[fantasy2]

That counts for me too. In February I bought the HX6090 from HXLaser but because of a lack of space we had to put it into storage. When I finally found a garage to work in, the door was only about 0.7 meter wide and we had to drag the whole machine a lot of meters. This meant that we had to disassemble the WHOLE machine(all doors, Z-direction construction, electronics, etc) and assemble it later again. Luckily I'm instrumentmaker in my daily profession so it wasn't that hard but still a LOT of work.

Made my first holes monday, was very cool to finally see the laser cutting some cardboard. I'm going back to the garage in 5 minutes to do some more cuts, the thought already makes me nervous :P

[rcpilot82]

Congrats on getting your laser fired up. I have a ton of projects already lines up for my laser and after I get the machine all organized I will be starting the trial and error part of the learning curve. how many watts is your 6090?

[fantasy2]

It has a 60Watt tube. Yesterday it was only possible to cut through cardboard at the 100% setting. Something had to be wrong so I finally tested if the laser bundle that hits the focus lens was aligned well: it was way out. Now I can cut cardboard at speed 400 and 25% power. Very cool

I tested some dxf from the download section and works nice. The supplied program 'lasercut 5.1' is not even that bad...

Make sure your aligning is right(nice round spot) and take your time. You will love it when it works(at least I do).

[rcpilot82]

Luckily for me I had Ray there to set the whole laser up and show me how to do everything. The lasercut software does seem pretty easy to use, i just need more practice. I cut out some depth gauges last night and they look awsome. I love the machine so far, I am just afraid of doing something stupid and damaging the machine. once the sticker shock wears off I'll be going full tilt.

[zax15uk]

Just avoid PVC and you can't go far wrong.

Soon you'll be lasering EVERYTHING!

Zax.

[rcpilot82]

Yeah I was made aware not to use PVC. I also heard not to use plexiglass or lexan. I have a bunch of scraps but I don't know what they are. is there a way to tell??

[fantasy2]

Yeah I was made aware not to use PVC. I also heard not to use plexiglass or lexan. I have a bunch of scraps but I don't know what they are. is there a way to tell??

Plexiglass(acrylic) cuts beautiful but lexan is a problem indeed. If the material is clear and you have a bit of experience with plastics, you will find that lexan doesn't scratch as easy as acrylic glass and is much harder. Not sure about cutting but I've read that when you lasercut it, the etches look bad.

I'm testing a lot of materials myself and try to find the optimal speed and power but that takes some time. Also had my first burning cardboard yesterday because I set the laser to 80% output and low speed, oops

[SkipW]

Just avoid PVC and you can't go far wrong.

Soon you'll be lasering EVERYTHING!

Zax.

Yep.... it's true! lol

[zax15uk]

rcpilot82,

As fantasy2 already said, Plexiglas is a brand of Acrylic which engraves and cuts very well and is probably the most laser friendly plastic.

Lexan is a brand name of polycarbonate and although laser safe it is more difficult to get good results due to melting. Some of the plastic ply materials use it since it's more flexible and when thin can be engraved off fairly easily.

There are a couple of ways to tell the difference, putting a flame to a corner or doing a scratch/chip test. The laser results will probably tell you too

Most materials won't cause any ill effects, just watch for the Chlorine. If you do create a fire in the laser by cutting cardboard or similar, just shut down the beam and it will usually extinguish itself.

Zax.

[zax15uk]

Yep.... it's true! lol

Now don't go giving him ideas!

Zax.

[rcpilot82]

Now don't go giving him ideas!

Zax.

HA, I already got a ton of ideas. I am getting the hang of the machine more and more each day. This weekend I am going to do some tests and figure out what power/speeds I need for cutting Balsa and depron. those will be my two most cut materials.

[fantasy2]

That's a toilet seat? Nice!!

I wonder what your settings will be. I tried to cut cardboard(harder than depron) at 30% power and 200 speed. This goes well but it should be able to cut at a much higher speed(like 400) but for some reason the laser has some kind of delay that, when it starts cutting, it's always too late with the laser and it misses some material at the start of the cutline.. I wonder if there is any setting that fixes this issue?

[rcpilot82]

I have been looking for baseline info for cutting balsa and depron but can't find any. actually, I can't find any baseline info period. I was told that for depron you need alot of air assist flow to keep the foam from melting. I guess i just need to find the time to sit down and really play with it. I am documenting any settings I get when I am happy with them for reference.

[Tweakie]

It's really nice to read the exploits of rcpilot and his new toy.

(I bet he eats his meals in the workshop now)

Tweakie.

[Litografa]

Not today Today is Friday so he drink beer :cheers:

[rcpilot82]

Haha, I'm not that bad...yet.. I eat at least dinner upstairs with the family so i can spend some time with em. I am starting to relize the potental of the laser as I try it on new things and find out that "yep it can do that to". This weekend hopefully I will make alot of progress on the learning aspects and be able to start and make some real parts instead of "test" parts.

[rcpilot82]

Not today Today is Friday so he drink beer :cheers:

LOL, no beer for me. I have a meeting after work and a ton of preperation work for a club event to do tonight. Maybe a captin n coke later though.:cheers:

[rcpilot82]

here are a few more pics of the Laser and the height gauges I made. better quality than the cell pics before.

[notexpert]

Hi rcpilot82,

Congratulations about your new laser - great machine - but causes sleepless nights to you ( when thinking what new I'm going to try tomorrow )

Balsa cuts beatufully, depron melts very easy -try to find settings with lowest possible power and highest possible speed to avoid melting ( help's also to keep your tube's lifetime longer ).

Anyway, enjoy and hope to see some of your future works !

Best regards
- Hannu

[rcpilot82]

Yeah, the sleepless nights are definatly getting old.LOL, Hopefully I will have enough time this weekend to do an actual project and post some pics.