#$400 40w laser cutter inkscape laserdrw mods

While the unit came with a laser pointer, it was just a single pointer, which isn't in the beam path, so only points at the same place as the CO2 laser at one point. The LCD was difficult to read from my viewing angle, so I replaced the polarizers to give a more suitable viewing angle (and inverted, which I think looks cooler). Lastly, I added the coolant temperature readout (see the coolant temp. I also added a switch for the laser pointer, since sometimes it's annoying trying to look at the work piece with a bright red dot on it. With the ammeter, I'll also notice if the current begins to drop off, that the laser tube may be starting to fail. It turns out that my unit runs about 15mA 50%, and maxes out at about 22mA. It's recommended to run these tubes at 12mA-15mA for maximum life, so I didn't want to burn out the tube by unknowingly overdriving it. I added an analog ammeter, since the digital readout tells just a power percentage, with no feedback, or even a cross reference of what nominal output corresponds to what percentage. I made a few upgrades to the control panel. Here's the unit set up on the workbench in my garage. but more dangerous because you can't see the beam, which means you can start fires, burn yourself, etc. (easy to operate with just basic safety glasses, rather than wavelength specific laser glasses like necessary with visible lasers). Safer, because it is easily absorbed and protected against by many transparent materials like glass, polycarbonate, acrylic, etc.

This emits a 10.6um laser beam, which is way outside the visible range, which makes it both safer, and more dangerous than high power visible lasers. just needing to make a few minor adjustments from things knocked around in shipping. Surprisingly, it was pretty close to 'plug and play' for functionality. Like most 'Cheap Chinese' stuff, this unit isn't perfect, so I used it as a base, and began to make modifications and upgrades to increase safety, lifetime, performance, functionality, etc. I purchased this unit for ~$600 shipped on ebay, though some with fewer options can be had for just over $400 shipped. They're getting quite cheap, to the point that you couldn't get the critical parts to build your own for the cost of a complete unit. I recently picked up a 40W CO2 laser cutter/engraver on ebay.

#$400 40w laser cutter inkscape laserdrw mods

40W CO2 Laser Cutter/Engraver pics and mods