G.WEIKE Metal and non-metal CO2 laser

[Daniel Wolanski]

I am in the market for another laser and saw that G.Weike offers a laser that can cut 2 mm carbon or stainless steel along with the standard wood, acrylic, etc. It has a 130W Reci. It can only cut, not engrave. It has a more precise ball / screw drive instead of belts along with a feedback loop for the servo controllers. I have a customer that needs parts very accurate. I have been getting accuracy of about +/-.07 mm from my current stepper driven laser but would like to add more precision and metal cutting. Has anyone had experience with this model? Here are the specs. There are also some Youtube vids showing them cutting metal with it. Search G.Weike.

Standard: Panasonic Servo Motor, Ball screw, auto height adjust system, advanced LW16 water cooler. It can cut metal up to 2mm and acrylic up to 25mm, wood up to 15mm

LC1390s Metal&Nonmetal machine

Specification :

Model	LC1390s
Engraving size	1300*900mm
Overall dimensions	2,120x1,715X1,250mm
Laser power	V6(130w)
Cutting speed	0 – 50 mm/s
Reposition accuracy	±0.05mm
Working voltage	AC110- 220V±10%,50-60Hz
Consuming power	less than 1,000W
Working temperature	0 - 45°C
Working humidity	8 - 95%
Minimum letter size	English :1 x 1mm Chinese:2 x 2mm
Supported file format	BMP, HPGL, PLT, DST, DXP, and AI
Driving system	Servo motors
Laser tube cooling type	Water-cooling chiller LW16 or cooling machine and protection system
Other auxiliary equipment	Exhaust-fans and air-exhaust pipe
Laser control software	DSP control system
Compatible software	CorelDraw AutoCAD Photoshop
Laser tube type:	Sealed CO2 glass laser tube

[Mike Null]

Their website doesn't indicate that this model can cut metal. http://wklaser.com/product/11_202.html

[Daniel Wolanski]

It's this model with a 1390 sized bed http://www.wklaser.com/product/11_242.html

[Daniel Wolanski]

image004.jpgimage008.jpgimage012.jpg image010.jpgHere are some images they sent.

[Rodne Gold]

You will have to jump thru hoops to cut metal with a 130w Co2 and I can assure you that if you do manage you will not have a slag free or accurate piece at the end of it.

[Mike Lysov]

I am getting a 280W laser cutter with two GSI 140W tubes and even it is way more than a signle 150W tube with a maximum power for WKLaser LC1313M model I won't be able to cut through any kind of metal. Unless I will use nitrogen/oxygen. That's probably what they use in their LC1313M model.

There is a good tool on Synrad website that shows power, speed, lens and gas required to cut through different materials. Have a look at
http://www.synrad.com/Applications/L...Calculator.htm

[Daniel Wolanski]

They are telling me that it is an oxygen assist. That is how they are cutting through metal. I believe kern does the same with their 150w GSI shown cutting metal in their website. I wonder how much o2 I would go through to cut metal.

[Mike Lysov]

I have not had experience with metal cutting but from I found on the Internet you do not need gas supplied at high pressure.
I am going to try my laser to cut metal too once I get it.

[john banks]

Usually the topic of Gas assisted lasers is one of only two banned subjects here but over the last couple of days I've been asked about O2 assisted lasers after a few far eastern suppliers / manufacturers have offered them to the general public. It's one occasion where I cannot support the sale of machines like this for a number of reasons below.


I think what we are seeing from China is a sideways attack method at cutting metal using the beam of a midrange tube used to heat the metal with the introduction of Oxygen to cause a highly exothermic oxidation reaction. While many industrial machines do similar or the same they also have some stringent manufacturing controls on items such as gas fittings , gas lines etc etc.


In the west (especially the UK) there are very tight controls on importing machines that use potentially explosive gasses and the safety features they encompass if destined for an industrial environment.


It also raises the danger of some less experienced users getting hold of such machines and without experience or knowledge of high pressure gasses the risk of injury (including death) must be fairly high.


BOC are one of the biggest suppliers of Tanked O2 in this country and on many occasions will not supply O2 bottles other than for a fully insured / inspected industrial environment and with good reason, I had a chat with a couple of fellow forum guys the other day and asked what would they use on the thread of the O2 tank if it seemed tight or was binding, both said "a squirt of WD40", I'll let readers look up on Google why that isn't such a great idea Now this isn't a dig at the guys, why would they think otherwise but these are guys that have quite a lot of experience with lasers so now imagine the scenario if a darwin award candidate gets hold of something like this?


