L-Cheapo Laser

[Randavian]

Everything has gone quiet here. Work, a short hospital stay, and Halloween preparations have delayed me from playing with my laser so far. Has anyone else done anything interesting with theirs?

[heathenx]

I was just screwing around with this yesterday. This time around I cut the parts with Repetier/Slic3r instead of using Inkscape. The box is kind of useless for me so it was nothing more than a test. I think it was 1/8" balsa.

[Randavian]

That's an interesting construction design. Although I am sure that I will be cutting some things from time to time, I mainly purchased mine with engraving in mind. But I enjoy seeing all the things that people are doing with this laser.

[heathenx]

Here's another example that I cut just a few minutes ago. Playing around with t-slot joints...on a miniature level.

[Randavian]

That's cool. Got plans on building something, or just seeing what you can accomplish?

[heathenx]

Just screwing around.

[mlapaglia]

Received my L'Cheapo laser a few days ago and have had a chance to use it a few times. Shipping was lightning fast from 3D Supply Source.

I was disappointed that for $200 it had through hole components. The laser itself is press fitted into a heatsink not designed for this purpose. You can see where a hastily drilled hole still has metal shavings coming out of it.
[img]https://mattlapaglia.com/wp-content/upl ... 24x760.jpg[/img]

The printed mount it came on is absolutely terrible. It looks like it was printed way too fast, one of the corners lifted off the bed during printing also.
[img]https://mattlapaglia.com/wp-content/upl ... 24x760.jpg[/img]

The whole thing is held together with zip ties...
[img]https://mattlapaglia.com/wp-content/upl ... 24x760.jpg[/img]

The laser focus ring wobbles inside of the laser casing. The silver ring can come off of the threads causing it to not rotate the actual focusing element. The fan cannot be controlled separately from the laser. When power is applied to the laser the fan comes on. It gets annoying to listen to the fan turning on and off during a print as the laser moves around the bed.

[img]https://mattlapaglia.com/wp-content/upl ... 24x760.jpg[/img]

None of the mounting holes are usable. The portion of the printed part that the laser heat sink slides into was affected by the lifted print. The piece was cut with a knife to get the laser heat sink pushed into place.
[img]https://mattlapaglia.com/wp-content/upl ... 24x760.jpg[/img]

The laser comes with some cheap chinese goggles. The ear pieces are adjustable and they seem to do the job though, I haven't gone blind yet.
[img]https://mattlapaglia.com/wp-content/upl ... 24x760.jpg[/img]

After some tweaking of the focus ring and bed height I was able to get some decent results:
[img]https://mattlapaglia.com/wp-content/upl ... 24x760.jpg[/img]

The build quality of the laser is atrocious given the price and how much the project raised on indiegogo. Overall I would not purchase this again and would dissuade other potential customers. Save some more cash and get a more powerful better constructed laser.

[jesse]

The build quality of the laser is atrocious given the price and how much the project raised on indiegogo. Overall I would not purchase this again and would dissuade other potential customers. Save some more cash and get a more powerful better constructed laser.

There are some better quality ones sold at http://jtechphotonics.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tincho85]

What would be a good laser cutter/engraver for our printer?
The Laser-Bot from J-tech? http://jtechphotonics.com/?page_id=333


EDIT: you beat me

[Tincho85]

What I don't like of the Laser-Bot is that the driver board is a product apart, unlike the L-Cheapo.

[stonewater]

guess they call it el cheapo for a reason!

Tom C

[LdyMox]

How is this working for people over time? I have ordered the L-Cheapo v3 (AKA 3.5 Watt) for my 3D printer. Techincally an x-mas gift for me and is on the way. I plan to build an enclourse for my unit so I don't risk anyones eyes.

What colors of acrylic have people had success in cutting? It seems that clear acrylic is likely a no go and opaque should be good, but there is a lot of middle grounds of Transparents/Translucents in all sorts of variations and colors. I can tell by this thread that red cuts well, but I am wondering if anyone had tried any others.

I am here because this is the most detailed user comments I have found on the L-Cheapo.

[Xenocrates]

Clear acyrlic cuts reasonablely with IR lasers, such as CO2 lasers. The L-cheapo is a 445Nm laser however. At 445, the absorption of acrylic falls off a cliff. So you may not get a whole lot. Red would in theory be the best color to cut, as it will absorb the most energy, other than black (445Nm is basically blueish)

[Tincho85]

Hey guys, what about this one?
It looks really powerful, even more than the one from Jtech.

[img]https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/732/23236 ... a04b_o.jpg[/img]

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Freeship ... eb201560_1

[LdyMox]

Has anyone been able to engrave greayscale images with the L-Cheapo laser? Or are only simple images possible?

[LdyMox]

More so did anyone figure out what the instructions meant by "change Z scaling to -1" in Slic3r..I can't find that setting anywhere.

I tried the laser plugin for Inkscape but it just crashed sadly