[InfernusDoleo]

So, for over a year now I've owned a FSE "40" watt glass tube hobby laser. (I say "40" because I truly dont believe this thing is 40 watts - given other posts in the FSE subsection threads). I've used it mainly to cut cardstock, but I've also manufactured some items like acrylic keychains, wooden boxes, and I've made good money engraving pet ID tags at dog-themed events.

I've never been thrilled with the laser. It always seemed like it couldnt pull off the resolution it promised. I know anodized aluminum is one of the best things to engrave as it really holds up to whatever resolution you throw at it.

One issue I've had is with the tags I use, some of them, for reasons I cannot understand, some just do NOT engrave well. They are streaky. Funny thing is, it's some colors that are worse than others. I was doing an event with some new diamond shaped tags, and someone thought it looked like the Superman symbol, and wanted a "P" on it. Well, it engraved like crap. Something I'm sorta used to. (Again, not all the tags did this, just certain colors. The ones that DID look ok, the resolution was always a little... less than desirable, but, hey, it worked well enough!)

Here's what they looked like:


So I recently get my Universal Laser Systems 50 watt desktop model. Without playing with any settings whatsoever, I take one of the "bad" tags and pop it in, and try and engrave the bottom half of that image again.

And lo and behold:


I dont know if it's the electronics of the glass tube, if it's the fact that the thing is NOT firing at a full 40 watts, if it's the cheap chinese lenses - I dont know WHAT the problem is, but on some colors I could never get my FSE to engrave on that correctly. Without any adjusting, the RF tube laser worked.

All I know is that yes, FSE's machines are a lot more affordable, but I'm sold on the RF tube lasers for life. There's just no comparison.

[keebler303]

Finally seeing the light, welcome to the rewarding side of laser work.

You have to be careful on anodized pieces. You want just enough power to bleach the dye. If you go too hard, it will lift the anodizing from the aluminum so you will end up with some white spots where the anodize was bleached and some shiny spots where the anodize was removed.

Matt

[Exsecratio]

DC tubes produce non-polarised beams, RF tubes beams are polarised.

Ergo, less scatter and stray photons to deal with when using RF tubes.

For what I do a Galvo does the engraving and DC tubes do the cutting, it's all a case of horses for courses really

The solid state powered Galvos are awesome, 75,000 hours life on the source and RF quality...much cheaper than RF to buy as well.

best wishes

Dave

[Rodney Gold]

We do not have the issues you have with glass/RF tubes , I have 6 lasers with RF tubes and 2 with glass and we get the same effects engraving with either. It all boils down to the settings you use and how well the laser is set up.
The typical el cheapo 40w Hobby machine coming out of china and wherever is utter junk no matter how tarted up it is , you cannot compare it to any decent mainstream machine , you have to compare the more expensive larger scaled chinese machines to western/mainstream , there will NOT be a huge difference...except in price

We have never had moire than 5000 hours use of a RF tube and a 30w one is like $4000 to fix - my most expensive 80w RECI tube is 1/10th that...to replace
I'm not sold on RF tubes , they overpriced and they flaky as well , we have gone thru at least 15-16 in the 8 RF tubes lasers I have owned.

I engrave aluminium the same way as your good laser does , but with my cheapy one...
On microscopic examination of RF vs Glass tube output , it's 6 of one , 1/2 a dozen of the other. My RF machines are however , easier to use software wise and work at about 50% faster - that's STILL not enough reason for me to continue buying em when I can by a 4x bigger and 2x more powerful machine for the price of a tube repair...