Just with simple CO2 tube based 40 watt machines I've personally seen people buy them and try to use them in many cases where I wouldn't trust those same people with a pair of Scissors (sounds harsh but jet washing the inside of a laser while it's powered up??!!). If machines that pump high pressure Oxygen fall into the hands of those people (due to lower Chinese prices) I can pretty much stake serious $$$ on the fact it's only going to be a matter of time before lack of experience / stringent safety features ends up relocating somebodies house and its occupants.


Most people that know me will know I'm a outspoken supporter of Chinese machines and Chinese manufacturers in general, that said I wouldn't even consider buying ANY Chinese made gas assisted laser. Having seen an O2 tank explode the risk over cost benefit for me is just wayyyy too imbalanced. Even if the machine does end up being a safe one some of the end users won't be and some of the machine sellers may not realise what they are selling amounts to a pretty powerful bomb in the wrong hands.

Above is from a UK forum, but I don't think I'm allowed to reference it here. However, I feel terrible quoting something without a reference. At least I'll try to credit it to Spooky (Dave) from oplaser.co.uk

[matthew knott]

Oxygen assist not something for an amateur to play with IMHO, nitrogen is what's normal but then you have to use a laser actually designed for the job. Get a fire going with an oxygen feed and its a pretty impressive thing, gets out of hand in seconds and you may not have time to shut the bottle off! Just be careful and do plenty of due diligence, remember health and safety in china is pretty much non existent so anything goes

[Mike Lysov]

yes, I have seen that post from UK forum and I am going to try with nitrogen only.

[Dan Hintz]

yes, I have seen that post from UK forum and I am going to try with nitrogen only.

This will not do the same thing as oxygen... nitrogen is introduced to void the cutting / burning area of atmospheric air, i.e., oxygen, to prevent burning. What you're looking for with oxygen is to get the metal hot enough with the laser that the oxygen then takes over the cutting action (you could turn the laser off at that point).

I think you need to spend some time understanding what these machines do and how they accomplish that goal before wasting your money on one.

[Daniel Wolanski]

I didn't realize that this was an emerging technology with the Chinese. I assumed that these were common place since the technology has been around for a while (Kern uses O2 to cut metal on a 150W GSI). I'm very glad I posted here to get a better idea of this technology and its hazards.

[Mike Lysov]

This will not do the same thing as oxygen... nitrogen is introduced to void the cutting / burning area of atmospheric air, i.e., oxygen, to prevent burning. What you're looking for with oxygen is to get the metal hot enough with the laser that the oxygen then takes over the cutting action (you could turn the laser off at that point).

I think you need to spend some time understanding what these machines do and how they accomplish that goal before wasting your money on one.

I guess it was not supposed to be sent to me but just in case it was, what do you mean by "wasting"? I am not buying a laser for metal cutting and I am not wasting anything. I am buying a new laser to cut MDF, that's what I have been doing with my current 100W laser for the last three years. So I am not new to laser cutting.

I just thought I would try my new laser for metal cutting since there is enough power to do it. I am not an expert in metal cutting and all my thoughts of using nitrogen is based on a few Internet sources, with some of them being quite reliable. If they say nitrogen can be used to do it why should I really need to go deep into technical details to see if it really can do it or not.

[Dan Hintz]

I guess it was not supposed to be sent to me but just in case it was, what do you mean by "wasting"? I am not buying a laser for metal cutting and I am not wasting anything. I am buying a new laser to cut MDF, that's what I have been doing with my current 100W laser for the last three years. So I am not new to laser cutting.

I just thought I would try my new laser for metal cutting since there is enough power to do it. I am not an expert in metal cutting and all my thoughts of using nitrogen is based on a few Internet sources, with some of them being quite reliable. If they say nitrogen can be used to do it why should I really need to go deep into technical details to see if it really can do it or not.

Sorry, Mike, I got your post confused with Daniel's request to purchase a new laser. In his case, purchasing a machine to cut metal would be a waste of money... in your case, you already have the machine, but it would be a waste of your time to try to cut metal using nitrogen.

As I said, Nitrogen is used as a shield gas, but the lasers they are using are measure in kiloWatts... in those cases, the laser itself is doing the cutting. In the prior scenario, the low-power laser (150W) is just heating the metal and the high-pressure oxygen is doing the actual cutting. Different machines, different processes, and you can't mix half of one process with half of another machine.