Does anyone here have a Micro-Mart Microlux Laserknife 2525?

[Deborah Jones]

It's fairly new. They just started offering it a couple of months ago. It's made in China but to Micro-Mark's specifications. (If you believe their website.) I'm beginning to think we are the only ones who actually bought one! LOL! There is just so little info out there on this machine other than a U-Tube video and instruction manual that isn't much help. We are newbies but learning as we go. We have done the Corel files for years and outsourced the cutting to others but wanted to do it ourselves.

We are trying to find other people who also have this machine. We're experiencing a few issues. Thus far their customer service techs have not resolved our issues and have not been of much help, which is surprising for Micro-Mark. We've always had a positive experience there prior to this. We've done far more to fix the issues by researching on our own in forums such as this one.

The symptoms are mostly that the further out it gets from "home" at the upper left, by the time it gets to the lower right it's no longer cutting, just engraving.
It starts out cutting just fine, then tapers off to just engraving.

We've tried various power & speed settings and this happens on 110# card stock, 1/16" chipboard, or 1/32" - 1/16" wood. We tried 70% power and it took multiple
passes to cut 1/16" chipboard so something is wrong. I would think that a 40 watt laser should cut that easily.

It doesn't seem to matter if we're cutting multiple grouped tiny items (1/2" x 1") or multiple larger items 2"-3" square or larger- it's just cutting inconsistently.

The bed was out of level by 1/8", so we shimmed it in one corner. We later raised the bed and leveled it again & made sure the nozzle was set to proper height (in all 4 corners of the bed) with the gauge that came with the machine. We cleaned the nozzle and lens and made sure the screw was tight. The mirrors were way out of alignment when we first got it, so we fixed that. They seem to be in alignment now but we still get this issue. The other problem is that sometimes the air hose gets tangled in the chain, but that's infrequent.

I would be very appreciative if anyone has any ideas. I'm not very techy but my husband is.

Thanks,
Debbie Jones
Phoenix, Arizona
Micro-Mark Microlux Laserknife 2525
40 watt
Corel x7

[Bill George]

First off it looks like a rebranded K-40 Laser sold on eBay for at times $600 or so, direct from China. Second there is no way a true 40 watt tube will fit in 32 inches of space. More than likely its just 32 watts on a good day. That is the size the K-40 machines take. Its rated at 35 peak, ,maybe. From what you are describing it sounds like the mirrors and optics are out of alignment.

Link to tube specs > http://www.lightobject.com/SP-35W-CO2-Sealed-Laser-Tube-for-Small-K40-laser-engraving-machine-P208.aspx

Can you get your money back? An advertiser on here Automation Technology's sells decent machines. For the $2000 you spent, add a little more and you will have something that works.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Sadly Deb, Bill is quite right, it's a variation on the K40 theme made by another company for the European 240 volt market.Pretty much all the same no matter who you buy from, Shenhui, HX Laser, DoSan all make versions of the same machine.

Bill is also likely right about alignment so that will be the first thing to check out, they can be a bit of fun to play with as an introduction to lasers but also a PITA when you have to start setting things straight and doing jobs like aligning them.

[Deborah Jones]

Thank you for your response & info, Bill. It's beyond the initial 30 day warranty, but since it's not performing as advertised we may have some recourse. We're going to play with it more this weekend. It does still sound like an alignment problem but it seems to be pretty much on center when we do the test zap on masking tape over the mirrors.

I do have an additional question. We are working in a garage in Phoenix, AZ and it can get pretty warm out there in the Summer, although it is insulated and has sheet rock on the walls. I read something about temperature and the laser tube someplace. Is this a potential issue? The cutter is water cooled but we don't have any chiller on it, just the pump that came with it. -- Debbie

[Dave Sheldrake]

I read something about temperature and the laser tube someplace

Quite correct Deb,

16 - 20 degrees = excellent
20 - 25 degrees = start getting slightly lower beam quality and stability
25 - 35 degrees = the laser will still cut just not well at all
35 - 45 degrees = dead laser very quickly

Stability is the key, if you can only get down to say 22 degrees then try to keep it in a 3-4 degree range, this will be a lot more stable and give more repeatable results.

