Laser Options Besides Jtech

I am thinking about the Jtech option for my machinist. I like the idea of being able to laser etch over CNC carvings so it makes sense to have it part of the 1F. But while I think Jtech is a good company they seem to behind the market for laser technology. Other venders are offering features like air assist, dual laser heads with higher power etc. Are there other options besides Jtech that will integrate with the 1F?

Opt Lasers has a 1F kit. Some threads on the forum:

Thank you Ben this is what I was looking for. Checking into the OPT they seem to have much better tech.

Word of caution: I had OPT when I had my X-carve. While they do make a pretty great product, their customer service was questionable. I had issues and had to send my laser head back to Poland for service, and they advised me I needed to put an absurdly low value on the package contents. This made me very uneasy, but I did get it back. I don’t know if they have yet developed a state-side distributor or repair center.

On the flip-side, I have heard nothing but high-praise for jtech on all levels. Product, assistance, and customer service. And they’re based in the US. So if you are also in the US, you will have faster, more secure transactions with them (assuming OPT has not yet established US sales & support).

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I’ll chime in on that, Customer service for me has not been great… not sure if it is because of the holidays or something else but I ordered the optlaser package for the Onefinity back in November, once I received it I had issues with the magnetic mount and it no passing power through, contacted Customer service at beginning of December and trying to explain the issue, and I also had a scratch on my uspot lens that I ordered, so far the do not seem too keen on replacing the uspot lens and I do not know if the scratch will really impact anything. To date it still has not been resolved and sometime it goes a week or more with no response from them and I have been bounced between 3 different people there. All that said the laser works fine if I forgo the magnetic mount and the air assist is awesome feature.

Opt lasers is based in poland and English seems to be their second language as well. Also, we do not offer support for any laser besides jtech.

Even back in the earlier x-carve days, jtech was very active & supportive in the forum community. Opt showed up with their wares and it looked pretty good. Ultimately though, nearly everyone that got a laser went with jtech. I didn’t like jtech’s half-baked laser controller setup back then, so I was wooed over to Opt by the magnetic docking station. Jtech’s new controller appears a lot more legit than the one for the x-carve did back then.

When I got my OPT, I went with the 6w version, thinking I could do mild cutting with it. Wrong. Diode lasers aren’t really quite there yet from what I’ve seen. The guys with the 2.8w jtech lasers were doing some really great work, the beam size seemed more appropriate for fine laser engraving than I could achieve with my 6w.

Has anybody some experience with Atomstack lasers?
I am wondering about Atomstack M100 (4 diode laser with 20W light power they say).
Saw some videos and it looked great.
But not sure if I am handy enough to mount it to the Onefinity controller…

Only in observation through youtube. That’s not an answer to your question, either, but what I did want to express is that the ONLY laser setup that’s supported by Onefinity is the Jtech… and I have thoughts.

First of all, I’ve noted that a lot of the laser manufacturers provide you this neat “20W” number that appears to suggest that their laser is way more powerful than their competition’s. Definitely look at that because it’s probably input power, not output. It’s misleading.

Secondly, the cost of the Jtech is disheartening, though probably quite conducive of it actually being a really nice laser. It’s also Onefinity-supported and plug & play. For me, it’s the cost. For the price I’d give for the Jtech + shipping, I can own the latest, largest, most powerful ORTUR system that includes air-assist and all the accessories, including the rotary axis addon.

Having said that, that’s moving away from letting the Onefinity be the multipurpose machine it was intended to be and that’s not really all that economical, either, especially if space is a factor. Another machine requires even more space.

It’s the cost. I have no idea why Jtech thinks its laser tech is so much better than everyone else’s in the same class to justify that ridiculously high cost but it is, imho, a ridiculously high cost for what it is / what it does, especially when one can obtain a complete laser engraving / cutting system, not just the diodes, for less of an investment.

So, to be somewhat helpful: if I had to choose a laser that I absolutely wanted to use in conjunction with the Onefinity, I’d go with Jtech for the Onefinity support offered. If I didn’t care about dual-purposing the Onefinity, I’d find the best bang for buck option out there for a standalone laser engraver / cutter. Going with Jtech comes down to that single, almost insignificant incentive of saving shop space (imho, of course).

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Thank you very much for expressing yourself, it cheered me up because sometimes I think that this forum is somehow intimidating me by silence…

neat “20W”

Yeah, I am aware of that. This is really light power, electrical input is 130W.

Secondly, the cost of the Jtech is disheartening

I have already got the jtech 7W, but I am very disappointed.
Currently, I am playing with some layered designs for mail-boxes and therefore I am lasering/laser-cutting 4mm birch plywood.
I need many passes (at least 6x 300mm/min and even more - up to 14 - if the material is shaped a bit), and the laser box is too near to the surface which causes me a lot of problems.

I have also got a 10W laser head for my snapmaker machine (so I thought that 7W is not a big difference).
The issue with snapmaker is that it is a small machine and I really like onefinity because it is huge.
However the SM laser head is awesome - firstly it is high above the surface, so I do not care for collision, secondly, it cuts the aforementioned birch always reliably (even with not a super flat surface) and in one pass (I do not know precisely why - might be a bit more aggressive fan in the tool head could be responsible, according to some discussions).
So, I am looking for an affordable laser that could do the job for me and could be mounted on OF.

I absolutely wanted to use in conjunction with the Onefinity, I’d go with Jtech

As I have said, I would try to go a different way. That is why I am asking if somebody tried before me. I believe that reprogramming raspi to send a gcode to another controller (over serial or whatever) would not be that complicated thing. Might be I am mistaken, still, I would like to try if it would not be too much time-consuming (I am ready to sacrifice one or two weekends on that)…

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Hey Dominik,

this somewhat enigmatic statement made me curious, and it’s true, in your history you can see that sometimes you didn’t get an answer. I don’t think that was anyone’s intention though. First, this is a forum with relatively few active members. Secondly, not everyone is familiar with every topic. And thirdly, I think it’s just that most people only reply when they’re sure they know something and can answer something correctly, and when they’re not sure they just don’t write anything. Only a few always write something, just to talk.

