Budget laser cutter

[Anonymous No.1517880]

Good evening fellows,

Its Christmas, so I got a bonus from work. considering getting a laser cutter for making shitty PCBs and cutting cheapo thin ply for RC aircraft.

I'm looking more towards laser cutters over milling machines (Cheaper lasers are better than cheaper milling machines supposedly)

I have about £350-450 to spend, anyone have any suggestions, tips etc?

CO preferably as cutting acrylic would be nice!

[Anonymous No.1518955]

I've been looking at these as well. General consensus is that the k40 is shit without mods, the 4040 50w jobs look a little better.

[Anonymous No.1519365]

>>1518955
I don't think op it's going to get the 50 for that price range.

Also you're not going to make pcbs on that. 1 the laser isn't the appropriate wavelength or power to cut the foil layer. 2 you need to know exactly what plastic you're cutting, because cutting the wrong types releases toxic fumes that could kill you, or worse damage your tools.

[Anonymous No.1519406]

>>1519365
cheap laser cutters use spray paint masking for pcb etch

https://youtu.be/1hFNj86L7sk?t=394

[Anonymous No.1519413]

http://www.ratrig.com/3d-printing-cnc/openbuilds-acro-system-675.html
You can get the acro system about 375 bongs

[Anonymous No.1519416]

>>1519413
do you have any recommendations for a large (>1m bed) CNC for MDF / plywood? I'm starting a cabinetry business and was considering a CNC instead of a table saw

[Anonymous No.1519427]

>>1519406
Well damn. This is new to me and completely awesome.

Thank you!

[Anonymous No.1519501]

>>1518955
I have been eyeing a K40 for a while and I haven't heard of the 4040 before. From what I'm finding, a 4040 runs anywhere from $750-$1100. A K40 with upgrades comes in at around $500.

I haven't actually seen either of them in use, but some of the cuts I've seen coming off of K40s look pretty nice. Is the 4040 really that big of an upgrade to justify the price jump?

[Anonymous No.1519806]

>>1519501
I've had a K40 its reliable but the potential for shock is really bad, while opening up the lid after laser engraving some wood I felt the sting of it despite it being completely grounded

[Anonymous No.1519810]

>>1519806
>despite it being completely grounded
sounds like your house is fucked too then lol!

[Anonymous No.1519827]

A K40 is a good way to get a handle on this kind of machine before you go dumping multiple grand in an 80W machine. I make my livelihood off of these machines, and K40 is difficult in the sense that it does need modifications to be good (air pump and removing that fucking tray at the very least), but it's cheap and the parts are already heavily modded in the community so there's tons of guides and premade parts. It's easy to outfit and slap together new pieces just like large machines. The only difference is you're not going to brick an expensive piece of equipment off the bat because you hadn't thought of or had experience running maintenance on one before. But overall the K40 won't cut it for acrylic, even modded it'd be a pain in the ass.

[Anonymous No.1520122]

>>1519827
What the fuck? A K40 can't cut acrylic?

I have some experience with laser cutters. I've put many hours into a Full Spectrum Laser H-series cutter, and done a fair bit on larger machines as well.

I really just want a laser for small acrylic projects, cutting no thicker than 2mm. If I had the money to burn I'd buy the FSL Hobby because I know the machine already and it is pretty nice. It's too expensive for a toy that I'll mess with once a month though.

I was hoping the K40 would be a cheapass alternative but perhaps not.

[Anonymous No.1520125]

>>1519806
Have you tried raster engraving? any good?
Have you used it for cutting at all?

[Anonymous No.1520376]

>>1520122
I've got one, it cuts acrylic fine. Whoever said that didn't set it up right, or has a lens only suited for engraving (focal length matters).

[Anonymous No.1520712]

>>1519827
nigger, are you going to explain yourself?

[Anonymous No.1520914]

>>1520125
The Raster feature is nice but I'd highly recommend using the K40 whisper software

It can cut a 1/4 inch of acrylic no problem but I haven't tried anything thicker yet

[Anonymous No.1521242]

>>1520914
Are you cutting it in one pass, cranked all the way up to max power? Multiple passes?

[Anonymous No.1521248]

>>1521242
One pass but I've never had the need of it being cranked all the way up typically it's a quarter from off to engrave and halfway from full power to cut the acrylic

[Anonymous No.1522357]

>>1519413
What else do I need to get the acro system running? Seems like it requires separate laser diodes, optics and enclosure + fume fans.

[Anonymous No.1523761]

>>1519501
I was going to get a K40, but after doing a shit ton of research, it's going to cost more when I am done because of mods and shit.

I'm just going to buy a Glowforge because it just werks. But some of the reviews I seen is retarded.

[Anonymous No.1523774]

>>1517880
I have a epilog so lmao good luck with your chinkshit.

[Anonymous No.1523976]

>>1523761
Just curious, why Glowforge over something like the thunderlaser or the FSL hobby? Seems like they are much nicer machines for the price.

The Glowforge kind of looks like overpriced garbage slapped into a sleek plastic case to appeal to the mass market.

The K40 with a replacement controller and nicely kitted out hardware should only cost around $900. The Glowforge is $4K.

[Anonymous No.1524015]

Any options for eurofags? I think I could afford something like 3500 to 4000€ but buying US import means I'd have to pay obscene shipping qnd handling prices, 24% VAT and import taxes. Preferably turnkey solution as I don't want to risk shit.

[Anonymous No.1524026]

>>1524015
LaserScript 6090 - reliable and has a 600*900mm volume, about £5000

[Anonymous No.1524030]

>>1523976
>I'll take "This is what most 3D Printer Brands do" for $400.

If you look at 3D Printers, they mostly do all the same, you got cheap pieces of shit to ones that just work.

Also looking into the K40, read a lot of reviews and videos on it. It's a hit and a miss. Not all of them come out the same. Some I seen have been it works but fucking with it will make it better to cant do shit till you do this and that.

I'm not buying a used car that needs work on. I went with the Glowforge because it works out of the box without doing any fuckery to it.

I also had to look into what will fit into my apartment. Also the cheaper Glowforge is more then enough for now. Besides using it for myself, I'm also making money off middle aged women because they want some type of craft shit made.

[Anonymous No.1524496]

>>1521248
Humm. Maybe I'm just babying mine too much. I take multiple passes to cut, and it's about 30-35% power. Engraving I do really low. Like barely enough to lase, and that works great.

[Anonymous No.1524533]

>>1524030
Yeah, I have experience with 3D printers so that's the angle that I approach it from.

I've been toying with the consumer level 3D printers and building reprap based 3D printers for about a decade. I have experience with everything from $200 chinkshit to the expensive pretty machines from Makerbot and Formlabs. There is always a balance between price / amount of fuckery needed / machine quality.

I am ok with completely rebuilding the machine as soon I get it if it saves me $2k. I actually enjoy the fuckery of it though, and I am considering just building a laser cutter from scratch to begin with.

Craft type shit for some side cash is ideally what I want to do with mine as well. It just seems like if I were going to throw down that much money I'd want a little more machine.

[Anonymous No.1525015]

Question for you all; anyone ever heard of someone mounting a laser cutter vertically (IE on a wall)? Would like to get a cutter (or make one) but I'm low on floor space. Obviously your stock would have to be screwed/clipped to the bed somehow, any other obvious problems?