AN INTRODUCTION TO CHINESE CO2

LASER ENGRAVERS AND CUTTERS

HOW THEY WORK; WHAT THEY DO; WHAT TO BUY.

April 2019
1. Abstract_______________________________________________________________ 4
2. An Introduction to Chinese co2 laser engravers and cutters ___________________ 5
Why lasers?______________________________________________________________________ 5
Why only Chinese Lasers? _________________________________________________________ 5
Terminology _____________________________________________________________________ 6
Questions – silly and otherwise _____________________________________________________ 8
Lasers – It’s Science! _____________________________________________________________ 10
Hardware_______________________________________________________________ 12
Software _______________________________________________________________ 13
Bitmaps - Engraving ______________________________________________________ 14
Vectors – Cutting_________________________________________________________ 16
Scan and Cut – Bitmap Engrave and Vector Cut ________________________________ 18
3. Buying your first laser __________________________________________________ 19
Setting your budget _______________________________________________________ 20
What to buy? ____________________________________________________________ 21
4. Components of a Laser Engraver_________________________________________ 22
Laser Tubes – not bulbs, or bottles, or guns – tubes. __________________________________ 23
Manufacturers ___________________________________________________________ 26
Lenses _________________________________________________________________________ 27
Focal Length ____________________________________________________________ 28
Power Supplies __________________________________________________________________ 30
Controllers______________________________________________________________________ 33
Servos and Steppers _____________________________________________________________ 37
Rails and Tracks _________________________________________________________________ 37
Mirrors _________________________________________________________________________ 37
Cooling ________________________________________________________________________ 37
Air Assist _______________________________________________________________________ 37
Air Extraction ___________________________________________________________________ 37

5. Laser Models and Types ________________________________________________ 38

The ‘K40’ or 3020 40W desktop laser.________________________________________________ 38

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 5030 (500 x 300mm) Desktop Laser _________________________________________________ 41
6040 (600 x 400mm) Deskside Laser_________________________________________________ 41
6090 (600 x 900mm) Standalone Laser _______________________________________________ 41
1290/1390 (1200-1300 x 900mm) Standalone Laser _____________________________________ 41
Double-Tube Lasers ______________________________________________________________ 41

6. Choosing your laser ___________________________________________________ 42

Why would I pick this one over that one? (the dilemma of choice)._____________________ 42
Support ________________________________________________________________________ 43
Shipping _______________________________________________________________________ 43
Warranty _______________________________________________________________________ 44

7. Setting Up ____________________________________________________________ 46
Testing Materials ________________________________________________________________ 46
Burn Test: ______________________________________________________________________ 47
Low Power Test: _________________________________________________________________ 48

8. Environment __________________________________________________________ 49
9. Safety _______________________________________________________________ 51
Laser Classes ___________________________________________________________ 53
General Laser Precautions _________________________________________________ 54
Protective Eyewear _______________________________________________________ 56
Interlocks and automatic shutdown ___________________________________________ 57
10. Making your first object_________________________________________________ 59
11. _______________________________________________________________________ 59
12. Advanced making _____________________________________________________ 60
Advanced configuration___________________________________________________________ 60
Advanced software _______________________________________________________________ 60

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 1. ABSTRACT

This paper is intended as an introduction to laser technology for the new ‘maker’. It is not
intended as a scientific treatise in the physics of lasers, but as a helpful reference for those
intending, or newly engaged in, making objects with lasers.

We are not going to discuss fibre lasers or fibre/galvo lasers, or Trotec, UL, Epilog, or any of the
other expensive and arcane devices you CAN buy – we’re going to talk about the kinds of
machines most hobbyists and home businesses or small businesses are going to want to use:
Affordable Chinese CO2 DC glass lasers.

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 2. AN INTRODUCTION TO CHINESE CO2 LASER ENGRAVERS AND
CUTTERS

WHY LASERS?

Since the advent of widely available microcontrollers, affordable DIY CNC machines and 3D
printers, the growth of open-source projects, the fall in price and the wide range of available
electronic components, we have seen a large growth in home-based manufacturing.

Leveraging the ability for moderate production runs using such technology has seen a similar
growth in design and manufacturing. The people that engage in such activities are ‘makers’.

In addition to CNC and 3D printing, we have electronics, textiles, art, ‘science’, woodworking,
metalwork and modern acrylics, and a large amount of reclaimed basic technology from the
early days of the industrial revolution.

Added to that we can now put laser engraving and cutting. The growth of cheaper DC CO2
glass laser tubes from China and utilising open-source and cheaper CNC motion-control
hardware, we have seen a large growth in home-based laser engravers and cutters.

With prices ranging from as low as US$350 for a basic laser engraver, more and more people
are looking at laser technology to explore their creative talents.

WHY ONLY CHINESE LASERS?

Because that is, by far, what people are buying as an affordable home, hobby, home business,
or small business laser, right now.

American and European machines start at around $25,000 for a small unit, compared to $1500
for a moderately sized and powered Chinese engraver.

If you have $25,000 spare, you probably don’t need this information.

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 TERMINOLOGY

A lot of the issues I see every day is due to improper use of terminology. If we can’t use the
same language, we can’t communicate effectively.

This is a non-exhaustive list of commonly used terminology that should make your initial foray
into using a laser engraver less stressful.

• Controller – the computer inside the laser engraver that decodes the instructions you
send into movement by the steppers and thus, a pretty engraving or cut-out object.
• Engraving – burning an image into your material. Also called ‘scanning’
• Cutting – using the laser to cut right through the material, or to cut to a desired depth
(as in the case of edge-lit acrylic signs).
• Laser – the laser tube that produces the beam of light.
• Laser engraver – the machine that contains a laser, steppers, controller, power supply,
rails, etc.
• Stepper – an electric motor that is designed to move a specific amount at a given
interval – a step.
• Chassis – the metal frame and box that contains all the parts making up your laser
engraver.
• Power supply – a transformer that takes your household power (110V, 220V) and
converts it into power the laser engraver’s components can use – 24V, 36V, many
kilovolts for the laser tube. You will have at least two power supplies (or PSU’s) in each
machine – one to drive the electronics, one to drive the laser tube itself.
• Rails/Tracks – the hardware that the moving parts run on. They can be as basic as a
wheel on a piece of aluminium, or as complex as a sealed multi-bearing precision
assembly, designed for no maintenance over many years.
• Head – the moving part that carries the mirror and lens that bends and focuses the
laser beam onto the object you are cutting or engraving.
• Mirror – used to bend the laser beam to follow the moving parts along the path
described by your design.
• Lens – at the bottom of the moving head. Focuses the beam onto the material.
• Air-assist – at the bottom of the head, blows air over the object being lasered to cool
and clear away dust and smoke, as well as to increase the oxygen to the work piece

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 and improve the efficiency of the laser. Both to keep the lens clean and help with
cutting. ‘Air’ can be replaced with gases to aid cutting or reduce burning.
• Bed – the base of the working area. Typically, the bed describes the area the laser
beam can traverse. So, a 5030 machine has a bed and working area of 500mm x
300mm, a 6090 has a working area of 600mm x 900mm. Chinese machines are almost
entirely specified in mm, not inches.
• Home/homing – moving the laser head to its resting, safe position, out of the way of
material, etc.
• Origin – where the laser controller considers the start point for a job. Nearly always the
same as the home position.
• Overdrive – set input power to more than the amount recommended by the tube
manufacturer.
• Ammeter/MilliAmmeter – a display that shows you how much power is being sent to the
laser tube. This is how you control how powerful the laser beam is. The display can be
analogue or digital.
• Laser Diode – a solid-state laser (created on a ‘chip’, not in a glass tube) used by CO2
laser manufacturers as a pointer to indicate the location of the head for focusing duties.
Used by the uninformed to cut through thin ply after 10-20 goes around. Cheap and
reliable, but not able to perform much work as they are slow and underpowered. When
considering something like a K40, not even that cheap. They do have their benefits, but
we will not be considering them here.
• PWM/TTL – Phase Width Modulation/Transistor-to-Transistor logic. A way of adjusting
the power on the laser. A controller equipped with PWM/TTL will be able to send a
signal to a laser power supply and modify the power supply’s output, thus modifying the
power of the laser.