I just saw that you didn’t get a welcome on your first post on 2022-03-26.

Welcome to the forum!

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Thank you for the welcome.

Few notes:

Sometimes I could be more aenigmatic than I intend to - English is not my native language and probably I am screwing some formulations…

My note was not just about my posts and my personal history, I am reading other topics which are probably outdated and silent…

The community is small, yeah I got it, still, I expected more traffic here, especially from the side of onefinity members/developers.
E.g. for technical issues, like my dwelling post, I expected something like “we’ve noted, we won’t fix it”, or another minimalistic but official response.
Probably I am a bit spoilt by forums where communities are larger.

And under these circumstances, I really appreciated, that someone spent some time on chatting with me about the issue, no matter that it is not a direct resolution for my riddle.
So, I had to say that. I’m sorry if you found it rude…

Jtech is the only laser sold and supported by Onefinity.

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Hey Dominik,

I am no native english speaker too. Don’t know how enigmatic my postings seem to others? :slight_smile: But I already got a compliment for my english :grinning:

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, there’s always a few hours each day when the Americas are sleeping that we have the forum to ourselves (a few uk, sa, one be, one de, sometimes one nl).

Also if you mention 2.5 mm² wire or a feedrate of 55 m/min, it could be that not everyone in this forum can imagine how much that is. US culture preserved historical european units of measurement to this day (and this despite the fact that science, medicine, engineering, military etc. in the U.S. have long been using SI units, it’s mainly construction sector and wheather that still resist, and an aerospace manufacturer). In the U.S. culture, an ounce is a different weight depending whether it’s liquid or solid. Fascinating. It even conserved some european languages in a historical state.

Reading older topics, that’s a good approach, I’ve also first read (almost) everything. I think only few have read more, Jim @JimHatch read everything. There’s a lot of information in there.

The discourse.org default forum FAQ says:

One way to improve the discussion is by discovering ones that are already happening. Spend time browsing the topics here before replying or starting your own, and you’ll have a better chance of meeting others who share your interests.

yes, this is something you observed correctly on this forum, the user @onefinitycnc does rarely reply to questions and is not a very talkative member :slight_smile:. However you may get a prompt response if you send an E-Mail to <support@onefinitycnc.com>.

Well, then it turns out it might come in handy after all that we’ve had a new member for four weeks who I thought “she talks WAY too much”. But it turned out that this was a wrong assumption :wink:

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However you may get a prompt response if you send an E-Mail

Good point.
I am a bit afraid that they would not be happy for contacting them since my warranty expired.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, there’s always a few hours each day

Really? Were they awake at least once during the past 30 days???
Sorry for the sarcasm; I cannot help myself…

we have the forum to ourselves (a few uk, sa, one be, one de, sometimes one nl)

I consider myself CZ, stuck on islands…but it enlarges your list.
Wondering if SA stands for Saudis…

feedrate of 55 m/min

I am aware of that, considering this as marginal additional info for those who can convert or can ask.

historical european units

Except for some rare local units, it depends if you consider insular (say British or imperial) units as European. I don’t.
Besides that, neither British consider keeping 240 pence in one pound sterling as a reasonable approach, not yet.
And how many inches would we put in one yard???
Call me a child of revolution for I need to stick with SI.

and an aerospace manufacturer.

Yeah, we all remember Ariane 4.

Read everything

That reminds me a certain discussion between (if I remember correctly) Goethe and Kant. “What should a professor have read.”…

But, this should be a thread about lasers, so I am quitting this mutual belittlement.

Hey Dominik,

units that correspond to body parts (thumb, feet, etc.) were in use in whole Europe. The British Empire was more successful exporting them but the immigrants that came into the U.S. were from many countries and some trades had their own units which came along with them. In historical Europe, the units that corresonded to body parts differed from city to city and no one was able to rely on them when trading over large distances. That was the main reason for the introduction of a system based on physical entities that are the same everywhere.

Stuck on islands? I note your last name is a czech name but you are not in cz’s timezone CEST.

Sounds you are stuck in the uk and not satisfied with their new direction, turn back the wheel of history: Leaving the EU, returning to imperial weights and measures, what comes next…

Boris Johnson announces the return of imperial weights and measures

Sorry, for this country in UTC+1 timezone I should not have used its acronym “sa”, but the ISO 3166 code “za”.

It was Lockheed Martin with Mars Climate Orbiter.

Hey Dominik,

by the way I did not understand what you meant with this. I looked up the word “belittlement”, but where do you see a relation?

Okay one last turn

They were, but their etalons were different so, they are not the same. These going around the globe are imperial.

not satisfied with their new direction

Yeah, be it said with Melville this ship got stove and is going to Davy Jones.

It was Lockheed Martin with Mars Climate Orbiter

Yeah, I know, I clicked on the link before, and just instantly thought of Arianne, which I was once weeping for. This is what imperial units mean to me.

by the way I did not understand what you meant with this. I looked up the word “belittlement”, but where do you see a relation?

It is marking me as such an ignorant person that never heard of timezones and reciprocally replying in an ironic way. That’s what I meant by belittlement.
Making each other little and even more little the topic of lasers…no offense.

Wow, I did not understand it this way. I am very surprised. Do you mean this seriously, having felt belittled by something?

As far as I know they’re always glad to offer support. The warranty gets you free replacement parts but the Support team is always responsive. It’s in their best interest as it keeps people using their machines happy and that’s good for business.

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