|
I'm looking to upgrade my Silhouette Cameo for a laser machine but it's all a bit overwhelming. I thought a laser cutter might cut a bit faster and more consistently and save me having to weed my designs off the sticky carrier sheet every time. Would this laser be any good for just cutting card and maybe doing a bit of wood burning? It seems perfect from the description and I don't mind having to learn to set it up. It seems suspiciously cheap though, is there anything obvious I'm missing?
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 04:06
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 2, 2024 15:03 |
|
|
Jimmysip posted:I'm looking to upgrade my Silhouette Cameo for a laser machine but it's all a bit overwhelming. I thought a laser cutter might cut a bit faster and more consistently and save me having to weed my designs off the sticky carrier sheet every time. Its a rebrand of an eleksmaker. Theres a mod to the laser mount on the x axis that improves things significantly. Heres the one I have at our makerspace: https://www.banggood.com/2500mW-A3-...ur_warehouse=CN The one mod I did for it: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2482004 It engraves like a champ, and should cut cardstock fine. We're using t2laser for the software.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 19:01
|
|
|
Hey just FYI you cannot cut vinyl with a laser cutter. If you're only doing cardboard and etching wood, then it's no problem (though something with a knife will make a cleaner cut -- no burning), but thought I'd mention it since those little cutters like the Cameo are frequently used for vinyl stickers. Laser cutters work by burning or melting the material, and when you burn vinyl/PVC (or any other chlorine-containing plastic like neoprene) you will create chlorine gas, which is obviously very poisonous and it will also corrode all the metal parts and delicate optics inside the machine. Don't do it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 20:09
|
|
|
I'm unsure how laser cutting the vinyl will avoid the need for weeding but maybe I'm misunderstanding the intent & it's more of a "if I can laser engrave then I don't need to gently caress with weeding and vinyl at all" You will need ventilation though, and eye protection.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2018 03:43
|
|
|
Ah sorry guys when I wrote carrier sheet I meant the cutting mat that you stick the substrate on to while the Cameo is cutting it. The glue is really strong so it can be a pain to peel an intricate paper design off without breaking anything, it's really monotonous and slows down the whole process. It's still easier than hand cutting but it's a bottleneck I really don't like. Mostly I use my Cameo for making paper designs, but I'd like to move into engraving too. Thanks I'll definitely get some eyewear. What sort of ventilation would you use for some thing like that? I thought about making a box to go around it with a perspex lid with some kind of fan extraction. In my wild imaginings laser cutting would be as simple as making a vector graphic of my design to be cut/engraved, popping the paper/wood under the laser and pressing a button. Then you just pick up your cut out and chuck the waste away. Do I need a reality check?
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2018 21:33
|
|
|
Good laser cutters pretty much are like that, yeah
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2018 05:34
|
|
|
You'll need a fan to pull the burning smells away and out a window or something, but mostly that's how they work. In practice you might end up needing to insert an extra step in the workflow where you export from your design program and import it into the laser cutter's software but not necessarily.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2018 08:26
|
|
|
Speaking of laser software I tried installing LaserCut5.3 on a new Windows 10 machine and while it appears to install properly it won't run and complains about acge15.dll not found. If I manually copy that .dll over from my other windows 10 machine on which it works fine (laptop that was upgraded to win10, not a fresh install of it) then I get a bizarre dialog box that says "Right" and that's it, exits afterwards with an error. Google searching tells me gently caress all, other than one guy saying to turn off the driver/etc authentication in Win10 before installing and it'll work, but I did that and it changes nothing. I don't suppose one of you kind souls is both self-loathing enough to voluntarily use LaserCut5.3 *and* happens to have magic knowledge of how to make it work on Win10?
