For years I have wanted a laser option for my OF Woodworker. So I went bigger than needed with the three-in-one 24-44-64 watt Jtech laser. It’s a lifetime purchase, only when factoring in my age! No regrets, the challenge of being creative in the CNC /woodworking world keeps you young.
It’s a bit of a challenge to multitask a new gadget, air, origin point, exhaust, and darn, which power level was that on? But, you will catch on.
Creating a set of “Material Cards” helps to develop feel for your laser especially if it’s a new toy for you. Attached is a set of material cards that has taken hours to make. It’s basically a remake from what others have done, only triple. Power levels and speeds are best estimates. Improvements are encouraged.
Will I make cards for every material? Probably not. But, as I move on to new materials, I’ll be at a good starting point for a simple test and a few notes.
VCarve Pro Ver.12 with Laser add-on Module
Onefinity CNC
Very nice material test card design! I agree, learning new skills is a great way to stay young and keep your brain firing with project ideas!
Since upgrading to a 60W laser i’ve been exploring chaning my thinking from adjusting the feed rate to adjusting the power rate. For engraving i stick with 10,000mm/s ( about 400 inch/min ) and try to just vary the laser power level. 30% power works pretty well for me as a starting point. To try to compensate for the S-curve acceleration on the BuildBotics controller, i’ve found I get the most consistent results engraving using “image” modes in lightburn with 3-5% overscan. That helps prevent the corners or ends of lines from burning darker than the middles where the machine has accelerated up to speed.
I also created a macro that has the offset between my router bit and my aiming red laser hard coded so I can use it to easily switch between laser and CNC with more confidence that things will be aligned correctly. I’ll try to share those in the MACROS thread this weekend.
Hopefully i’m not rambling too much here, enjoy your new tool!
I’ve thought about getting a laser but was worried about exhaust. Adding a hood and cutting a hole in my concrete wall didn’t seem worth it. How did you solve your exhaust problem?
I don’t have a laser yet but I do have a fume extractor. It looks like a dust collector but with more filters in it designed for smoke, not wood dust. It works fine for anything else I have done that produces smoke.
I installed a 6" AC Infinity hydroponics fan. I reduced down to a 5" hole in my rim joist as it’s only a 2 x 8 making it 7.5" tall. I 3D printed reducers and used a 5" vent cap with a flap outside. I’ve been using a 4" duct at the laser end so far and it works pretty well. You definitely need something to deal with the smoke.
Just got the 64w laser today. My email is down so I can’t get to the email OF sent about setting it up. I read the instructions on the Jtech website and those seem straightforward.
Is the driver in VCarve and Lightburn the same as for the 14W laser? What is the process of getting it in both of those software platforms? And I will be selling a Jtech 14w soon if anyone is interested!