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 QUESTIONS – SILLY AND OTHERWISE

Some of the common questions that get asked, answered.

• Do I need a CO2 cylinder? No – the CO2 is inside the tube, it doesn’t come out. It’s called a
CO2 laser because the gas that is excited is CO2, among other stabilising trace gases.
• I want to cut metal, which machine do I buy? – A $10,000+ one. Metal is very hard to cut with a
CO2 laser – you need at least 150W, but really more like 300W and oxygen assist, which
makes things very burny and dangerous. Some people will laugh at the $10,000 figure
because THEY cut metal with their $2,500 CO2 machine, but they are probably changing
tubes every 500 hours and risking all manner of house fires and personal safety issues.
There’s a lot more to cutting metal than just power – the machine needs to be
constructed to do it, safely, and they use different mechanical components and lenses
that can handle the very high heat generated. Steel needs to reach around 3200C to
ablate. The generated heat needs to go somewhere and the splatter, splatters. Google
some pictures of CO2 machines that have burned up cutting metal when they weren’t
designed to.
• But can I cut metal, Really? Yes. If you want to. If your machine has the power to do so and
you want to do it, sure. Go for it. You may have some unexpected side-effects, like
cracked lenses, etc., but if you stand by with a fire extinguisher and only do it
occasionally, it’s probably not going to burn the house down.
• Which is the best machine to buy? For home use, probably a Trotec. They are around $30,000
and up, for a medium size one. Should be categorised with ‘what is the best car to buy’
and ‘which is the best flavour of ice cream’ as far sensible questions go.
• Which is the best machine for me to buy? A much better question. That depends on what you
want to do and how much your budget is. Go and look at “

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 • Buying your first laser”
• Can I make ‘peew, peew’ noises when I cut? Yes you can. It’s recommended. Make a ‘Figure 6
- laser operator's badge’ badge as one of your first products and wear it with pride!
• Why doesn’t the laser burn the mirrors and lenses? Because they are much, much harder than
the laser can cut, but you do raise a good point – cheap mirrors and lenses don’t last.
And given that an entire set of good-quality lenses can be had for as little as $30, it’s
false economy to buy cheap. We will cover such things further on.

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 LASERS – IT’S SCIENCE!

Lasers are relatively simple devices: excite atoms enough by stimulating them with electricity or
radio waves, and they will give off photons (light particles). Excite them in a particular way and
they will all give off photons of the same basic type (wavelength).

Harness those photons by wrangling them with technology, round them up and point them all in
the same direction, compress them down to a pinpoint source and you have a L.A.S.E.R. (Light
Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation).

There are a number of ways to stimulate the emission of radiation (photons, in this case) and
they make up the various types of laser.

The US manufacturers tend to favour RF (radio frequency) lasers, the Chinese prefer DC (direct
current) lasers – they each have their advantages and disadvantages.

RF lasers are highly accurate, have a tiny beam (laser spot size) and are small in size. They can
be refilled and refurbished and only need air-cooling as they are relatively efficient.

DC lasers are less accurate, have a bigger beam (but it’s still tiny), get longer as the power
increases, require water-cooling, and cannot be refilled economically. They are essentially
disposable.

RF lasers are expensive. DC lasers are cheap. Some RF lasers are cheaper than DC lasers,
but that’s because they are 25W vs 300W.

One is not ‘better’ than the other – they fill different niches in requirements and technology.

If you are a hobbyist with a budget of $2000, you will not be using an RF laser. Even a moderate
one, say 40W, uses a tube costing $5000 or more. A comparable DC laser costs around $100.

So, for you, a DC laser is ‘better’ than an RF laser.

You could argue for months about which is ‘better’ – just don’t. Accept that they are different
and suit different people in different ways with fulfilling different needs.

Some people will argue that ‘American’ lasers are more powerful – they’re not. A watt is a watt.

What they are, is able to focus their watts on a smaller spot, thus they have higher ‘light
pressure per cm2’ – or more burny because they focus the same power, more finely. Typically
an RF laser at 40W can cut what a DC laser needs 60-80W to cut. You can use expensive

10
compound HDR lenses with Chinese DC lasers that give you a very fine spot, which brings them
very close to the performance of an RF laser. They cost ~$500-800.

‘Laser’ describes the actual glass or metal tube that emits light, which makes the material hot
enough to ablate itself away. It doesn’t (shouldn’t!) burn – it ablates or erodes away by heating
the object to a temperature at which it outgasses itself, leaving a hole where it used to be.
Sometimes smoke is involved, sometimes flame - this is burning and is not recommended.

The ‘art’ in laser engraving and cutting is to get your settings to the point where you cut or
engrave without burning. Move the beam and your hole becomes a track. Only ablate away a
certain amount of material, and you ‘engrave’ or ‘mark’. Ablate completely and you cut right
through.

Adjusting the power and speed of the motion control mechanism (the moving bits inside the
case) and the focus of the laser beam, determines how much is ablated away and thus, whether
you engrave, mark or cut through the object. Get it wrong and you burn.

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HARDWARE

From here on, we shall use the term ‘laser engraver’ to refer to the machine itself. Even if you
never engrave and have bought a laser cutter, we’re still going to call it a laser engraver. Just
because

Lasers are basically CNC (computer numerically controlled – or told where to go and what to do
by software) machines. They have the same basic components as a CNC router, a CNC plasma
cutter or a CNC pick-and-pack machine, except the tool they use to effect their work is a laser
tube.

All laser engravers, no matter where they were made, have the same basic components: A
controller to… control things; a set of tracks or rails to move along in a controlled manner;
motors and drive mechanisms to move; power supplies to convert wall power to power the
devices can use; a laser tube, to cut and engrave things; a secure case to keep all the burny
bits inside. OK, except for galvanometer-head machines, which we aren’t discussing. So there.

American machines are specified in inches. The rest of the world specifies in millimetres

Everybody measures their laser tubes in Watts. Some give the average power, some the upper
maximum (because it couldn’t be as simple as having ONE number, could it?), and some a
range from average to maximum.

Some also lie, the same way car manufacturers do.

FOR DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF THE MAJOR INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS, GO TO:

Components of a Laser Engraver

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SOFTWARE

The software toolchain for using a laser as a maker is very similar to that used to print or create
graphic images for the web (‘toolchain’ is just a geek way of saying ‘software applications’. We
use that term when we need to use two or more applications to get from our idea to the finished
object – thus, a chain of tools, a toolchain!).