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2018 08:30
|
|
|
Mister Sinewave posted:You'll need a fan to pull the burning smells away and out a window or something, but mostly that's how they work. Ventilation also keeps fires to a minimum. Air assists help too. I've cut paper before and it works pretty good, although it can brown the edge of the paper a little bit.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2018 08:48
|
|
|
I own a Glowforge had it shipped to me in Nov. As someone who is just learning how to laser things and still figuring out what to make on it, this thing is as easy to learn as printing on a normal printer. Using their "proofgrade" materials you can easily just slap in the material, drag the design on to it and let it cut. Works fine with non proofgrade materials too. The software is definitely lacking and the there are definitely limitations that can be very annoying and produce a lot of waste material. The 10"x20" laser etch bed is more like 8"x18". And the fish eye camera definitely has issues with distortion on the edges of the bed. Power settings on a cut can't be saved either, so you have to manually memorize what they are so that you can re type them in the next time you want to print something on a similar material. All things considered though, this thing was super easy to setup and I've had to do zero maintenance and I've had flawless cuts/engraves so far using SVGs I made myself.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2018 19:15
|
|
|
Also, I wouldn't buy a Glowforge. They have the marketing machine very well oiled, but everything I've seen about them has confirmed that they're pretty low value compared to Chinese equivalents, or even other American companies
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2018 20:10
|
|
|
Comparing my Glowforge to the cheap chinese hunk of garbage I bought a year or so ago- no, the Glowforge is pretty amazing. It has a few issues, the walleye camera being the worst, but its components are all well built. One time I accidentally used a too large piece of material that jammed the arm all crooked and it smoothly went right back to working when I pushed it back in place. The amount of simplification makes it great for getting started very quickly as well, the trace feature alone has saved me hours of muddling about in Illustrator and makes it a tool my wife and maybe one day kids can use with minimal help from me.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2018 12:19
|
|
|
Thats cool, but since its 4k-8k now, it should probably be compared to similar priced models. I'd 100000% get a fsl h series instead of a basic now, or a model from rabbit laser instead of the pro. The software side is nice but they've also dropped the ball, severely. 2+ years and they still haven't corrected properly for camera distortion. Countless reports I see on the forums / facebook where YOU HAVE TO SLICE UP BIG DESIGNS BECAUSE THEIR CLOUD BASED SOFTWARE VOMITS ON THEM. Core pro functionality that they advertise on their site still does not work. There is no chiller, so you are reliant on having a fully climate controlled room (this summer is gonna be great for glowforge)
moron izzard fucked around with this message at 14:36 on Mar 30, 2018 |
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2018 14:33
|
|
|
I've already been running long designs and it was 80 degrees here yesterday, no heat problems so far. I'm less reliant on the hordes of nerds complaining and going by my hands on experience, I like it and it works well for us since my wife isn't very well trained on modelling but can use trace to pop out designs like a champ
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2018 17:11
|
|
|
Cloud based software? Fuuuuuck that.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2018 17:53
|
|
|
Everything I've seen about them seems like overpriced hardware with the "easy software" marketing that may indeed make it easier for beginners starting out, but will ultimately limit you and over process your poo poo when you know exactly what you want.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2018 05:16
|
|
|
DocCynical posted:Cloud based software? Fuuuuuck that. I understand that when they first announced the cloud thing, people were all like "But what if the company goes out of business?", and in response the Glowforge people offered to release firmware which would let the laser work without their servers. Which they did - except that it was just basic laser cutter firmware, with nothing to enable the features which make the Glowforge what it is. ante posted:Everything I've seen about them seems like overpriced hardware with the "easy software" marketing that may indeed make it easier for beginners starting out, but will ultimately limit you and over process your poo poo when you know exactly what you want. Doesn't the Glowforge gives you the option of driving it like a standard laser cutter, taking control of all the parameters and stuff? I thought someone earlier in the thread said that it did.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2018 00:25
|
|
|
Yes I use manual settings all the time because most of what I engrave is scraps from larger woodworking projects. You can use a proofgrade equivalent setting or just set it all yourself
