This video will illustrate how to test for laser power:

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HOW TO KNOW IF THE POWER SUPPLY OF THE LASER TUBE IS DAMAGED

We offer a 4'x8' laser system that uses an 80 watt laser tube.
Vertical Laser XL 4'x8'

Our blackTooth 24"x20" laser uses a 40 watt laser tube due to the internal size constraints and that the laser tube is mounted on the gantry for ease of aligning and maintaining better power at the cutting end.
blackTooth 24"x20" Laser

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can I purchase the 2' x 4' laser with an 80 watt tube?

Upgrade your mirrors to SI coated mirrors, using a HQ ZnSe lens and even pushing up to a beam expander will all boost power. The ideal order of experimenation for lowest cost would be changing out for a higher quality lens labeled HQ ZnSE lens. Next would be SI mirrors, which will absorb less heat and reflect better, the last would be to use a beam expander which expands the beam, reducing the heat signature on the mirrors and makes a tighter focal width.

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CAN BOOST THE POWER OF MY BLACKTOOTH LASER?

Depth of Field. This is how far the focal point goes before re-expanding again. With a 2" lens, you have approximately 2-3mm of DOF. This means that you'll have 2-3mm of perfectly focused laser before it starts to re-expand again. If you have a 4" lens, you will have up to 7mm of DOF.

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WHAT IS D.O.F OR DEPTH OF FIELD FOR THE BLACKTOOTH LASER AND LENS?

An 80 watt laser can cut plywood up to 1/2 inch thick. Make sure to use a high pressure source of air to knock out all of the charring during the cutting process so the laser can work efficiently.

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I have a Chinese 80W laser. Just finished a cut test with 1/2" plywood. It cut through at 95% power 7-4mm/s with significant charring after two passes with no refocusing done between passes.

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That's great information. What is your PSI of the air assist on your laser? What focal lens distance do you have? And where did you place the focus of the lens (at the surface, or within the material)?

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What is the max thickness of material that the 80W laser can cut in plywood?

The password is: 608

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WHAT IS THE SYSTEM PASSWORD FOR LASER CONTROL UNIT?

We offer a 4'x8' laser system that uses an 80 watt laser tube.
Vertical Laser XL 4'x8'

Our blackTooth 24"x20" laser uses a 40 watt laser tube due to the internal size constraints and that the laser tube is mounted on the gantry for ease of aligning and maintaining better power at the cutting end.
blackTooth 24"x20" Laser

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Can you use an 80 watt laser in the smaller system?

A standard 40W CO2 laser will cut up to 1/4" thick of material, be it wood, acrylic, card stock, leather, fabric, foam, cork, etc. (Decent speed and final cut are heavily dependent on a strong air assist upgrade)

Metals cannot be cut due to the power level and wavelength of the CO2 laser. But it can be marked with special solutions like Cermark or Thermark.

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WHAT THICKNESS OF MATERIAL CAN THE BLACKTOOTH LASER CUT?

The Vertical Laser XL's 80 watt CO2 laser tube is capable of cutting lighter material such as wood and plastic at up to 1/2" or 12mm.

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am interested in purchasing the 80 Watt Vertical Laser XL 4'x8' Laser Cutter and Engraver, what material depth can it cut?

Shipping crate size 121" X 36" X 92"

Weight 511 LBS

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WHAT IS SHIPPING DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT FOR THE VERTICAL LASER.

This video will illustrate how to test for laser power:

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LOSE POWER IN MY LASER TUBE

Hour meter. This will tell you exactly how long your system has been 'on' giving you a more accurate bead on the length of your tubes life.

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WHAT CAN ADD TO MY BLACKTOOTH LASER CUTTER MEASURE THE TIME OF USE?

We have one in the works. It is a 4'x8' machine that will house the 80w laser tube on the gantry. The machine is bout 2 months out as of 1/7/2014.

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Do you have a larger kit for the Blacktooth Laser? I need a laser with at least 80watts of power.

Cooling is not as tricky as you might think. There is 3 ways to approach this, only 2 really matter for a low scale 40w setup. First one is the cheapest and easiest. The higher the temp of water the worse your performance will be, from what I understand anything in the 30C range is about the most tolerable it gets. Lower is better. But not frozen...from what I've been told a very experienced cutter, he found 8C was the highest power he achieved.

1. Use a 5 Gallon resovoir system which gives you a fairly large space of water to heat up before you need to tend to it. Add about a cup of anti-freeze to the mix of DISTILLED water. You don't want ANY minerals in the water that might build up in your system. The anti-freeze works to keep algae and other ickies from growing in your water.

2. Use a smaller resovoir system (or even closed loop) and install 1 or more radiators found in CPU cooling systems with 120mm fans attached. This will continously cool your water system to ambient room temperatures, but with a tiny resovoir it will be difficult to add things like ice-packs to drop the temps if the ambient is quite hot.

3. Using an industrial coolant system. Overkill and unless your cutting A LOT, this is a very expensive option to take. You can also explore the idea of Peltier cooling but it is extremely expensive electricity/BTU wise compared to an industrial cooler.

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HOW TO COOL THE BLACKTOOTH 40W LASER TUBE

Shipping crate size 121" X 36" X 92"

Weight 511 LBS

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WHAT ARE THE SHIPPING DIMENSIONS FOR VERTICAL LASER

The Greenbull machine can cut a very wide variety of materials ranging from foam to aluminum. We recommend the use of our 2.2kW spindle to allow the greatest flexibility. Aside from that, the most important thing is to use an appropriate end mill for the material you are cutting and to use appropriate speeds and feed rates.



