Retired a printer!

Forum for Registered Users
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For about two weeks I have been trying to decide where to place a new toy! About three weeks ago I bought an expensive toy, and yes it is just an expensive toy. I bought the Laserpecker pro 1. It is slow and very low power. Since I really did not know much about laser etching, it took me a while to discover that it was wasted money. It works, but its power of 1/2 watt is very limited as to what it will do. It did wet my appetite for this kind of work and saw a potential to make some amazing gifts and a market to make some money in this time of inflation and time of staying at home because of gas prices.

So, I decided to spend some money again. Prices in laser etching printers is like 3D printers, they go from a few hundred to 10s of thousands of dollars. I did some research and found that there is a range of $300 to $800 for diode lasers. They talk about 20watts to 40 watts and a few having 50 and this week an 80 watt diode lasers. The fiber and CO[SUB]2 [/SUB]are a lot more expensive. Ok, back to what I really was going to say. The output is something else. The 20-30-40-50-80 watts is input only. All 3 (20, 30, 40) put out between 4 -5.5 watts output. the 50 5.5 -6 watts. The 80 watts laser clams it has 10 watts output. It uses two 20 watt laser focused to one point to get this rating.

The most popular laser printer is the Orthur lasers which are around $700. It does have a bell and whistle or two like limit switches. The discussions there seems to say that they are not needed. I did order a new laser etcher It has an etching area of 400 X 400 mm. The laserpecker only had 100 x 100 mm. Most seem to have an area of 400 X 400 or 410. The one I ordered has an upgrade to make it 400 X 800 mm. and another upgrade where you can buy a can or jar etcher attachment with another upgrade to that to where it is 400 X unlimited. The laserpecker clamed to be able to be unlimited 100 x 100mm at a time. The one I ordered is an Atomstack M40 40w pro +. I got it at a discount for St. Patricks day. It arrived today and since I have not turned my Geeetech A20T on but once since I got the Artist-D, I have chosen to retire it for now. I do not have any more room.

It would be nice for @Irv Shapiro would add a section for laser etchers.

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Consider it done. I have recently received a number of requests to review lasers so this is a natural extension of the community. My problem is that as a retired software executive I am busier now than I was when I ran companies with hundreds of employees. Lately, I have spent much of my time on models.makewithtech.com but I will get around to looking at laser soon.

Either way, I will add a Laser section to the forum as soon as I post this.

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I just noticed there is already a forum for subtractive manufacturing. Just head to Subtractive Manufacturing (Lasers, CNC, ...) - MakeWithTech Community Forum

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I had looked at this section, but had seen it as milling and not laser engraving. I will use this section for future post on laser engravers. I just hope there are others with lasers engravers
. @Irv_Shapiro Thanks for your response.

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@Irv_Shapiro, isn’t it funny how retiring leads to being busier than ever ??

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I found that funny! Good One!

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I’m the exception that proves the rule, having been quite lazy for 23 years. It must be hard to tell I was once a work-a-holic.

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Folks, 12 days ago I did a review of the Xtool D1. I am very impressed. Now I have been impressed with other devices in the past and found they did not age well. In this case, the outstanding construction looks like it will hold up over time. The shortfall with this machine, like many of the machines I see designed in China, is that the software is just ok, The good news is it is compatible with the less expensive version of Laserburn, which is very hard to use, but very powerful and a bit of a standard.

I am not crazy about using it in the garage because of the smoke and fumes, but there are multiple enclosures available and they are almost as much money as the laser I may invest in one.

Give the video a watch and let me know what you think.

[video=youtube_share;D5A03hbYnsc]Xtool D1 Review and Setup - YouTube

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I enjoyed your video ln the laser, I found it very informative, especially the fact the laser you reviewed had wifi capabilities. That would be something I really needed.
I have had a copy of Indesign since it was called Aldus Pagemaker back in the 80’. Lightburn seems to have all the features it has but is based on Coral draw. Any way it is very powerful. I keep looking for ways to use it like a CAD program since CAD’s have intimidate me to where I freeze up trying to use them. Check out some of the videos on the internet about Lightburn. I believe you will be impressed.

I look forward to seeing more videos from you on laser etchings!

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I thought I would comment on Lightburn more. One of the things that I have noticed is that there are a lot of videos on Lightburn by people who do not know enough about Lightburn. If they just did a little looking before posting, they would probably not commented about all the internet software out there to do functions that Lightburn can do, and not have to set a lot of its functions to bypass. I have only seen one piece of internet software that Lightburn cannot do and that would be slice an image for use on multiple tiles (ceramic or wood) into pieces to be placed on more than one tile to make a larger image – think a whole wall. Lightburn does not have that capability yet!
I have listed 6 videos below, but I bet I have 25 more bookmarked. I also have about 50 more that teach you how to etch on ceramic tile, mirrors, and glass. There are some which show you how to make lamps, bird houses, boxes, and more. All have files with the patterns. Thingiverse also has some patterns or models to use with laser etchers. Take some time to look at some of the videos. At least they will be entertaining when it is too hot to be outside or raining. And yes I refer back too them a lot.