Best burner?

Lunartato · Feb 12, 2016

I am relatively new to the laser community and am wanting to buy a portable laser for burning. I've done a decent amount of research and have narrowed down Jetlasers.org as a trustworthy website to buy from. I really like green lasers but they are more expensive. I was thinking about buying their PL-E 2w 445nm because I heard it was a great burner. I don't know if green or blue is best for burning and am unaware about the all of the factors that the control a lasers burning factor, so if somebody could help inform me, that would be greatly appreciated. I would like to know what mW of different nm lasers are the best for burning. And I'm willing to spend around $220 or so. Thanks

Pi R Squared · Feb 12, 2016

445/450nm will give you the most for your money as far as burning, after that 405nm violet is best, they range in power up to just under 1W, mine burns very good at only 590mW. For a 445/450nm blue you probably wouldn't be satisfied with less than 1.5W.

Alan

diachi · Feb 12, 2016

Remember to leave $50-60 in your budget to cover the cost of laser safety glasses.

Lunartato · Feb 12, 2016

Thanks for the info. And if I were to be getting a 532nm or a 520nm, what what be the mW they would start burning wood at?

Alien Laser · Feb 12, 2016

520nm at 500mW+ / I recommend over 900mW+

Pi R Squared · Feb 12, 2016

diachi said:
Remember to leave $50-60 in your budget to cover the cost of laser safety glasses.

And enough for a good charger and batteries.

Lunartato said:
Thanks for the info. And if I were to be getting a 532nm or a 520nm, what what be the mW they would start burning wood at?

Forget it unless you really have a lot of money. They don't go much over 1W, the most powerful 520nm is 1.4W, if you feel up to building one yourself you may be able to make it affordable, less than $400, but for a 532nm your going to spend much more, and it won't be more than 1W in a hand held, I don't know how well 1W of green can burn wood but it can't be much. You could get a more powerful 532nm lab laser but it will cost in the thousands.

Alan

DashApple · Feb 12, 2016

1.5W of 532nm focused will cut coloured paper , it dose burn wood but there is a lot reflected .

Here's 1.45W 532nm focused Vs Card & Wood sticks ( matches backwards ) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8A6Bkzi5Cs

InfinitusEquitas · Feb 12, 2016

At a $220 budget? Not happening.

@Lunartato - Buying a laser pointer for burning is to be blunt pretty stupid.

If you want a laser that CAN also burn stuff, that's a different story, but if your main purpose is to actually burn/mark wood, you'll be much much better off with a regular old soldering iron, and a lighter for lighting things on fire.

Lunartato · Feb 12, 2016

InfinitusEquitas said:
At a $220 budget? Not happening.

@Lunartato - Buying a laser pointer for burning is to be blunt pretty stupid.

If you want a laser that CAN also burn stuff, that's a different story, but if your main purpose is to actually burn/mark wood, you'll be much much better off with a regular old soldering iron, and a lighter for lighting things on fire.

I don't want it for the sole purpose of burning, but the reason I want it to be able to burn is because I want to use it to engrave wood. I am an artist as an additional hobby and find this as an interesting way to try some new things. But I am also just interested the laser itself for star pointing and the fact that I just think it's really cool. I've read reviews about a lot of online laser retailers and from what I've read and seen on YouTube, Jetlasers.org won't scam you, their lasers are of good quality, and I can get a 2w 445nm laser for $200 on their site.

diachi · Feb 12, 2016

Lunartato said:
I don't want it for the sole purpose of burning, but the reason I want it to be able to burn is because I want to use it to engrave wood. I am an artist as an additional hobby and find this as an interesting way to try some new things. But I am also just interested the laser itself for star pointing and the fact that I just think it's really cool. I've read reviews about a lot of online laser retailers and from what I've read and seen on YouTube, Jetlasers.org won't scam you, their lasers are of good quality, and I can get a 2w 445nm laser for $200 on their site.

As I mentioned earlier, you need to account for a good set of safety glasses in your budget. That's $50-60 right there - so with a budget of $220 you'll be looking at $160-170 to spend on the laser. You'll need to either up your budget or spend less on the laser.

I can totally see the interest though - a soldering iron setup is probably better for burning wood, but it's good to try new tools to see what kind of difference they make to your art!

InfinitusEquitas · Feb 12, 2016

Lunartato said:
I don't want it for the sole purpose of burning, but the reason I want it to be able to burn is because I want to use it to engrave wood. I am an artist as an additional hobby and find this as an interesting way to try some new things. But I am also just interested the laser itself for star pointing and the fact that I just think it's really cool. I've read reviews about a lot of online laser retailers and from what I've read and seen on YouTube, Jetlasers.org won't scam you, their lasers are of good quality, and I can get a 2w 445nm laser for $200 on their site.

Extremely glad to see you're not just after lighting matches and popping balloons. Not that there is anything wrong with that

Yes, jetlasers is a very good company, and won't scam you. Service is really excellent, and though he isn't super active, they do have a representative here on LPF.

You'll definitely want to get a decent set of goggles, not the cheap $3 red ones. Vision is something not worth messing around with.

Lunartato · Feb 12, 2016

@infinitusEquitas @diachi will the goggles that you can order from Jetlasers with the laser itself be good enough?

Alien Laser · Feb 13, 2016

Am going to give away a free laser soon, just you don't qualify, you must have Class 2, or more, or you could make a donation to get good ratings +rep

Shakenawake · Feb 13, 2016

one thing I've noticed, since multi modes have bar shaped dots, even focused, the focus can be adjusted to get slightly different length "dots". this can make a "calligraphy" effect, using a bar dot instead of a circle dot like a 405 would make. might be useful to know. I've found that too much power just sears into the wood too fast, and can make charred edges

InfinitusEquitas · Feb 13, 2016

Lunartato said:
@infinitusEquitas @diachi will the goggles that you can order from Jetlasers with the laser itself be good enough?

These gogggles; Laser Safety Glasses Goggles will be adequate. They are not certified, but they do work very well, and I personally own two pairs. You can also get different styles from survival lasers, or probably together with your lasers from JL, just shoot them an email. The ones I linked to would be a good choice in case you want some IR protection with green lasers in the future.

Shakenawake said:
one thing I've noticed, since multi modes have bar shaped dots, even focused, the focus can be adjusted to get slightly different length "dots". this can make a "calligraphy" effect, using a bar dot instead of a circle dot like a 405 would make. might be useful to know. I've found that too much power just sears into the wood too fast, and can make charred edges

100% agree. I've been able to light a match with even ~100mw of ~445nm, and at a higher power with the dot shape that can translate to issues with fine detail if burning an image.

Personaly, imo, 405nm would be the best option for burning, but it's definitely not the most economical in terms of both power and visibility, so 445nm would still be my choice overall.

Lunartato · Feb 13, 2016

Thanks for the helpful info.:yh:

Best burner?

Lunartato

0

Pi R Squared

0

diachi

0

Lunartato

0

Alien Laser

0

Pi R Squared

0

DashApple

0

InfinitusEquitas

0

Lunartato

0

diachi

0

InfinitusEquitas

0

Lunartato

0

Alien Laser

0

Shakenawake

0

InfinitusEquitas

0

Lunartato

0

Online statistics

Forum statistics

Share this page