Lasers are used in two ways: for engraving and for cutting. That’s all they can do. Sometimes
you will cut to engrave, but you will never engrave to cut.

Of course, there’s always the geeky types that want to both cut and engrave in the same job...
we allow for that. Heck, we encourage it!

This is not going to teach you how to use the software – there are too many variations for that,
but hopefully will inform you of the major differences which will allow you to make an informed
choice when it comes to choosing or using software to make up your specific toolchain.

Some laser control applications are:

• LightBurn
• LaserWeb 4
• RDWorks
• LaserWorks

Not every app works with every laser. You will need to check, and to check whether it is
compatible with your computer.

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BITMAPS - ENGRAVING

For the purposes of engraving, we need an image – a bitmap - then to turn that bitmap image
into a series of instructions for a machine whose entire being is designed to burn, baby, burn
(OK, ablate, but you know what I mean…). To do so needs an image management tool, such as
Photoshop, Photo Paint, Paint Shop, GIMP, or whatever image manager you prefer. I am a
Photoshop user, but won’t hold that against you Paint Shop dudes. We are accepting of the
lame and the halt…

As the tool we’re using has only two modes – laser on or not – we need to lose the colour
information from the image – into black and white or greyscale.

Now, ‘Greyscale?’ you say… Yes. Some controllers allow you to vary the amount of power to
the laser and thus you end up with lighter and darker ablation, which approximates white
through grey to black in B&W pictures.

Then, we take our greyscale or black and white image and convert it to a format the laser
engraver can understand. To do this you use ‘laser control software’. This comes in many
flavours, nearly always associated with the controller in your laser engraver. There are
exceptions, which I will come to.

Some controllers are unable to adjust the power (typically the ‘K40’ or 3020 Chinese laser, and
the lower-end of the market that use the same M2-Nano controller as we find in the K40) and for
those machines, we need to use an old newspaper printing trick to fool the eyes – a ‘moire’ or
‘halftone’ treatment of the image.

As you can see, by making the dots a different size, you fool the eye into thinking that they are
lighter or darker than each other, where they are really just black, but different sizes.

This is an art form in its own right and not one I am going to venture into any further.

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For users of the higher-end, RF-laser-equipped engravers, they typically have a smart printer
driver. This means that you can ‘print’ from your favourite app – be it Corel Draw, Photoshop,
Illustrator, Inkscape, etc.

Given that these machines sell for many tens of thousands of dollars and if you’re well-heeled
enough to be able to afford one, you can afford to pay for training, I’m not going to go any
further with those. If you want to learn more, Trotec Canada have a great range of tutorials on
YouTube that can teach you much more than I can in one introductory document.

The other main use of a laser engraver is to cut objects out. For this, you will need to work in
vectors.

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VECTORS – CUTTING

A vector is a file that tells the laser engraver to go from position to position and what to do on
the way there. Unlike a bitmap, it is just a series of instructions, and unlike a bitmap, it can be
scaled – indefinitely – up and down. It can also be edited without any loss of fidelity.

For example, a very simple vector is this:

And the code that defines it, in part, is something like this:

</foreignObject>

<g i:extraneous="self">

<rect x="2.5" y="2.5" fill="#FFFFFF" stroke="#000000" stroke-width="5" stroke-

miterlimit="10" width="162.5" height="162.5"/>

</g>

The key part being, ‘rect x=”2.5” y=”2.5” stroke-width=”5”’ – which says draw a box 2.5” x 2.5”
with a line 5 pixels wide.

If you need a 5” square, instead of 2.5”, just drag it and make it bigger – the detail cannot be
lost, because it’s just a series of instructions on what to do. The “2.5” will change to “5.0” - This
is why lasers (and other CNC machines) and vectors go hand-in-hand.

To work with vectors requires a vector editor – like Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Inkscape.
They can also handle bitmaps, so you can create composite images with your bitmap graphic
and your vector and send it on to your laser controller software.

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Vectors are given a ‘layer’ in the software which allows you to define things like how fast, what
power to use when going through the vector. This will define how you engrave or cut.

Essentially, speed and power are the determining factor when using a laser – want to cut
thicker material – go slower at higher power. Find you’re burning your material, go faster at
lower power.

This is the essence of getting to know your machine, your material and the kind of job you want
to run.

As it’s known in the industry: Feeds and Speeds.

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SCAN AND CUT – BITMAP ENGRAVE AND VECTOR CUT

Often you will want to scan (engrave) and image and then cut that image out of the material.
You can di that by combining the scanning, raster engraving image, with a vector image the
laser engraver uses to cut. You might cut sections out of your engraving for emphasis, or for
artistic expression – no problem. That’s what laser control software was designed to do.

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 3. BUYING YOUR FIRST LASER

And so, we get to the bit you really wanted to know… what to buy?

Before you buy, you should do some homework.

• Set a budget – even a moveable one. The worst thing for a laserist to hear from a
prospective new maker is ‘what’s the best machine to buy?’ – it makes as much sense as
asking ‘which is the best car to buy?’. The next worst thing is ‘budget doesn’t matter’ – it
marks you out as being a fool – best avoided at all costs.
• What to buy? Decide what you want to make. Look at Pinterest, look at the laser groups
on Facebook and google. That will give you an idea of what size of machine you need. If
you’re making 50mm jewelry and 250mm acrylic signs, you probably don’t need a 1390.
• Think about where you’re going to put it. My first big machine (a 6090 – or 600mm x
900mm) weighed 280Kg, was 1200x1200x1800mm in size and was too big to get into my
small workroom, so I ended up in the garage.
• Think about your experience with machinery – are you comfortable around computer-
based technologies like 3D printing, CNC routers, etc., or are you a complete novice? It
will definitely factor into what you buy, and more importantly, how much you pay.
• Are you just wanting to play with the technology, or are you setting up a business, home
business, or adding to an existing business? If you are just dipping your toe, you may
want to visit some makerspaces first to try the technology out before investing money.

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SETTING YOUR BUDGET

As well as the machine, you will need to get rid of the gases and by-products of the lasering
process. Depending on where you locate the machine, you could need several hundred dollars
in piping, venting and air extraction. Depending on the regulations where you live, you may also
have to either treat your output with a filter, or pipe it high up above, so it doesn’t waft into
someone’s window. Or, you could just stick a pipe out the window and call it good. Your call.

If you have little experience with this sort of technology, you may need to factor in training and
support. Community classes and maker spaces are good places to get training, and to search
out affordable support.

Not every manufacturer will have active support where you live – if you buy your machine on
eBay and it is shipped from China, your daily window for support may be short and not as
effective as buying from a local vendor.

Seeing all these really affordable units online may stimulate your creative juices, but often the
experience is less juicy. If something seems really cheap, there’s usually a reason for that: It is
made cheap; it is sold as a commodity unit with no warranty or support; it is not what the vendor
is representing it to be;

The general rule of buying anything online holds true – if it seems the deal is too good to be
true, it probably is.

The difference between buying from a dealer and buying the same thing online can be huge. My
first ‘big’ laser was a 600 x 900mm unit bought from China direct. It was $3,800 including all
shipping and import costs. The exact same unit bought from a local vendor was more than
$18,000. Then he wanted $1,400 to install and set up and train.