BYCNC Response:
Our 40W laser can cut up to about 1/4" materials ranging from wood and acrylic down through lighter materials such as leather, fabric, foam, etc. Speed and final cut are greatly enhanced by an air assist upgrade. We also offer an 80W laser which has approximately twice the capabilities of the 40W.

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WHAT MATERIALS CAN THE GREENBULL MACHINE CUT? LASER ETCH?

If you take the standard parallel cable BoB (Break Out Board), then you will need control software (Mach 3 or EMC2) and CAM software to make your G-Code (such as CamBam). Personally I use CamBam and Mach 3, they work beautifully but don't expect to turn them on and know how they work out of the box. Give yourself a few weeks to get familiar with the basics. CamBam is VERY powerful software for it's price. I'm surprised how much I keep learning on what I can do with it...I highly recommend it if you want as much control as possible.

Mach 3 + CamBam as a bundle costs $310. EMC2 will give you a free replacement for Mach 3 and is exclusively for Linux.

If you use the USB BoB, it will cost an extra $75 + $75 for the software. This is an all-in-one package so no need for Mach 3 or CamBam.

For etching rasters (jpeg, bmp, tiff, non-vectors, photos), I highly recommend PicEngrave. It has been a labor of love for the past 9 years and John has done a wonderful job with it. It easily compares in quality compared to software that is in the $200-$300 range. John's software runs $40 and can be found here: http://picengrave.com/ (don't let the modest website fool you, this stuff can do amazing things). DotG and the Mach3 engrave plugin are two other options and instructions can be found on Dustans page in the gallery on buildyourcnc.com website.

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WHAT SOFTWARE CAN BE USED WITH THE BLACKTOOTH LASER CUTTER?

Cooling is not as tricky as you might think. There is 3 ways to approach this, only 2 really matter for a low scale 40w setup. First one is the cheapest and easiest. The higher the temp of water the worse your performance will be, from what I understand anything in the 30C range is about the most tolerable it gets. Lower is better. But not frozen...from what I've been told a very experienced cutter, he found 8C was the highest power he achieved.

1. Use a 5 Gallon resovoir system which gives you a fairly large space of water to heat up before you need to tend to it. Add about a cup of anti-freeze to the mix of DISTILLED water. You don't want ANY minerals in the water that might build up in your system. The anti-freeze works to keep algae and other ickies from growing in your water.

2. Use a smaller resovoir system (or even closed loop) and install 1 or more radiators found in CPU cooling systems with 120mm fans attached. This will continously cool your water system to ambient room temperatures, but with a tiny resovoir it will be difficult to add things like ice-packs to drop the temps if the ambient is quite hot.

3. Using an industrial coolant system. Overkill and unless your cutting A LOT, this is a very expensive option to take. You can also explore the idea of Peltier cooling but it is extremely expensive electricity/BTU wise compared to an industrial cooler.

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HOW CAN COOL THE LASER TUBE?

Yes, we have fully assembled machines that come complete with the spindle (and laser if needed) with sizes ranging from 1'x2' all the way up to 6'x12' or longer. We can also make custom fully assembled machines with other sizes. All of these machines are perfect for very intricate detailed work including but definitely not limited to sign making, bas relief, cabinetry, architectural model making, engraving, machine parts, automotive, custom sound enclosures (automotive or other), and other scientific application which we have delivered machine for many types of these applications.

Our machines are as follows (in order by size, larger at top):

The Fabricator Pro (although stated on the website at 4'x8') can be provided up to a 6'x12' (or longer) size. Call us for the price above the 4'x8' size.
https://www.buildyourcnc.com/item/cnc-machine-fabricator-pro-milling

The greenBull 4x, 5x or 6x CNC Machine is available fully assembled; however, you are responsible for building the table on this machine, but the price is considerably lower. The 4x, 5x, and 6x is a width specification and the length is determined by your table length.
4x: https://www.buildyourcnc.com/item/cnc-machine-greenBull-v4-4X-milling-hybrid
5x: https://www.buildyourcnc.com/item/cnc-machine-greenBull-v4-5X-milling-hybrid
6x: https://www.buildyourcnc.com/item/cnc-machine-greenBull-v4-6X-milling-hybrid

The 4'x8' greenLean CNC Router (Table bed is vertically oriented with a slant) fully assembled:
This machine is fully assembled with the overall frame. The customer would need to fasten the frame to the wall and affix a spoilboard to the bed.
https://www.buildyourcnc.com/item/cnc-machine-greenLean-v1-milling

The 4'x8' Vertical Laser XL Laser Cutter and Engraver fully assembled:
https://www.buildyourcnc.com/item/cnc-machine-vertical-laser-xl-laser-cutter

The 4'x8' blackFoot CNC Router:
This machine requires a table to be built by the customer.
https://www.buildyourcnc.com/item/cnc-machine-blackFoot-v4-milling

The 2'x4' blackToe CNC router fully assembled complete with table:
https://www.buildyourcnc.com/item/cnc-machine-blacktoe-v4-2x4-milling

The blueChick CNC Router fully assembled completel with table:
https://www.buildyourcnc.com/item/cnc-machine-bluechick-v4-milling

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WHAT IS THE PRICE OF ASSEMBLED MACHINES COMPLETE?