Chinese laser purchase/Shenui/Laserworks tips and tricks thread

[David Somers]

Ross! That is a good deal!! Your friends help will help reduce you learning curve a bunch!! Go through the Corel thread in the forum too. There are things you will do in a corel file bound for the laser that you would not normally worry about if you were using Corel for more normal pursuits.

I tend to stay with more modern versions of packages. But then my job ends up working with security issues in computers and older versions tend to have security holes in them that can cause problems for us. That is less of an issue at home to some extent. Does the unit that you bought suggest a recommended version of Corel? Older versions tend to be much less expensive than the new ones, and to be honest, I worry much less about issues with Corel and security than I do with Adobe products. Maintain your firewall and keep your OS fully patched and you should be fine. A good antivirus/antimalware package is important too, but without the other items in place they are little help. Your firewall and patching are your best defense.

There may also be a real advantage in sticking with a version your friend is most comfortable with so you can get the most out of him.

Congrats again! Let us know how things go with this! You will have lots of ears!!

Dave

[Khalid Nazim]

Can I use RDWORKS for Shenhui instead of RDCAM?

[Ralph Y Thorne]

Joy Yang has confirmed that both he and Yarde Feng are no longer employed at Shenhui Laser as after service engineers. Both are very professional and I have had good experience consulting with each one of them.

Yarde is with Liaocheng Longtai Laser. Joy is starting his own company providing sales, service, parts and advice. Joy can be contacted via email or Skype. wm03511@hotmail.com haifengshangu@gmail.com Skype: wm03511

As Joy puts it, they are "hardworking buddies"

[Rodne Gold]

I endorse following Yarde..he goes the extra mile and then some , smart fellow. I was with him at the factory in china for 2 days.

[Bec Fogarty]

Its here Its here my Shenhui arrived today! We have nicknamed her bumblebee and are hoping to start comissioning her on Monday. Anything I should know? We have the G690-600 with 80W reci tube. I bought an extra power supply and lens on the recommendations in here. Great advice by the way! we have unpacked the macine from the crate but that is as far as we have gotten.

Would love to hear about any kinks we may encounter.

[John Noell]

Congrats Bec! My G460 w/ 80W RECI is on the (slow) boat so I am looking forward to hearng how your set up goes. (BTW - you might want to add you some info about machines and location to your signature.)

[Ross minetti]

Hi all well time has been draggibg by .My laser will finally be delivered to my house next Friday cant freaking wait even taking a dy off work to check it out make sure no damage has occurred from shipping.I will be posting pics and from what I have read here on the forum I will be taking my time making sure everything is set right. Measure twice cut once . Is it Friday yet ??? More to come ....soon

[Bec Fogarty]

Alrighty I have been doing my homework in preperation for commissioning our laser. Hoping to do it this afternoon so I can play tomorrow.

This video is very helpful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKtI...ndex=1&list=WL However is not quite up to date as all of our pumps ect all plug into the back of the machine instead of a power board. I am seeing this as a really good thing as they all have chinese plugs on them not AUS.

One of my first observations is the manual that came with our machine I am guessing is out of date, as our machine has come with the tube already installed. All we have had to do is push the waterpipes onto the labelled glass ports.

secondly theres no information on mounting the water filter in the chiller. I am sure we can work this out though.

The mounting of the exhaust piping does not attach to the back of the machine like in the manual it goes directly to the underneath of the machine.

Grounding well that something thats completely in the hubbies court LOL

Just waiting for my hubby to come home so we can get started and then will be the interesting task of aligning the mirrors.

[George M. Perzel]

Bec;
Congrats on your purchase. DO NOT try to align the mirrors unless really necessary as the mirrors were aligned at the factory in final test. Get everything else going and make sure you can pulse the beam before touching any mirrors. Machine should not have been shipped with tube installed so hope it wan't damaged during shipment. Good Luck
Best Regards,
George
Laserarts

[Bec Fogarty]

George wish I had read your post before I headed out to the shed this morning!

It seems we have the beam all lined up now but the dot its making is almost 5mm in size. its running the 80w reci tube. SHould it be this big? How do I make it smaller.

The machine did not come with any power/speed setting guidelines for materials any tips where i can find this?

[George M. Perzel]

Hi Bec;
Need some clarification-is the dot 5mm at the cutting surface, i.e, through the lens? If so, make sure you have a lens in the head and that its not upside down. Concave surface should be down. Then make sure your focus distance is correct-use the focus stick to set the distance or set up some material on a slight incline and run a test line of text.
Power/speed settings are more trial and error than cold fact. Tell me what materials you are planning to use and I will give you some guidelines.
Best Regards,Geor
geLaserart
s

[Yoeri Nachtsmid]

Dear members of the forum,
I've been following the forum now for some time and it has really helped me out greatly with getting to understand the ups and downs of purchasing and working with a Chinese laser engraver/cutter. Thanks for everyone sharing their info here!

