30W Fiber Laser purchase

[Erik Goetheer]

I finally decided to actually get a portable 30W fiber laser (about 600-700 USD more expensive than a 20W), with rotary, and I received a first quoation, from Rayfine. I will ask more quotations from two or three other companies, but berfore I do that I want to clear some questions that I have. BTW, I will use the fiber laser for metal marking (duh) including photo 'engraving' on silver and gold necklaces, engraving and cutting duo-colored plastics, etc. And I plan to take it to all kind of (pet) shows and fairs. I'm not interested in color marking.

First question: Rayfine offered a machine with a Raycus laser source (type unknown) or a JPT LP laser source. I checked the JPT website but it's too technical for me. Here is a picture from the quotaton with some technical info. What I want to know is if the JPT LP justifies a price increase of 300 USD compared to Raycus source (the price difference is 200 USD for the 20W lasers). What's your opinion?




Second question: a rotating worktable is an option. What's the common use for it?




Third: I will get two safey goggles, priced at 60 USD each. Is that a good price?




Fourth: In the quoation a 110x110 mm lens is standard offered. Great for smaller items with good details I guess. As an extra lens I would opt for a 200x200mm (each lens costs 150 USD). Good idea?

Fifth: How critical is having the correct focus on the substrates and how accurate is the height adjustment of these Chinese lasers?

Sixth: What about the depth of (focus) field of the different lenses, can you play a bit with it with some specific tasks as you can with CO2 lasers? For instante get a bit out of focus while engraving trolase.

Seventh (also CO2 related): I want to cut and engrave more 2-colored UV-resistant plastics than I do now and I think the material that you often see (Rowmark, Trotec) is pretty expensive. Does someone has a good Chinese source?

That's it, for now. I checked the forum of course for information, so other questions that I had were answered, but not the above ones.

Finally, I'm not interested in the Cyclops Camera System, I will use the red marking area. However, the X-Y table (130 USD), yes or no? Hm .....

[John Lifer]

Erik, I'lll pipe up and the difference in those two is the pulse rate. You can get below 20 and about 80 on the jpt. Which is what I've got. Enables more range of colors on titanium, and more range of materials plastic tag you want to engraved? 300 kHz with Jo, nada with racist. I would get the rotary with horizontal Axis. You can engraved on round items and inside rings. The one shown is useless in most cases. Yes get the larger lens, that is half price if you want later, over 300 on all sources. You can move the head up and down to adjust easy. It starts and you can creep up on need. I realky haven't tried rowmark will go do some in a bit just to see what it does. Plastic does stink just like with CO2 you might have to be outside or have a small vac to suck up and dissipate odors if you are at show.
I didn't do it, but get 2 pair of glasses. Especially if there is potential of someone being with you.

Focus is fairly critical, just depends on what you are doing. Being out of focus is beneficial for some uses.

Good luck. I'm buying most of my sheet from a JDS which offers Gemini brand. A bit cheaper, but don't know if they have eu presence. No chinese makers that I know of.

[John Lifer]

Oh, I use my xy table all the time! It is bolted to the base right now, Because I was placing heavy items on it and they extended over it's edges. It is heavy enough to sit loose, especially for hand sized items. And getting mark in exactly the right pace without touching it is great. Wouldn't be without it! Especially using ezcad where placement isn't always exactly where you want it. Resizing script, etc. You can easily move I ezcad by using arrows. But not good fast enough for me

Oh, price difference has come down. Mine was about $500 more. Or racus gone up?

[John Lifer]

IMG_20170607_173006824.jpg
Erik, here is my setup, you can see both the table and the rotary in the back. It will sit on the x-y but I usually take off the x-y to use the rotary.
Tried some plastic, with limited success......
IMG_20170628.jpg
Black face, white base engraved well, Brushed silver failed. It bubbled badly. I tried a couple of different bases with brushed silver, same. you can see in the red it bubbles.
You Can't cut it with fiber, figure to cut with CO2 and have available in select colors to engrave.

[Erik Goetheer]

Thanks for your inout John. Yes, I already thought that the rotary worktable has little use.

Blanca offered this rotary with horizontal axis in her quotation:




Is that the one you have? And are you sure that that one can engrave inside rings with it? I'm asking because Rayfine also has this one available, which is especially for ring making (price: 250 USD):




BTW, I like pictures, I think that there are way too little on this forum.