Not for me - but, I have 40+ years electronic and mechanical engineering behind me, so I was
confident in my ability to successfully navigate any pitfalls. I had also spent quite a lot of time
working with lasers, had buiult my own CNC router and small diode laser, and had done a
TONNE of research!

If you are confident in your ability to overcome technical obstacles, buy direct from China. If you
have an active maker community around you that can help if you have problems, seek them out
before you buy. I will help anyone navigate the process of buying online and importing their
machine and you will find others in your local area will too.

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Thinking that the price on the ticket is the end of your budget is a mistake.

I paid $3,100 ex-factory for my latest machine, but by the time I had spares, accessories, etc.
has accounted for wiring and plumbing at the other end, the total bill was closer to $6,000.

Of course not everyone will want to hold spares, not everyone will choose the accessories I
chose, but be aware that there are costs in addition to the ticket price.

WHAT TO BUY?

If your needs are moderate – i.e. you don’t want to make a full-sized laser-cut yacht or house –
you will find a desk-side laser to be a good start. By desk-side I mean a 5030 or 6040 sized
machine (500mm x 300mm, 600mm x 400mm bed size) – or for those still using tenth-century
units of measurement, 12” x 18”, 16” x 24”. Any bigger than that and you’re into machines on
their own stand, weighing a couple of hundred kilos or more. From the 6040, the next common
size is a 6090 – 600 x 900mm – which, in my case, weighed 280kg and stood halfway to my
armpit, took up most of a wall and required an effort to install.

My feeling is, if you’re ready for a 6090 or 1390, you are probably know quite a bit already about
these machines, so we will concentrate mainly on the smaller desktop/deskside machines.

Besides, the 6090, 1390, 1325 units are just bigger versions of the same thing.

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 4. COMPONENTS OF A LASER ENGRAVER

All lasers have the same components: A case to hold the bits, a tube, some power, a way of
moving, a way of telling it how to move.

Of course there are many discrete components inside that make all that happen, but that’s
basically it – control, power, movement, tool.

Here we will explain, in some detail, the individual components.

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 LASER TUBES – NOT BULBS, OR BOTTLES, OR GUNS – TUBES.

A laser is a tube of gas, excited by high voltage to give off photons.

There, that’s all you needed to know about lasers in one ‘easy-to-answer-teacher’ sentence.

But, for a maker, there’s more to learn - but it’s all pretty straightforward.

Glass CO2 DC lasers (or ‘lasers’ as we will call them going forward) are categorised by the
number of Watts of power they deliver. To get more Watts, just make the tube bigger and feed it
more electric power.

This makes it possible to eyeball a laser tube and tell fairly exactly what you are looking at,
without needing to refer to a maker’s specification (and they lie… not all, but enough to want to
keep them honest).

For example, a 40W laser is ~800mm x 80mm. If you have bought a 50W laser where the tube
is 800mm long, they lied. A 50W tube is ~1000mm long.

Here is a list of common sizes in Watts, with common length, diameter and basic power
settings: This is not exhaustive – some manufacturers 50W units are 50mm, some are 80mm –
you need to check. This is a general guide for the length and diameter, but power settings
are specific to each machine. You can safely use the long-term power setting on your tube, as
that is relatively common and low enough not to damage anything.

I have combined a number of ‘name’ manufacturers (EFR, SPT, Reci, WD) specifications in
compiling this list, but you can’t beat actually looking up your own tube’s spec.

If you damage your machine as a result of using my figures for your laser, you will only do it
once, hopefully.

Output Length Diameter (Maximum) Long-Term Operating Maximum

(watts) (mm) (mm) Watts Power * Power * Power *

40W 800-850mm 80 50W 20mA 22mA 25mA

50W 1000 80 60W 20mA 22mA 25mA

60W 1050 80 70W 20mA 22mA 25mA

80W 1250 80 95W 25mA 28mA 32mA

100W 1450 80 120W 28mA 30mA 35mA

23
 120W 1650 80 150W 28mA 30mA 35mA

150W 1850 80 165W 28mA 30mA 35mA

170W 2050 80 185W 28mA 30mA 35mA

Figure 1 - Relative size to power

* Many manufacturers give three input power figures – rated power, maximum power and long-
term power. Operating, or rated power is the power input they use to ‘rate’ their tube – you put
22mA into an 850mm x 80mm tube and you get ~40W of light energy out the other side. It’s the
figure you usually see when a laser is rated. ‘My laser is 100W’ – in reality, the laser will be
putting out any amount of power from 0-130W, depending on how hard you ‘drive’ it – how much
power you put in from your power supply. But, they needed a figure, so the accepted one is the
one the manufacturer is happy with running his tube at for good longevity and performance.

If you ‘overdrive’ your tube - by putting 25mA in instead of 22mA, you get ~50W out. But… the
harder you drive your laser, the shorter the lifespan, as more atoms of gas inside are converted
to photons (light particles).

They also give a ‘long term’ figure of a couple of mA less than operating power that will allow
you to get good performance from your tube, at a much increased tube life.

For example, I use a couple of Reci W4 tubes in one of my machines:

The sticker on the tube says ‘100W’, but the hand-written tested power is 118.4W and the
specified maximum output is 130W.

Confusing, isn’t it?

To make matters worse, Reci give FOUR figures – test current (which gave the 118.4W figure),
maximum working current, (which will give ~130W), running current (which will give ~100W) and
long-life current, which will extend the life of the tube from 6,000 hours to over 10,000 but
probably only delivers ~85W ( I should really test this with my expensive laser power probe, but
life’s too short).

24
All tubes from all manufacturers are the same in this way – putting the maximum input power
can reduce the life to as little as 1000 hours – or less, if you exceed the rating. Running at
Operating Power gives the ‘as sold’ output power, for the ‘as sold’ tube life. Running at a couple
of mA under that can significantly increase the life of your tube, at not much less in cutting and
engraving speed.

This is why it is really important to check and calibrate your power supply. We will go over this
procedure later on.

And, you may have noticed that I use the ‘~‘ symbol a lot. This is simply because the variance in
tubes, even within one batch where they used the exact same gas mix, means that there will
always be a variance in rated power. I have two tubes within 100 of each other in serial number,
made on the same day to the same specification. They are both ‘100W’ Reci W4’s, but one is
measured by the factory at 118.4W and one at 119.8W. At their operating input, if I could
calibrate it that the lesser one was dead on 100W, the other should be 101.4W. And that’s Reci
– one of the best manufacturers in the business with very good manufacturing repeatability.
Lesser manufacturers produce even wilder variances – I have seen 12% difference between
tubes in the same series. At ‘40W’ that means one could be running at 35W, which is the
difference between just cutting cleanly and not quite cutting cleanly.

Don’t assume your settings will be the same as your mate who has the same machine – they
almost invariably won’t be.

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MANUFACTURERS

In China there are now a couple of hundred people making laser machines - actually welding,
bending steel, installing components. As well as that, there are a few thousand that act as
middlemen, buying unbranded machines and selling them on eBay, AliExpress, etc. But for all of
those, there are only a handful of component manufacturers – the people making tubes,
controllers, motors, etc.