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2018 00:51
|
|
|
ante posted:Everything I've seen about them seems like overpriced hardware with the "easy software" marketing that may indeed make it easier for beginners starting out, but will ultimately limit you and over process your poo poo when you know exactly what you want. they were competitively priced at the beginning. I don't think anyone expected the latest price increase, especially given that they've yet to finish shipping them out to the original preorders. quote:Which they did - except that it was just basic laser cutter firmware, with nothing to enable the features which make the Glowforge what it is. When / where did they put this out? quote:Yes I use manual settings all the time because most of what I engrave is scraps from larger woodworking projects. You can use a proofgrade equivalent setting or just set it all yourself Can you actually do layout without the camera? The last time I was looking at the forums, you couldn't just do what you'd do on a epilog or similar and just say you wanted to position this at x, y, etc.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2018 22:14
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/atomicthumbs/status/990340165565530112 so what can i do with this besides "blind myself permanently" and "severely injure myself or others"
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2018 05:34
|
|
|
War crimes.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2018 09:31
|
|
|
Be a James Bond level villain to bugs
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2018 20:59
|
|
|
Hi thread, does a laser cutter exist that can go through thin paper (under 1mm) without burning it (or maybe more precisely without leaving a burnt edge) for under $1,000? Don't need a bed bigger than A4.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2018 00:31
|
|
|
The March Hare posted:Hi thread, does a laser cutter exist that can go through thin paper (under 1mm) without burning it (or maybe more precisely without leaving a burnt edge) for under $1,000? Don't need a bed bigger than A4. I use mine to cut paper. There is minimal burning if you play with the settings a whole bunch. Any laser should be able to work with that. One for less than a 1000 bux? No idea.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2018 02:37
|
|
|
The March Hare posted:Hi thread, does a laser cutter exist that can go through thin paper (under 1mm) without burning it (or maybe more precisely without leaving a burnt edge) for under $1,000? Don't need a bed bigger than A4. I've seen a bunch of Chinese machines for well under $1000 which theoretically would do what you want, but they typically have no safety enclosure and barely functional software. You say you don't want charred edges - have you considered a vinyl cutter? https://www.amazon.com/Silhouette-S...ds=vinyl+cutter
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2018 03:55
|
|
|
Cockmaster posted:I've seen a bunch of Chinese machines for well under $1000 which theoretically would do what you want, but they typically have no safety enclosure and barely functional software. I hadn't but yeah, this looks perfect. Thanks!
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2018 15:18
|
|
|
My housemate got a big honkin 1000x600mm 100W chinese laser cutter and I'm wanting to have the exhaust vent out the roof, so that hopefully the stench of burned acrylic will be above my neighbors noses and I won't get complaints. Any advice on doing a roof penetration for vents? Should it be any particular distance from the edge? DO I need to get some special adapter based on the pitch of the roof?
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2018 19:55
|
|
|
I would hazard a guess that you could use something similar to a bathroom vent adapter to keep rain coming in and whatnot, and ducting to get through insulation and whatnot safely. Wouldn't be surprised if there are some building codes that would specify what you want to do for a generic vent.
|
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2018 00:52
|
|
|
I finally realized that it wasn't the burned acrylic that stinks, but the protective sheeting on some of them. If it is removed before cutting, it almost doesn't stink at all. Still need to vent though. It's that or my nose has been broken and I am immune to the smell.
|
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2018 17:14
|
|
|
Without the protective sheet you're going to probably get a lot of burn marks on your surface. I was cutting a bunch of glossy adhesive letters out and I took the film off the front, cut down on the smell but mostly ruined the gloss.
|
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2018 17:42
|
|
|
DocCynical posted:I finally realized that it wasn't the burned acrylic that stinks, but the protective sheeting on some of them. If it is removed before cutting, it almost doesn't stink at all. Still need to vent though. No, acrylic itself still stinks when cut. It's got a really sharp acrid smell that I would describe as like a very powerful rotting celery. I know that a lot of people just vent their laser cutters outdoors but I can't quite understand how that's ethical. If you're only cutting wood well whatever that's just a campfire but the plastic smells are god-awful.
