Fire, electrocution, and blindness may result: Chinese laser adventures

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Fire, electrocution, and blindness may result: Chinese laser adventures

Dirk the Average: Feb 7, 2012; "This may have been a mistake."

Is Glowforge a good entry point for baby's first laser? I am an engineer (CAD is my job), but I live in an apartment with limited hobby space and the built in air filter is incredibly appealing.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 04:31

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 20:05

Dirk the Average: Feb 7, 2012; "This may have been a mistake."

ante posted:

No. It's unproven, will have relatively poor support, and all of the extras are mostly gimmicks for non-technical people. Also the filtration claims they make are dubious.

Look into getting an Epilog, they're barely more money and are fantastic in every way.

The entry level model is nearly triple the price! They look fantastic, but that's quite a bit of money to shell out.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 05:00

Dirk the Average: Feb 7, 2012; "This may have been a mistake."

Ambihelical Hexnut posted:

You have just completed the cycle of discovery that leads to owning a low rent Chinese laser like me. All are welcome!

Hah, good point. Yeah, my big limiting factor is a lack of adequate ventilation combined with an unsuitable place to really put a laser cutter. I've got access to exactly one window that might work for venting fumes, but it's into the middle of an apartment complex, and people might be a tad upset when smelling burned acrylic while swimming (both windows also open horizontally and I'm on a ground floor, so actually venting anything is a tricky situation even if I pump fumes into a public space). The low price + air filter are the only things really attracting me to the glowforge, and if those don't live up to the advertising, then it's not exactly worth buying.

I might have to put together one of these Chinese monstrosities instead. Is there a good way to build a ventilation setup? I can stick to cutting wood instead of acrylic to reduce any toxic fumes.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 05:23

Dirk the Average: Feb 7, 2012; "This may have been a mistake."

ante posted:

I could have sworn I saw a link to a distributor selling the Epilog 40W for $4500.

Maybe I was thinking Full Spectrum, which is also really solid. There's a TechShop-like outfit nearby that's been running them 24/7 for a couple years now, and keep buying more.

Ah, yeah, those are at a much better price point. I really don't need an industrial quality laser cutter at this time - Epilog looks like something I'd order at the company I work for if we needed a laser cutter for some major project.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 05:25

Dirk the Average: Feb 7, 2012; "This may have been a mistake."

Mister Sinewave posted:

I scored some pretty nice scraps and off-cuts but I have no idea whether this is acrylic or polycarbonate. Any easy way to tell (besides trying to laser it)?

Acrylic will craze if you apply IPA. Not sure if polycarbonate crazes as well though.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2016 19:39

Dirk the Average: Feb 7, 2012; "This may have been a mistake."

Mister Sinewave posted:

Is that isopropyl alcohol? I didn't know that about acrylic.

I could also see how readily it snaps / fractures I guess but some of these are 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch thick and I don't have a "feel" for them like I do for 1/8.

Yep. Some research tells me that polycarbonate does not craze when exposed to isopropyl alcohol, so if you have some scrap, that's one way to check.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2016 20:10

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 20:05

Dirk the Average: Feb 7, 2012; "This may have been a mistake."

Acid Reflux posted:

Maybe a week too late, but - I use 100% isopropyl to clean fingerprints and adhesive residue off my acrylic and polycarbonate pieces. Acetone, on the other hand, will have an immediate softening/clouding effect on both. Alcohol is, to the best of my (admittedly amateur) knowledge, safe to use of virtually any common plastics.

In general, it's somewhat easy to differentiate between acrylic and polycarbonate solely by physical properties. Acrylic will scratch like glass and is quite stiff, even if it's a thin sheet. It will also shatter into sharp shards when impacted or broken. Polycarbonate tends to be softer and more flexible, and when you try to scratch it with something you usually see more of a soft surface deformity rather than a hard scratch. If you whack it with a hammer, you're likely to just dent it and then hurt yourself when the hammer bounces back at you.

Interesting. The lab I work with forbids the use of IPA on acrylic because of some really bad crazing damage done to clear acrylic pieces. It could be a surface finish thing maybe? Not sure, but we want our stuff to be optically clear, so any crazing is a big issue.

# ¿ Apr 7, 2016 00:38

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Fire, electrocution, and blindness may result: Chinese laser adventures