Tubes are particularly difficult to pin down to a maker, unless clearly branded, as a lot of the
bigger makers are OEM (original equipment manufacturer) for the make-a-buck-on-the-
bandwagon crowd.

Looking at the outer case and thinking that ‘it’s the same as xyz brand’ is not a good idea. There
are manufacturers making cases, who sell them on to integrators to fit components to.
Externally, they look identical, inside they are very different.

Specifications are the only thing you can go buy, and first-hand reputation.

26
 LENSES

Lenses do two things – define the spot size and set the depth of focus. Both are important in
laser engraving and cutting.

SPOT SIZE

The spot size is the diameter of the area of the beam where it contacts the material. The smaller
the spot size, the more the energy of the laser is concentrated and therefore the higher the laser
energy density.

Figure 2- relative laser spot size

These two lasers have the same power – 40W – but the RF laser has a spot size 1/10th of that
of the DC laser, and the relative energy density will be 10X that of the DC laser.

To complicate matters, advanced lens technology can reduce the spot size of a Chinese DC
laser to approximate that of an RF laser – more on that later.

27
FOCAL LENGTH

The depth of focus is the ‘sweet spot’ where the energy density is the highest. Different focal
length lenses give different depth of focus characteristics; A 2”/50.8mm lens is the most
versatile, giving the finest spot size for cutting and engraving. However, when cutting thicker
materials, the depth of focus causes the shoulders of the cut to be pronounced – in other words,
the cut is like a V, with the top surface wider than the bottom. If you are going to be cutting
thicker material (10mm +) you may want to look at a 2.5” = 4” lens. They will give a more
constant shoulder, but your overall energy density will be lower and spot size increased.

One way of compensating is to use a more complicated lens, known as an HPD lens (High
Power Density). This uses multiple lenses to focus an even smaller spot, thereby increasing the
energy density.

It is this increased energy density that allows an RF laser or Fiber laser to, for example, engrave
metal without treatment. They inherently have a smaller spot size, therefore the energy density
for a given Watt of power is higher.

28
29
 POWER SUPPLIES

The power supply (or supplies) take your household 110v or 220/240v AC power and convert it
to DC that the machine can use.

Some laser engravers have one power supply, which provides power to the laser and to the
controller and to the motors. The ‘K40’ is one such example.

Figure 3 - K40 PSU

Some higher-spec’d machines have three or more power supplies (PSU’s) – one for the laser,
one for the controller and one or more for the stepper/servo motors.

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Figure 4 - multiple power supplies in a 130W machine

As a general rule of thumb, an indicator of better quality is whether the machine has separate
power for controller and motors. Most motors are specified to run at 36V – they give their best
power and torque figures at 36V without getting too hot. If you run them at 24V, you won’t be
getting the best performance you could, although it could be quite adequate.

31
The cheaper end of the 5030 and 6040 laser engravers use the same as the K40 – one PSU to
drive everything. They are to be avoided. A more common configuration is a PSU for the laser
and one for both the controller and motors. This, in a machine of such modest size, is quite
adequate, but you can upgrade it cheaply enough to give you separate supplies for motors and
controller. This is a sensible modification to make and will ensure your main controller PSU is
not stressed. This will be covered in Modifications.

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 CONTROLLERS

A controller is a microcomputer that takes the data you feed it in the form of a cutting file and
converts that into movement and laser power instructions.

At its most simple, it can turn the laser on an off, rapidly, and move the laser head into the right
place at the right time.

That’s pretty much all you need to know about controllers, unless you want to know what to buy
and why – in which case, read on:

Some controllers are combination controller and stepper driver, some are just controllers and
they connect to external stepper drivers (we will cover drivers further on) but they all perform the
same function – turning your design into a finished object by controlling the movement of the
machine.

You may have heard the term ‘Open Source’ when describing things in the maker world. Simply,
‘open source’ means the designer of the item has made the basic files of his design open to the
public, to copy and change and improve upon. In laser world, open source controllers and laser
engravers exist, as well as many components and techniques to do with cutting and engraving.

My first personal laser (as opposed to one I worked on for my job) was one I designed myself. I
sat down with SketchUp and an open page of OpenBuilds v-slot specifications and started
drawing. It is open source and includes many open source components, like the TinyG
controller, the v-slot track that the moving parts run on and the laser driver that fires the 7W
Nuchia NUBM44 diode.

For the purposes of Chinese CO2 laser engravers, there are only a few common controllers:
The M2 Nano as fitted to all K40 machines and many 5030 and 6040 machines; The RuiDa

33
DSP controllers as fitted to the better quality and more expensive end of the Chinese-produced
market; The AnyWell and Trocen DSP controllers as fitted to more moderately-priced machines.

M2 NANO CONTROLLER

The M2 Nano is a cheap ($65, complete) controller that has built-in stepper drivers. It is very
basic and doesn’t offer a lot in the way of options for configuration.

One thing it doesn’t have, that all the rest of the controllers I will describe do, is that it doesn’t
allow any power control of the laser, except for on/off. There is no PWM/TTL power gradient that
allows you to fire now at 50%, now at 66%, now at 80%, now at 15%, to give you smooth
greyscale images as you would see in a black and white image.

For what it was designed for – making rubber stamps – it’s perfect. You don’t need greyscale
cutting rubber. But for a lot of what makers want, it’s a significant enough impediment so as to
make the choice simple – don’t buy one.

If you only cut, and don’t engrave, or rarely engrave, the M2 Nano isn’t as much of an
impediment as cutting is basically on/off anyway.

RUIDA RDC6442G

The RuiDa Technology Company of Shenzhen, in China, makes some of the best affordable
motion-controllers available.

For the bargain price of around $300, you get a fully-featured controller that has an immense
number of configurable options. It uses a very high-speed FPGA-DSP VLSI (Field-
Programmable Gate Array-Digital Signal Processor Very Large Scale Integration – very fast
processor chip that process a large number of mathematical operations that are performed
quickly and repeatedly) that processes our cutting file and sends the resulting commands to the
laser and motor drivers at a high rate.

It is the holy grail of affordable Chinese laser engravers.

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It comes with a passable set of software, and a good range of controller panels. It has USB and
Ethernet interfaces, and a decent amount of on-board storage to allow you to send big, complex
cutting jobs to it.

As well as the software that comes with it, the popularity of RuiDa controllers means that
developers have taken an interest and produced good-quality software to control RuiDa-
equipped machines. LightBurn, being the stand-out example.

ANYWELL/TROCEN

AnyWell/Trocen’s AW708C is another quality DSP controller in the $300 range. While not as
popular with makers as the RuiDa, it’s a good controller with lots of configurable options. As with
the RuiDa, it has an older version of Corel used as a control UI, as well as an app – LaserCad –
and a plug in for AutoCad.

Windows only, as LightBurn doesn’t yet support Trocen controllers.

SMOOTHIEBOARD

Smoothie and its various iterations made by Cohesion3D and MKS, enjoys a reputation among
DIYers as a decent controller for 3D printers and laser engravers.

It has it’s limitations, especially when engraving high—density graphics, but as a controller for
cutting, it’s a very good option. It comes with built-in stepper drivers, as well as the option of
cabling to external drivers.

Ethernet, SD card, USB interfaces and the ability to run a number of different firmware options
ensures the Smoothie will have a place among the DIY laser community.

