Hello,
I'm a new member from Poland. I moved back here after 14 years of living in UK so hopefully my English will not be a problem as long as I don't post too late into the night ;-)
Electronics and making things have been my hobbies for as long as I remember. I became interested in lasers more recently by means of buying a cheap Chinese desktop cnc engraver (for milling pcb's) that had an option to include a laser engraving head for not much more money. While I was waiting for the thing to arrive I did more research on the subject. I got my two types of laser safety glasses (more about them below) and I ripped some red laser diodes from some old dvd burners and made them burn some cardboard for fun. Also destroyed one in the process unfortunately despite esd protection, current limiting etc...
Regarding safety glasses I decided OD4 is sufficient for my current use and I found two pairs one covering 190-550nm (red) and the other one 190-420 & 600-1100(green). They were fairly cheap, but they cover my eyes well and do block reflected laser light of lasers I used them with.
My desktop cnc came with what is labelled as a 3500mw 450nm laser head. I was pleased when upon opening it I found a 9mm diode inside, also its power consumption is around 16w at max power so I actually believe what it says on the box is true
I have no comparison with others, but the cutting/engraving performance is pretty good with regards to resolution and speed. As mentioned before, I got the desktop cnc primarily for pcb milling and I was hoping to use the laser for cutting solder mask stencils from silicone paper. During testing I managed to cut perfect sharp rectangles half by one mm (in white paper so far). This is encouraging.
I also got a single mode 405nm 50mW (sharp) diode laser I plan to build a low power, but very well focused head for the cnc to test exposing uv photoresists/uv curable solder mask etc with my cnc in future. Hopefully soon.
I already found lots of good info on this forum so I decided to register.
See you around.
I'm a new member from Poland. I moved back here after 14 years of living in UK so hopefully my English will not be a problem as long as I don't post too late into the night ;-)
Electronics and making things have been my hobbies for as long as I remember. I became interested in lasers more recently by means of buying a cheap Chinese desktop cnc engraver (for milling pcb's) that had an option to include a laser engraving head for not much more money. While I was waiting for the thing to arrive I did more research on the subject. I got my two types of laser safety glasses (more about them below) and I ripped some red laser diodes from some old dvd burners and made them burn some cardboard for fun. Also destroyed one in the process unfortunately despite esd protection, current limiting etc...
Regarding safety glasses I decided OD4 is sufficient for my current use and I found two pairs one covering 190-550nm (red) and the other one 190-420 & 600-1100(green). They were fairly cheap, but they cover my eyes well and do block reflected laser light of lasers I used them with.
My desktop cnc came with what is labelled as a 3500mw 450nm laser head. I was pleased when upon opening it I found a 9mm diode inside, also its power consumption is around 16w at max power so I actually believe what it says on the box is true
I have no comparison with others, but the cutting/engraving performance is pretty good with regards to resolution and speed. As mentioned before, I got the desktop cnc primarily for pcb milling and I was hoping to use the laser for cutting solder mask stencils from silicone paper. During testing I managed to cut perfect sharp rectangles half by one mm (in white paper so far). This is encouraging. I also got a single mode 405nm 50mW (sharp) diode laser I plan to build a low power, but very well focused head for the cnc to test exposing uv photoresists/uv curable solder mask etc with my cnc in future. Hopefully soon.
I already found lots of good info on this forum so I decided to register.
See you around.