This week I want to purchase a G Weike or Shenhui laser with the following specs:

Laser power: 80W or 100W RECI tube
Power supply: AC220 - 50HZ
Working area: 1200x900mm


I want to include the following features/spares:
- Cooling Chiller CW5000
- auto up and down platform
- red dot
- auto focus
- honeycomb table
- aluminium knife table
- spare mirrors
- spare laser tube 80W/100W RECI brand
- spare power supply
- stepper motor for XY
- stepper motor for Z
- stepper driver

My purpose for the machine is to do laser cutting of multiplex/plywood/MDF up to 12mm and precise engraving of text.

My questions are:
1. From what I get from the forum, G Weike and Shenhui are both good value for money. Any reason to go for one or the other?
2. How much power does the laser need to cut up to 12mm multiplex/plywood/MDF?
3. In my understanding precise engraving requires you to sometimes change lenses, which size lenses should I include in my purchase?
4. Are all of the spares/features necessary, or should I remove/add some?

I hope you guys can help me with the above questions!
Thanks in advance!

Yoeri
the Netherlands

[William Dillon]

Hi All,

I just ordered SINMIC 400x400 laser engraver. While waiting for the slow boat from china, I've been thinking about the infrastructure that I need to support it. It has a 50W laser (generic glass tube), which is, of course, water cooled. I know that the wisdom of the thread so far is that 40W lasers don't really need much more than a 5-gallon reservoir and a recirculating pump. But, I tend to go overboard. So, I'm trying to collect information on the thermal characteristics of the system. I'm "conversant" in thermodynamics, so I'm planning on calculating the heat flow from the losing gas through the glass laser tube, into the water, etc.... What I need to know is what the thickness of the glass used in the laser tubes is? I can use the characteristic glass thermal resistance and its area to calculate the total thermal resistance. Also, what current/voltages do the tubes use? Looking at the specs for the laser power supplies, I calculated that the laser uses about 250 Watts (for a 40 Watt tube), and if I'm assuming 40 watts are laser, then 210 Watts are heat. Does this sound right?

Thanks in advance.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Hi All,

I just ordered SINMIC 400x400 laser engraver. While waiting for the slow boat from china, I've been thinking about the infrastructure that I need to support it. It has a 50W laser (generic glass tube), which is, of course, water cooled. I know that the wisdom of the thread so far is that 40W lasers don't really need much more than a 5-gallon reservoir and a recirculating pump. But, I tend to go overboard. So, I'm trying to collect information on the thermal characteristics of the system. I'm "conversant" in thermodynamics, so I'm planning on calculating the heat flow from the losing gas through the glass laser tube, into the water, etc.... What I need to know is what the thickness of the glass used in the laser tubes is? I can use the characteristic glass thermal resistance and its area to calculate the total thermal resistance. Also, what current/voltages do the tubes use? Looking at the specs for the laser power supplies, I calculated that the laser uses about 250 Watts (for a 40 Watt tube), and if I'm assuming 40 watts are laser, then 210 Watts are heat. Does this sound right?

Thanks in advance.

Umm miles out,

First you need the efficiency conversion factor for the input supply to the lasing resonator.
You will need to know what mix they used in the resonator reserve (its not pure CO2),

The current depends on both ambient temperature and level of Photon saturation as well as the excitation state of the gasses, (at 50% power using cold flat gas the emitted heat is less than in a tube that has gas that has been excited for X period)

There are a HUGE number of variables that while possible to calculate to get all of them you would be looking at ^ time to get all the possibles and even then they may only exist in that state for Y time (Entropy)

Much of the information you need to calculate the heat value is impossible to get out of China and while measurable you would need to destroy the tube to get it so rendering it worthless as the next tube will be different.

Great as a thought experiment but worthless in any practical value.

cheers

Dave

[William Dillon]

Umm miles out,

First you need the efficiency conversion factor for the input supply to the lasing resonator.
You will need to know what mix they used in the resonator reserve (its not pure CO2),

The current depends on both ambient temperature and level of Photon saturation as well as the excitation state of the gasses, (at 50% power using cold flat gas the emitted heat is less than in a tube that has gas that has been excited for X period)

There are a HUGE number of variables that while possible to calculate to get all of them you would be looking at ^ time to get all the possibles and even then they may only exist in that state for Y time (Entropy)

Much of the information you need to calculate the heat value is impossible to get out of China and while measurable you would need to destroy the tube to get it so rendering it worthless as the next tube will be different.

Great as a thought experiment but worthless in any practical value.

cheers

Dave

I really don't think it needs to be as complicated as all that. For a first-order approximation, because energy can neither be created nor destroyed, if a laser supply is running at 15,000 volts and produces 20mA of current, we have 300 watts. Some of that may be laser, but if I assume that 100% of it is heat, I'm still in the neighborhood. To me, that has tremendous practical value. Knowing that it 297.3 Watts would be interesting, but useless.