[Deborah Jones]

Oh my! The water in the bucket is likely just room temperature or slightly cooler. What, where, or how do I measure the temp?
I may need to look into a chiller attachment for the water pump.

Thanks so much for your input, Dave!
-- Debbie

[Gary Hair]

Oh my! The water in the bucket is likely just room temperature or slightly cooler. What, where, or how do I measure the temp?
I may need to look into a chiller attachment for the water pump.

Thanks so much for your input, Dave!
-- Debbie

and for our non-metric viewers - 20c is 68f - so room temp is probably ok.

[Deborah Jones]

Hi Dave, I just noticed you are from the UK. Is that in Celcius or Farenheit? (22 degrees).
Thanks,
Debbie

[Deborah Jones]

Ah! I asked Dave if that was C or F before I saw this. Thanks, Gary.

Room temperature in Phoenix out in the garage in the summer can be 100F+ (When it's 115F outside). Guess both a portable A/C unit and a
water chiller might be in order. Or is the water chiller a waste of $?

Thanks everyone for being so helpful to a newbie.

[Kev Williams]

If you're just using a bucket, and you can make ice, get a thermometer, and just throw a few ice cubes in the bucket when the water starts getting warm.

[Deborah Jones]

Thanks, Kev! Good idea, or even maybe those gel pack things. I have a couple thermometers used in cooking that go low enough in temp(one is an instant read).

Will try it out this weekend and see what the temp is (I probably don't want to know what the room temp water is!!) and then with ice.

We're using distilled water for the pump because we have very hard tap water. We can make distilled ice cubes easily.

[Dave Sheldrake]

If you intend on staying in the laser arena then a Chiller could be useful Deb, however it will need to be a "Chiller" not just a "Cooler"

Chillers work like fridges and can drop the temperature to 15 or so degrees C below room temp, a Cooler will only drop the temperature to the same as the surrounding room.

For example this

http://hpclaser.co.uk/index.php?main...products_id=10

Is a chiller (HPC is UK based so you would need to find a company over there that can supply a similar item)

This

http://www.teyuchiller.com/Products/...0050Wradi.html

Is a "Cooler" no matter what the name suggests, it basically pumps the water through tubes in front of a fan that blows room temperature air over it to "cool" it down.

If you have no real plans on upgrading the machine or expanding in the future then I'd go with Kev's suggestion and get either ice or ice blocks (used in cool bags) to keep water temperature down a bit.

A good stable supply of chilled water at 17-19 degrees C can make a big difference to cutting / engraving and will also prolong the life of the laser tube (lasers don't take well to big temperature variations)

Chillers also have built in water tanks and pumps, so that helps by removing the tank and pump from your existing system.

[Bill George]

Ah! I asked Dave if that was C or F before I saw this. Thanks, Gary.

Room temperature in Phoenix out in the garage in the summer can be 100F+ (When it's 115F outside). Guess both a portable A/C unit and a
water chiller might be in order. Or is the water chiller a waste of $?

Thanks everyone for being so helpful to a newbie.

At this point in your Chinese laser experience I would not put any more money into that machine.

Try to get the seller to take it back and get a refund. My other guess of the day, is your not the only one to get one of these machines from Micro Mark and they all have problems.
If the frame is not level or square it will never be right.

Hopefully you paid with Credit Card or PayPal so you will have some recourse.

[Bert Kemp]

Deb I'm near Phoenix and in Phoenix a lot, If you need some help I'd be happy to stop by and give you some advice. Its raining today and very humid keep an eye on your tube for condensation very bad. I just don't work on days like today. I have a 5 gal bucket I put gallon milk jugs that I have frozen in the chest freezer Keeps my water at around 58 to 65 F and when it gets to 65 I put in a new jug of Ice. My room temp is 72 to 78 pending on outside temp if its over 110 out room gets to 80 81 sometimes. swamp cooler LOL. Oh your also welcome to come look at my setup..

[Dave Sheldrake]

These one's aren't quite so dire Bill, they have the same layout and power system as the K40 but are closer to the Triumph TR-3020 quality wise. Hopefully it comes with NewlyDraw software rather than Winseal or suchlike but for a trainer machine so long as they are prepped properly they aren't too bad. Not normally quite so bent out of shape like the basic K40 stuff but $2,000 is a LOT for a machine in that size class