Hello from Cardiff

[richardofswansea]

I've had my LS6840 since the end of July, since when I've been learning how to use it, finding problems, finding solutions, getting distracted, developing designs, making smoke, making scrap and some progress.

What I've not done is spent much time on the forums, but now I've found my password and found the section that says 'Login and say hello', so here I am! Hello from (despite what my user name says) Cardiff.

Impressions and surprises so far: the hardware seems great, very versatile and can do some impressive things. The software seems a bit temperamental but I'm not sure how much of that is down to my setup (Coreldraw X4, Lasercut 5.3 and Windows XP) or my ignorance. More on that later, over in the 'Help Required' area! Cooling has been more of an issue than I expected. Back in August I was resorting to sacks of supermarket ice, but even yesterday I had to change the water twice during a 1 3/4 hour session. I'm keeping an eye out for a second hand water cooler for next summer. The machine is more sensitive to the material than I'd realised. The first sheet of cheap non-laser plywood that I bought, just by chance, turned out to be unusually good and not repeatable so far.

All in all, fun and frustation!

Richard

[Daven]

Hi Richard,

Welcome to the forum

A Chiller is worth every penny IMO

Best

Dave

[PhillyDee]

Welcome! Yes, I bought a chiller, and have never looked back. It is essential when cutting! Far more repeatable results.

Materials can be temperamental. I have 2 types of laserable MDF, one scorches, the other looks powdery. One is also shiny, the other is slightly not so shiny. The cut and engrave the same speeds, but the finish is temperamental. Its mad I tells ya!

Same goes for plastics, I have tried other brands of acrylics in the past, but will be sticking with Perspex branded stuff. Some of it burrs over and gives poor results. Perspex seems 100% repeatble.

[bobg]

Welcome

Just another happy (HPC) chiller user. Can cut all day with no increase in temperature.

Bob

[richardofswansea]

Thanks for the welcomes folks!

I was wondering chillers people were using. There's an old post somewhere from johnb80 (who seems to have disappeared) describing an improvised version which looked interesting but if I wasn't using purpose built kit I'd want to be very careful not to risk putting icy water into a warm tube. I'd be inclined to use the chiller to chill the reservoir rather than to feed directly into the laser tube.

Laser and software have been behaving themselves since my last post. More fun, less frustration.

R

[Daven]

I use an aquarium chiller that feeds a reservoir - the reservoir then feeds both lasers if required. Breaking a tube from thermal shock has happened before so yes worth thinking about. I run the pumps a good few minutes before and after the laser is used.

Best

Dave

[PhillyDee]

I never switch mine off personally. If it is switched off, the air will enter the system and you have to spend time sorting it out. The most I will do, is turn the temp up to 21 degrees if I know it will not be getting used for a couple of days.

I was going to make my own, but decided to just go for simplicity and bought one from HPC. Chris has some nice new ones in, which look a lot higher quality that the previous ones.

Whatever you do, make sure the chiller you buy actually chills the water, not cools it. Chilling will be via a regfrigeration pump. There are some out there that just use a couple of fans. These are no good at all.