|
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2018 18:47
|
|
|
Sagebrush posted:No, acrylic itself still stinks when cut. It's got a really sharp acrid smell that I would describe as like a very powerful rotting celery. What country do you live in where you worry about the ethics of discharging nebulously-harmful chemicals into the atmosphere beyond "it's above where my neighbors can smell it" ? The burned smell you get is the various combustion products of methylacrylate, which are mostly aldehydes and odorless or "etherial", the "celery smell" is from the plasticisers, most of which are pthalates.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2018 16:44
|
|
|
Sagebrush posted:No, acrylic itself still stinks when cut. It's got a really sharp acrid smell that I would describe as like a very powerful rotting celery. Oh it will stink, but when I had the cover sheet on it was way, way worse. I only figured it out after cutting a different one and it didn't smell nearly as bad. I generally left the bottom one one, since that is where most of the flame outs occur. If I was doing a poo poo load of acrylic, I would hook up the filter, but I cut mostly wood which clogs that thing like crazy, so outside it goes.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2018 16:58
|
|
|
I'd also be genuinely interested in hearing about filtration options available for these. Is it even feasible/safe to consider some filtration setup that doesn't vent outside at all? I imagine that if something sufficient exist its would be prohibitively expensive?
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2018 18:36
|
|
|
peepsalot posted:I'd also be genuinely interested in hearing about filtration options available for these. Is it even feasible/safe to consider some filtration setup that doesn't vent outside at all? I imagine that if something sufficient exist its would be prohibitively expensive? It is possible. Cheap? I doubt it. My filtration was 7000 CAD. But you don't smell anything at all. It's probably the 65 pounds of activated charcoal that does it in addition to all the other filters.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2018 19:54
|
|
|
DocCynical posted:It is possible. Cheap? I doubt it. My filtration was 7000 CAD. But you don't smell anything at all. It's probably the 65 pounds of activated charcoal that does it in addition to all the other filters.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2018 20:20
|
|
|
peepsalot posted:I'd also be genuinely interested in hearing about filtration options available for these. Is it even feasible/safe to consider some filtration setup that doesn't vent outside at all? I imagine that if something sufficient exist its would be prohibitively expensive? I've built an activated carbon setup. After a few revisions, it worked pretty well. You need to run the air though quite a bit of carbon to actually remove all the odor. You also need quite a bit of airflow otherwise you won't actually draw in all of the smoke though the filter. For the first few hours of running it would also put out a lot of fine carbon dust. I do like this design hackaday featured a while ago. It pretty similar to what we ended up with, and I think the final car filter will remove the initial run in dust problem. Get a good blower, they do much better against restricted airflow than fans. The comments on that build indicate that the carbon will saturate fast enough to be expensive to run. We never had a problem, because the laser was moved to a room with preexisting ventilation as part of a larger move before it caused any problems. Other people speculate on baking the carbon to remove all the volatiles, with the caveat that you should probably do it outside, as they won't smell any better the second time.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2018 23:29
|
|
|
babyeatingpsychopath posted:What country do you live in where you worry about the ethics of discharging nebulously-harmful chemicals into the atmosphere beyond "it's above where my neighbors can smell it" ? california
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2018 03:56
|
|
|
babyeatingpsychopath posted:What country do you live in where you worry about the ethics of discharging nebulously-harmful chemicals into the atmosphere beyond "it's above where my neighbors can smell it" ? If it's not ozone depleting, outright toxic, or somehow able to cause massive problems to birds, or other wildlife, it's a no harm no foul kind of thing. Much like putting gasoline in a pan and letting it evaporate isn't an issue, but pouring it on your lawn would be. Homeopathy works! Just dilute whatever you have with a few hundred billion tons of air and it's as if it never existed in the first place.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2018 09:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 2, 2024 15:03 |
|
|
Sagebrush posted:california I'm glad I was lucky enough to be born in the US, if I grew up in the People's Republic of California I'm sure I would have a tumor by now. Extension cords, sawdust, everything causes cancer there. My prediction for WW3 is that it starts when they label coffee beans as carcinogenic and in response Seattle blocks all their ISP's from Amazon. Things escalate pretty quickly from there.
|
|
#
?
Jun 18, 2018 23:38
|
|