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Smoothie is supported by LightBurn.

GRBL/MARLIN

TINYG

ARDUINO CNC CONTROLLERS

36
 SERVOS AND STEPPERS

RAILS AND TRACKS

MIRRORS

COOLING

AIR ASSIST

AIR EXTRACTION

37
 5. LASER MODELS AND TYPES

THE ‘K40’ OR 3020 40W DESKTOP LASER.

I am in two minds about these machines. They represent great value for money – I pay $330
each for them – but also represent the absolute bare minimum of function, and often they are
made poorly.

This is, in part, because we want them that way. We love cheap stuff.

The K40 was designed as a rubber stamp maker. It has a clamp for holding a tray of rubber, a
dial to set power, an on and off switch and laser on and test switches. If you’re lucky, it has
switches for moving your laser head into position.

For all its faults, as a rubber stamp maker, the K40 is a fine machine.

However, keen Western hobbyists saw that they could get a 40W CO2 laser for a fraction of the
cost of what else was on the market (at the time, only US and European lasers at many tens of
thousands of dollars) and they swooped on them. They were more than happy to cope with the
idiosyncrasies of such a primitive machine and set about improving them with upgraded
controllers, increased bed size, moveable z-axis, etc. This was, in a great part, what fuelled the
CO2 home laser maker revolution.

But…

The company that makes the K40 (and there is really only one – Nurxiovo, who also makes
washing machines and dryers - but they are finished by half-a-thousand manufacturers in
factories and bedrooms across China) has done very little to improve the machine since it’s
introduction. The ‘new’ K40D introduced a digital panel, and in the process made the machine
less competent by removing the one vital element – a milliamp gauge.

They still use the same crappy rail mechanism, shockingly primitive controller, and dodgy wiring.
Some manufacturers buy them as a bare chassis and install their own electronics, mirrors, laser
head, etc., but a lot just buy a turnkey box from Nurxiovo, fit a 40W tube and sell it on.

And some of those ‘manufacturers’ are Chinese students operating out of their basement to
make a bit of spare cash.

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They invent a brand name, save up and buy five K40s and set to work with their AliExpress
account. But some are companies making 75,000 machines a year with a staff of PhDs and
half-a-thousand workers in a clean-room factory unit. They typically buy a shell and fit their own
tube and mirrors, their own wiring, and configure and test the machine.

You pay more for those.

The thing about the K40 is, it’s actually pretty damned good for such a cheap machine. We will
go through the pros and cons.

CONS:

• Cheap. Really cheap. Not a high-quality, well-engineered product. The tolerances are not
NASA-like, more like something you put together from ikea when drunk.
• No PWM/TTL power control of the laser – so it’s controlled only by turning the laser on
and off by your control software, no greyscale.
• Limited software – the K40 controller is primitive and doesn’t use a common format, so
you’re stuck with the Corel Draw clone that it ships with, or K40 Whisperer, which is great
and free.
• The air extraction is anaemic, the water cooling is a bucket, and the safety features are
missing. You need to spend a bunch of money to upgrade it to where it is safe and
reliable.
• There’s no moving z-axis, so you need to move the material to where the focal point is.
Not the easiest thing in the world to achieve, in a 300x200mm work space. This is
something that is not appreciated by new users – If you put a 5mm piece of acrylic on the
bed, it’s sitting 5mm ABOVE where the focal point is. The machine is designed to focus
at the level of the bed, where the clamp holds the work. 5mm out of focus is huge.

PROS:

• Cheap. Really cheap – business inkjet printer cheap.

• Powerful. A correctly set-up K40 can do a heap of work.
• Simple. Not much can go wrong.
• Common. Parts are easy to get.
• Knowledge base is deep, so fixes and mods abound. If you’re handy, or someone you
know is, for a few hundred bucks you can modify it to be a half-decent laser engraver. A
few hundred more bucks and you have good extraction, safety and cooling. At which
point, you’re more than 2/3 of the way to the price of a ‘proper’ laser engraver.

39
 People swear by them. I have owned – but not a one of them was stock. They all had
upgraded controllers, installed safety switches, upgraded rail systems, and properly-tuned
power supplies to give long life to the tube.

Would I recommend them? Yes, with caveats:

If you are handy and inquisitive and like a challenge, buy a K40 – they’re a blast. If you want a
laser as a hobby crafting device and you don’t know which wire is phase, neutral and earth
without checking, don’t get one. If you don’t own your own digital multimeter and know how to
use it, don’t buy one. If you don’t know how to test and measure the output of the laser PSU,
even after watching a YouTube video then don’t buy one.

40
 5030 (500 X 300MM) DESKTOP LASER

Also known in north America as the ‘Blue and White’ or ‘Black and Yellow’ or ‘Red and Black’
laser – although how the chassis colour is relevant, I’m at a loss as to know.

These are ubiquitous Chinese manufactured basic laser engravers. They are cheap, reliable
and some offer some significant improvements over the K40.

6040 (600 X 400MM) DESKSIDE LASER

6090 (600 X 900MM) STANDALONE LASER

A good Pro/Semi Pro laser

1290/1390 (1200-1300 X 900MM) STANDALONE LASER

A professional laser for large scale manufacturing

DOUBLE-TUBE LASERS

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 6. CHOOSING YOUR LASER

Why would I pick this one over that one? (the dilemma of choice).

And that is the twenty-thousand-dollar question…

Why choose Brand A over Brand X?

There are a number of big marketing manufacturers out of China that spend a lot of money to
get you to buy their goods. They have foreign agents that they route sales to and they try to
position themselves at the top of the market as having better quality or support or technology
than the others, and in many cases most of that is true.

For example, using RuiDa controllers, Reci tubes and MeanWell servos, power supplies and
drivers, S&A chillers, good quality air-assist pumps and extraction fans, sets them apart from the
eBay integrator that buys the cheapest components and hopes the machines don’t break down
within the warranty period.

Getting the machines approved by UL and the TUV, registering them with the various
governmental safety organisations sets them apart again from the quick-turnover, low margin,
AliExpress vendors.

Having complete documentation, in readable English, is another indication that the company
takes the Western markets seriously and wants to ensure they have happy customers.

Specifications alone don’t determine quality.

I’ve seen some pretty expensive ‘brand name’ Chinese lasers that, on the inside, are very poorly
finished. Poor electrical termination and routing, poor labelling, bad documentation (or no
documentation), badly earthed chassis, badly executed welds, screws not tightened to spec and
not fitted with nut-lock. Expensive tubes and controllers with cheap steppers/servos and drivers
and power supplies. Under-rated power supplies. Poorly adjusted, or unadjusted, power
supplies. Deliberately overdriven tubes… ifd you can think of it, it’s probably been done.

The best thing is to get personal recommendations from people that have experience in
MULTIPLE machines and with multiple suppliers.

42
So often we see on Facebook and Reddit ‘buy these, they are great’, only to find out it’s their
first laser and they have nothing to compare it with, and they had a bunch of problems which
they ‘easily fixed – it was only down for three or four weeks’.

SMH.

SUPPORT

Support is a key factor for many users. If the only support you can get is from China over some
sort of instant messaging application, and you’re not particularly technical, I can guarantee your
buying experience will be poor.

