch inlet duct.

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But if you look down there, you’ll see closely that just down here we’ve got a four inch outlet pipe,

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which means that you haven’t got to punch a great big hole through your wall or your window.

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You may well be able to pipe it out somewhere very conveniently.

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Quickly back to this machine and all the problems that you’re going to have with air flow into the machine and out of the machine.

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There is another thing which we’re going to talk about in another session, which no manufacturer ever takes any notice of at all.

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But I think it’s the most important thing that you can deal with on this machine,

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and it’s something called airflow management.

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This feature here is the start of airflow management, but we’ll go into this on a completely separate session.

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Theret will be a lot of machines out there that claim to fit RECI or Reci.

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R. E. C. I. you say tomato, I say tomatoes, whatever it is, it’s a tube with a reputation, a very good reputation.

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If you would believe what the manufacturer and the rest of the world says, I’m afraid I’m not of the same opinion.

Transcript for Buying a Laser Machine (Cont…)

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They’re very, very expensive tubes to buy. And therefore there are lots of people out there attempting to copy them, fakers, in other words.

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So there are a few fake RECI tubes out there.

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To be honest, a lot of people will be selling you a genuine RECI tube and they will tell you that.

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And when you check it out, they are genuine, but they’re not A-Grade tubes.

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When you look at the details on the tube, you’ll find that they don’t match the specification required by RECI themselves.

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They will not be supplying a warranty with that tube. They will have sold that tube to a manufacturer of machines for a very low price,

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on the understanding that the manufacturer carries the can for any warranty.

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That doesn’t mean to say it’s a crap tube. What it does mean to say, is it failed final test at RECI and it’s been sold onto the repurposing market.

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So that’s one thing to watch out for.

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The other thing to watch out for is, you need very little power to do engraving, but you need a lot of power to cut.

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RECI, Reci, they make powerful tubes, their specific aim is cutting.

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They don’t have much control of low power, which is where you want the control for doing decent quality,

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particularly photo engraving and sometimes detailed engraving. So all I say is be careful what you wish for.

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People say I must have a one hundred and thirty or a one hundred and fifty watt tube. OK, that’s fine.

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You can have it, but you won’t be able to have certain capabilities of this machine.

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It will become a cutting machine and not a cutting and engraving machine.

Transcript for Buying a Laser Machine (Cont…)

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If you want a cutting and an engraving machine, you will to have to compromise on the speed of cutting by maybe choosing a 70 or 80 watt tube. At 70,

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60, 80 watts in that sort of region, you will get reasonable control of low power so that you can do photo engraving as well.

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So fundamentally, only two things to look for when you buy a machine.

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HIWIN type bearing rails and a RUIDA controller, everything else

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Is fixable, you can’t fix those, so if you look at the machine size, here’s a guide for you.

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Look at the width of this machine and this machine is 1060 millimeters wide.

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OK, now take 200 millimeters off of the overall width of your machine,

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and that’s the maximum length tube you’re going to be able to fit in the back.

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You can sit at the back of this machine. We’ve got an extension box.

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Most machines will not have have an extension box.

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And therefore, if you’ve got a 1060 wide machine, you’re going to be able to fit an 860mm maximum length tube.

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And the closest you’re going to get to 860 is an 800, it’s an 800 long 40 watt tube.

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So, you know, you’re getting a 40

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watt tube if you check the overall dimensions of your machine. If you’re happy with the size or the other size of machine,

Transcript for Buying a Laser Machine (Cont…)

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300 by 500mm, 600 by 400mm, don’t spend a lot more extra money buying a big tube because you’ll still be buying a crap B-Grade tube.

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You might as well accept the fact that you buy the same sized machine with a smaller

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power tube and then replace the tube with a more powerful tube at an appropriate time.

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I don’t think I can give you much more advice about looking for a machine.

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There are all sorts of other issues, small issues that you could look for in the machine and I would look for.

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But if you cover those two main bases, don’t buy too big because it will cost you money.

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Don’t buy too powerful because it’ll cost you money, always buy with HIWIN rails and always buy with a Ruida controller. Simple!

Transcript for Buying a Laser Machine