Chinese 'Golden laser' 1300 x 900mm bed, 130 watt

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

A few snaps from it after we got it home.
Haven't had a chance to get it into the workshop yet- just too busy!
Some parts were filthy, and some parts very clean. The bed does not move- and has knife-edge vertical substrate supports that run front-to-back.
The lens is the 4" focal length one, with air-assist.

I'll need the 5200 chiller- can't find them here for under $1000 though...

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[Kev Williams]

Reading your plate it's a 1300x700 machine (original post indicated it was 900).

You mention it has a stationary table, like my Triumph, which I can see in the pic of it on the trailer. You also mention it has a 4" focus lens on it; FWIW I couldn't even use a 3" lens on my Trumph until I had a shorter lens tube made, and with it, I can't use a 2" lens, and it's still too close to the table to use a 4" lens... Anyway, I'm a bit curious about that!

Should work out for you... As for the software, drill it into your mind that everything to do with WHAT you're engraving will be done in Corel- then the Chinese software becomes just an overly-fancy print driver

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Thanks, Kev- my apologies for typing 900 instead of 700!
I've photographed the lens/nozzle, but it's still on the phone.
You put a piece of 3mm acrylic on top of the substrate being cut, and lower the nozzle tube down to rest on it, and tighten it, then remove your 3mm gauge.

The software is really obnoxoius - but as you say-treat it as only a driver. Yes I work out of Corel Draw. Export as dxf, and import into this awful program.
The learning curve with the beast is peculiar but OK. It operates from wherever you stop it or move it to as a new home/origin, without having to be 'set' as such. The 'test' or 'rectangle' option is great. (The ULS didn't have that)
The power and speed settings don't want to stay attached to any outline colour, but seem to reset themselves.
Cutting though 2mm acrylic you can see the pulse perforations at certain faster speeds.
It does a lovely job of cutting 10mm acrylic in one pass- albeit slowly, but I'm running at 50-60% power, and 2% speed, 10% acceleration, 5mm overlap.
It wasn't bad looking, two passes at twice the speed.

And it made a tidy job of cutting 20mm acrylic, but that might be pushing the freindship a little- easier with the router.

Thanks for everyone's assistance. I've ordered a 5200 chiller, and will delve into the Ruida controller next month.

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Update - for the benefit of anyone searching this topic later on:

Ugh the software is awful - but treating it like a printer driver works to some degree.

I've got a set of power & speed settings tested and worked out to cut acrylic from 2mm to 10 mm without it changing the temperature of the water much, considering it still has the cw-3000 water circulator. I also worked out what power settings do increase the temp appreciably.
I've ordered a CW-5200 chiller. Strangely, it was about $350 postage from China, or $16 postage, from Germany - but despatched ex China. We'll see if it arrives soon...

What I found that the machine does NOT do, is engrave or raster a filled vector. You can set the parameters in their "process a consitiution" window of power, acceleration, stepover per pass (or whatever funny word they use),and save and exit.
Then name the file and click download the whatever it is called, and the file lands there ready to send to the laser> but the laser just gives a file error message.
I'm guessing its to do with the firmware? I'm not bothered.

I CAN engrave/raster a BMP file, but it needs a huge landing and turning around area if you want speed and acceleration in the system.
If you place the material & file near the edge of the bed, it simply won't do anything.
Put it in the middle of the bed, and it speeds up to maximum, then slows down, turns around, and gets back up to speed again for the next pass.
I guess there's a fair bit of inertia in the head... whereas our little Universal zips back and forth in a blink when engraving.

(Maybe I have not got the acceleration & speed figures right yet? 500 & 500 worked the best)

Then there are the power settings - it offers you a maximum & a minimum figure to put in - for cutting a vector, or for rastering a BMP.
I've found the minimum figure is the limiting one. Set it too low, and it simply will not laser, regardless of how high the maximum figure is.
Below about 15% gives nothing. So I've been setting both figures about the same- rightly or wrongly eg 45/50.

IN the next month or so I'll get a Ruida kit from ebay/China - but for the moment I can't spare it to be not working!
(The first big job last week paid for the unit!)

Thanks for reading, and for any tips!

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Well the machine works nicely... but I bit the bullet & ordered the RDC6442G controller bundle to put into it.

It was available on Ebay here for around $510 Aussie dollars (including post) but oddly, from the same seller, it was $360 AUD on Aliexpress (including post).
The email says it's on its way... and they sent me the link to download the software and manuals. RDcam v8 is in the user manual, but RD works is on the PC. I'm not sure how or where to get the Corel plug-in happening just yet...

(Corel X3 for the time being)

[Dave Sheldrake]

Chinese lasers will raster vectors on the target system but NOT filled vectors as the software doesn't read the fill values much like they don't read lineweights or hatch patterns

target system = everything inside the first outer line is engraved until it reaches a closed line of the same colour going inwards...think like a rifle target and you won't go wrong

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Thanks, Dave, I'd fathomed something like that out. The little ULS is way superior ij that department.
I'm just struggling to get an RD works type of plug-in to magically appear in Corel X3.
The software installation seems to say it's done it, but I cannot find it.

(The installation menu gives you an option of Corel laser, an Autocad option, RD Cam, and something else.)

(RD Works or Cam looks rather like the primitive Goldenlaser software- but with a fair improvement.)

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

OK, I got the plug-in installed.
The packaged instructions are woeful, but Youtube was helpful, and I found a PDF on the net from another company that said the same as Youtube.
Just have to reset the bed size now.

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Well... I don;lt know how they can do it, but the chiller arrived today - all 35 kg of it, from China, to Australia.
What I mean is that on Ebay, they were about $600 to $700 each, and postage/freight was around $300 to $400 each. Total from a variety of sellers all averaged $1050, give or take $90.
I found a Chinese seller advertising it in Germany, for about $630, and their advertised postage was $16 (sixteen) dollars, to Australia.
That's the one I bought after checking feedback etc, and that's what just arrived here. So now the little cw3000 unit that came with the laser, can be put away...

I put a bit more time into fiddling with the Corel to RDworks last night - it's a fairly decent program.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Can you take a picture of the front of the chiller Ian? that sounds like a fake S&A model at that price. if it is they have a habit of failing leading to broken tubes