Learning as much about your machine before you buy it is essential. If you just assume, you will
get burned.

Assuming that when they say ‘DSP controller’ that you’re getting a RuiDa, and you will be able
to use LightBurn, you may be disappointed when you receive your machine and find it has a
TopNoted controller, with a very sketchy manual and some buggy software that only runs on
Windows 7 and earlier.

When they say ‘top quality 100W laser’, and you find that to get 100W means you need to
overdrive your tube, shortening the life of both the tube and the power supply, you will wish you
asked more questions before you paid.

BE SURE OF WHAT YOU ARE BUYING!

SHIPPING

Then there’s the shipping…

When you get a call from the customs broker asking how you are going to pay him and when
are you picking up this 3CuM crate from 400KM away asd you will start to incur storage fees in
48 hours, you are going to regret not paying more attention to the shipping details.

When you buy from eBay or Amazon, you are relatively protected, assuming you read the fine
print.

43
 An experienced business laser user, on his third machine, was recommending a
medium-sized machine for a friend – the price was a reasonable $2500 for a decent
spec, and he sent me the ebay page to get my opinion. Straight away I went to the
shipping, because it was a low price for the specification, and sure enough ‘the
price is only to a shipping port of your choice in China. It is the buyers
responsibility to arrange transport to his country’.

He had completely missed the small print.

For the machine he was looking at, that would add $1200-1500 to the cost of
landing it in his driveway in the USA.

Then there’s the taxes, duties and regulations you may need to pass. I have heard of machines
that have had to have been left abandoned, when the regulatory agencies wouldn’t allow them
into the country.

I have lived in Asia for over 20 years and have done business in china for 12 or more. I am
comfortably with importing and have a freight broker, insurer, forwarder. I know the difference
between FOB, CIF and CFR and where the individual responsibilities for shipping lie.

If you are going to buy that cheap laser engraver from China, you need to know these things, or
risk having an awful, and expensive, experience.

You may not, but the chances are you will be digging in your pocket for a lot more cash than you
anticipated.

IT PAYS TO LEARN ABOUT THE SHIPPING BUSINESS IF YOU ARE GOING TO

IMPORT YOUR OWN MACHINERY FROM CHINA!

WARRANTY

Warranty on Chinese machines is nearly always limited to actual failures in components,

provable by you. The vendor will almost always require that you ship back the faulty component
before getting a replacement. Often, this will cost more than just buying the replacement part.

This isn’t always, or often, them attempting to rip you off, but they operate at such tiny margins,
paying for shipping and a replacement part when there’s no chance of claiming that from their
supplier can be the difference between business success and going broke.

44
Determine their warranty provisions before you buy!

It’s all very well giving you 18 months warranty on the Reci tube, but if it costs you the same as
the replacement in freight, you may as well buy it locally and get it in a day or two.

For me, this was one of the key buying indicators I look for – asking ‘what happens if my ‘X’
breaks?’. In my case, the company I use just ship the replacement parts out. Sometimes I offer
to upgrade the freight to ensure I get the parts in a short timeframe, but there’s never been a
question about turning me down for warranty.

Try that with your AliExpress purchase.

45
 7. SETTING UP

TESTING MATERIALS

A lot of materials have already been tested.

Here are ones that are suitable to cut and engrave:

Plastics:

• ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene)

• Acrylic (also known as Plexiglas, Lucite, PMMA)
• Delrin (POM, acetal)
• High density polyethylene (HDPE) – although thicker sheets melt badly
• Kapton tape (Polyimide)
• Mylar (polyester)
• Nylon – melts badly
• PETG (polyethylene terephthalate glycol)
• Polyethylene (PE) – melts badly
• Polypropylene (PP) – melts somewhat
• Styrene
• Two-tone acrylic – top color different than core material, usually for custom
instrumentation panels, signs, and plaques.

Thin metals:

• Stainless steel
• Spring steel

Foam:

• Depron foam – often used for RC planes.

• EPM
• Gator foam/foam board – foam core gets burned and eaten away compared to the top
and bottom hard shell.

46
Other:

• Cloth (leather, suede, felt, hemp, cotton)

• Magnetic sheets – but take into account that excessive heat will demagnetise.
• Paper
• Rubber (only if they do not contain chlorine)
• Teflon (PTFE, Polytetrafluoroethylene)
• Cork
• Wood (MDF, balsa, birch, poplar, red oak, cherry, holly, etc.)

NOTHING CONTAINING CHLORINE SHOULD EVER BE CUT:

Polycarbonate, PVC, vinyl, for example.

Glass cannot be cut, it can only be engraved. Most metals cannot be cut, unless you have
150W or more and your machine is set up to cope with the intense heat from melting metals.

You should always test a new material before attempting to use it in a job.

Ways you can test are:

• Burn test
• Low power test

BURN TEST:

There are a lot of plastic products that have chlorine compounds in them, which if you cut them
will produce chlorine gas. Chlorine gas is toxic to you and will pit your laser, possibly ruining it.

The burn test is simple – heat a piece of copper wire and get a piece of the plastic you want to
test on the hot wire. Then put the plasticated copper wire back into the flame. The small amount
of plastic will be burned up. If the flame is a yellow or red colour – you’re good to go. If there’s
any sort of green tint, it has chlorine in it and is unsafe to laser.

47
 LOW POWER TEST:

This test is used to determine how ‘dirty’ a material is and whether cutting it will create a nasty
mess.

The last thing you need is to start cutting a material and find it produces noxious black greasy
smoke or continues to burn or melts all over your nice shiny laser.

By executing a low-power burn with ventilation and air assist off, you will be able to determine
the nature of the material – a nice clean burn with a small flame, easily blown out, or a
sputtering nasty chemical mess that when you blow on it just makes things worse.

This is really only an issue with unknown plastics you might be wanting to engrave – like phone
cases, plastic boxes, mystery acrylic sheets.

As well as using your laser, I find it just as easy to try and set alight with a lighter – clean white
smoke = good, dirty black, greasy smoke = bad. It might not harm you or your machine, but will
make a mess you will need to clean up.

It’s far easier to just stick to known materials, but we can’t always choose, especially when
engraving for someone else.

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 8. ENVIRONMENT

Where you use your laser engraver is just as important – maybe more important – than how you
use it.

As the ablative process produces hot gases, dust, and other noxious by-products, you will need
to locate your machine where it can be vented.

Unless you are going to invest in, or make, an industrial scrubber, you will need to get those
gases and by-products out of your room.

A general HVAC rule of thumb is that you need to replace the entire volume of air in the room
three times every minute. In a small workroom or office, that rule of thumb is achievable
relatively easily, but in my workshop, I would need a 747 as an extractor fan to achieve that.

USE COMMON SENSE.

My general rule is, if you can smell it, you need to increase your venting.

And with the venting, again, use common sense.

If you vent to a window and your by-products are going to waft into someone else’s window,
you’re eventually going to have a problem.

Some of your output is likely going to be poisonous or at the least noxious and foul-smelling.

DON’T POISON YOUR FAMILY AND NEIGHBOURS!

Be a good little laser cutter/engraver.

If you live in a hot country or a cold country, think about what it’s going to be like in the peak of
summer or depth of winter – can you work in there when it’s at peak hot/cold?