[John Lifer]

Yes, second is specifically used for rings. Really it might be better for a lot of stuff, appears the studs are removable/adjustable which would leave you with three jaws to hold other stuff. I didn't see that one, might have gone with it!

Worktable might be good for specific items, I just can't think of any. Ah, settings in ezcad for engraving round objects that didn't seem like horizontal axis rotary would be appropriate!

[James Walker]

John, I believe that rotating worktable is for continuous production runs. You set up stops so that they position a new part at a specified index angle. For example if you set 12 stops at 30 degree increments then once positioned for proper location you home that as 0. Then you can place 12 parts on the table and after each part is complete it will index and do another. An operator can replace a finished part with a new one to keep the machine running continuous until the run is complete.

[John Lifer]

That would work, place back under laser head and extend front ( or I guess a left or right side) out away from head and it would rotate under it. Would work well for flat objects. Hmm, don't need that yet.

[Bill George]

Cyclops Camera system allows you to place the object any orientation you want on the table and its lined up perfect every time. It has to be taught the first time I assume. No building jigs or otherwise.
Those chucks have a standard metric mounting thread you can purchase other sizes as needed.

[Kev Williams]

Thanks for your inout John. Yes, I already thought that the rotary worktable has little use.

Blanca offered this rotary with horizontal axis in her quotation:




Is that the one you have? And are you sure that that one can engrave inside rings with it? I'm asking because Rayfine also has this one available, which is especially for ring making (price: 250 USD):




BTW, I like pictures, I think that there are way too little on this forum.

Both of these rotaries are essentially identical. The chucks are different obviously, this one on the bottom with the moving pins could come in handy. The other thing I like about it is it looks to be about 4 pounds lighter than the cast iron one - but if you need to HOLD something, the iron one is a good choice. and FWIW, these iron chucks and jaws are pretty much the same as what's on my 15 year old Harbor Freight mini lathe. My fiber's chuck is identical to it. So to choose which rotaray, basically, take your pick

ck1.jpgck2.jpg

[Erik Goetheer]

Thanks Kev for clearing this up.

[Erik Goetheer]

That would work, place back under laser head and extend front ( or I guess a left or right side) out away from head and it would rotate under it. Would work well for flat objects. .....

Not just flat necessarily, I saw a video of a rotating worktable engraving pens, looked like a very smooth production process. But do I have the need for it at the moment? Hm....

I would like to know something more about the difference between Raycus and the JPT LP regarding pulse repetition range and pulse duration. Blanca tells me that the JPT LP will be able to clean up metal surfaces so that the original metal is shown again. This because of the high possible pulse repetition. Furthermore the JPT LP would be able to do 'in-focus' stainless steel black marking where as the Raycus can only do this when it is 'out of focus' and you would need to trial and error to find the best 'out of focus' spot.

Does anyone has experience with these two advantages of the JPT LP?

Apparently the JPT LP has a fixed pulse duration of 200ns, where the Raycus has a pulse duration range of 90-130ns (dependent on the chosen pulse repetition). Is this an advantage or an disadvantage of the JPT LP?

All in all the JPT seems to be able to handle more different processes and materials than the Raycus. Unfortunately the price difference for the 30W version is $ 400, which makes it harder to decide for which version I will go.

[Bruce Clumpner]

Interesting that the chucks are that similar? Wonder if Harbor Freight still has that machine, and if the chuck could be adapted to the epilog rotary device? Hm....

[John Lifer]

Erik, spend the money for the jpt. I've the 20 watt and the higher kHz does help with some plastics and metaland as I said earlier, buy ALL the accessories you want. Shipping is near zero extra. Lenses are over $300 but added to machine cost about half that. Get your two rotary and a xy table and extra glasses!

[Erik Goetheer]

Erik, spend the money for the jpt. I've the 20 watt and the higher kHz does help with some plastics and metaland as I said earlier, buy ALL the accessories you want. Shipping is near zero extra. Lenses are over $300 but added to machine cost about half that. Get your two rotary and a xy table and extra glasses!

Yep, I'm in for everything! Still have to find out hot deep my wallet is. Fortunatley prices are going down a bit and the USD too (I'm in Euro country )