My first machine was bought when I lived on the equator. It was difficult. It wasn’t just the heat, it
was the humidity and how much it sapped your energy. And the bugs… bugs get in everywhere
and want to make a nest. It was clear that only air-conditioned accommodation was going to
work.

My new workshop is a custom-converted 4-car garage with proper floor and wall covering, lots
of windows and a permanent venting system, in a country that has nice 5C-25C year round, so

49
no freezing, no boiling. But I do have neighbours, as I am working in a residential area, so I’m
venting above the roofline, just to be sure.

50
 9. SAFETY

A laser is a wonderful tool, but as with any machine, it has its hazards. Those hazards involve
high temperatures in small areas. You can do some serious hurt, if you are not careful.

In areas open to the public, every machine I own has an ‘interlock’ – that is, a switch that shuts
off the laser tube if the door is opened. I use simple micro-switches. About $10 for 15 of them.

It took me about twenty minutes to completely fit and test each one.

It removes the stupid factor from the equation and stops teenagers branding themselves,
especially their cornea and other irreplaceable body parts they might need later on, but have not
thought about in any depth.

When buying a new machine, ask your vendor to fit interlocks. If he doesn’t want to, ask yourself
why not, and maybe think about a different vendor.

I fit interlocks to all ‘laser’ panels – so the main material door, the laser tube compartment - and
to the panel covering the controller and power supplies. The latter is unnecessary for most
installations, but I have to deal with teenagers and only have one pair of eyes.

You can configure interlocks to do a number of things, from stop/pause the job, through to reset
the controller to a state where it needs operator (Me!) intervention in order to start working
again. This is dependent on the controller you are using, and how you have wired your
interlocks.

As well as interlocks, I fit additional emergency stop switches on the top and rear of the larger
units. At about $10 each, they are cheap insurance.

Laser engravers can move extremely quickly, and as well as burns, you have the opportunity for
cut and crush injuries too.

Decide on a set of safety guidelines and make them known to all machine users or people that
will be in the vicinity.

For example, while I am confident in the safety of my interlocks and viewing apertures to
prevent burn injuries, ‘flash’ burns from the bright laser can still leave you with lasting images,
so everyone in the workshop has to wear eye protection. I use 3M polycarbonate IR safety
glasses, which have the added bonus of being BRIGHT YELLOW so I can quickly see who is
not adequately protected.

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As well as safety eyewear, we have 3M OTS (over the top of prescription eyeglasses) models
for those who wear glasses.

They are cheap – about $2.50 a pair, so there’s no excuse not to use them.

You can still find them online with your remaining eye if you have an accident.

52
LASER CLASSES

The. Center for Devices and Radiological Health has defined a series of classes along with
associated warning labels required on all laser products. The class designation corresponds to
the maximum amount of laser radiation emitted from the laser at a specific wavelength.

Class Description

Class 1 Non-hazardous.

Class 1M Safe as long as additional optical instruments are not used.

Class 2 Safe for accidental exposure < 0.25s. The natural reflex blink will prevent this from damaging th

Class 2M Safe for accidental exposure < 0.25s as long as optical instruments are not used.

Class 3R Momentarily hazardous.

Class 3B Hazardous. Viewing of diffuse reflection is safe.

Class 4 Hazardous. Viewing of diffuse reflection is also hazardous. Fire risk.

CO2 LASERS ARE ALL CLASS 4 DEVICES.

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GENERAL LASER PRECAUTIONS

Everyone who uses a laser should be aware of the risks.

This awareness is not just a matter of time spent with lasers; to the contrary, long-term dealing
with invisible risks (such as from infrared laser beams) tends to reduce risk awareness primarily
due to complacency, rather than to sharpen it.

Optical experiments should be carried out on an optical table with all laser beams travelling in the
horizontal plane only, and all beams should be stopped at the edges of the table.

Users should never put their eyes at the level of the horizontal plane where the beams are in
case of reflected beams that leave the table.

Watches and other jewelry that might enter the optical plane should not be allowed in the
workplace. All non-optical objects that are close to the optical plane should have a matte finish
in order to prevent specular reflections.

Adequate eye protection should always be required for everyone in the room if there is a
significant risk for eye injury.

High-intensity beams that can cause fire or skin damage (from class 4 and ultraviolet lasers)
and that are not frequently modified should be guided through opaque tubes.

Alignment of beams and optical components should be performed at a reduced beam power
whenever possible.

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PROTECTIVE EYEWEAR

Protective eyewear in the form of appropriately filtering optics can protect the eyes from the reflected or
scattered laser light with a hazardous beam power, as well as from direct exposure to a laser beam.

Eyewear must be selected for the specific type of laser, to block or attenuate in the appropriate
wavelength range. For example, eyewear absorbing 532 nm typically has an orange appearance (although
one should never rely solely on the lens color when selecting laser eye protection), transmitting
wavelengths larger than 550 nm. Such eyewear would be useless as protection against a laser emitting at
800 nm. Furthermore, some lasers emit more than one wavelength of light, and this may be a particular
problem with some less expensive frequency-doubled lasers, such as 532 nm "green laser pointers" which
are commonly pumped by 808 nm infrared laser diodes, and also generate the fundamental 1064 nm laser
beam which is used to produce the final 532 nm output.

If the IR radiation is allowed into the beam, which happens in some green laser pointers, it will in general
not be blocked by regular red or orange colored protective eyewear designed for pure green or already IR-
filtered beam.

Special YAG laser and dual-frequency eyewear is available for work with frequency-doubled YAG and
other IR lasers which have a visible beam, but it is more expensive, and IR-pumped green laser products
do not always specify whether such extra protection is needed.[27]

Eyewear is rated for optical density (OD), which is the base-10 logarithm of the attenuation factor by
which the optical filter reduces beam power. For example, eyewear with OD 3 will reduce the beam
power in the specified wavelength range by a factor of 1000. In addition to an optical density sufficient to
reduce beam power to below the maximum permissible exposure, laser eyewear used where direct beam
exposure is possible should be able to withstand a direct hit from the laser beam without breaking. The
protective specifications (wavelengths and optical densities) are usually printed on the goggles, generally
near the top of the unit. In the European Community, manufacturers are required by European
standard EN 207 to specify the maximum power rating rather than the optical density.

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INTERLOCKS AND AUTOMATIC SHUTDOWN

Interlocks are switches that stop the laser beam if some condition is not met - such as if the laser casing is
open.

The controllers for Class 4 lasers typically allow for the use of a switch interlock – you should use them!

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58
 10. MAKING YOUR FIRST OBJECT

A good way to practice is by testing your model on cardboard. It’s cheap, cuts well, and if it
doesn’t work, hasn’t broken you.

I keep and reuse cardboard cartons for precisely this purpose.

11.

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 12. ADVANCED MAKING

ADVANCED CONFIGURATION

Given there are many different controllers used to drive CO2 laser engravers, we need to be
generalised when looking at advanced configuration.

By far, the most configurable machines come with DSP controllers, and as such are much more
complex than something that has a non-DSP controller.

ADVANCED SOFTWARE

Software falls into three categories:

Driver/control software supplied with the machine

Aftermarket driver/control software purchased separately

Design and image manipulation software used to create your original art/designs.

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List of Illustrations

Figure 5 - laser head

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Figure 6 - laser operator's badge

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