Planning to buy a 5.5W laser do you have any tips? I want to

>5.5W
I'm not sure if that is enough for cutting wood.

>>1134746
It can, but it will be very fucking slow. Many passes

>>1134615
Focus is the most important thing. The laser isn't going to cut anything if it isn't focused spot on (speaking of sub-millimetre precision).
That's why it's really important your x and y axis are parallel to the workpiece. A small offset on one end will ruin the cut.

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>>1134830
Focus and working depth don't work that way. You're also just not going to get decent focus out of a beam that starts so small anyway.

I'm skeptical a 5w visible wavelength laser is going to be good for much, but you'd have to ask someone who has one. I work with CO2 lasers.

>>1134615
I found this ones 2.2W cutting acrylic and the other can engrave glass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV5NWtxTdn4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kGGfw4ec8w

>>1134989
Any good for etching pcb's?

>>1135137

Flat-out not gonna happen. Copper and aluminum are too reflective for most laser types.

Trust me, I've looked. I'd cream myself if there was an easy way to etch and drill boards in one operation. The lasers required to do so are stupidly expensive.

>>1135149
Yeah not gonna happen with hobby budget. I work as a laser operator and it takes a shit ton of power to cut copper and it needs pure oxygen as assist, we have done pcbs at work but it was already pushing our 500w pulse laser, our 400w fiber continuous laser had no problem tho except that cutting copper with it tends to fuck up alot of lenses as it reflects so much. If you want to make pcbs then go for a cheap pcb mill.

I'm not sure what you are paying for the diode, but given that a 40w tube runs maybe $200 you should probably build around one of those instead. Some people start with a k40 and replace the shitty/broken components.

Copper is too reflective to cut with a laser (and a laser strong enough to pierce the copper would burn through the substrate as well), but you can spray paint the surface, burn off the paint with a laser, and chemical etch.
Its a PITA and you are better off paying the Chinese to make the board.

Also if you run too low power the materials will burn and char instead of vaporizing.

Make sure you have air assist or smoke/residue will coat your optics after ten minutes of cutting.

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Planning to retrace this x wing, what do you think?

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>>1137142

>>1134615
You can buy a 75W infra-red laser off Mouser for 30 bucks.
>tfw it's a rangefinding laser that overheats and explodes if powered for more than 100ns or duty cycle more than 0.1%
Anyone want to put this in liquid nitrogen and see if they can run it continuously?
http://nz.mouser.com/ProductDetail/OSRAM-Opto-Semiconductors/SPL-PL90_3/?qs=nTDll3UaDK7zyBrh35sYbg%3d%3d#.WLYPJU2VNvg.link

>>1137911
>http://nz.mouser.com/ProductDetail/OSRAM-Opto-Semiconductors/SPL-PL90_3/?qs=nTDll3UaDK7zyBrh35sYbg%3d%3d#.WLYPJU2VNvg.link


WTF is that shit real?

>>1137911
>>1137917
>0.1% duty cycle

>>1137911
>>1137917

It's not just heat you need to worry about in a laser... you need to let the lasing atoms drop back to an energy state that allows them to pick up energy and lase again...
If you keep it cool enough not to melt, I'd expect the output power to just drop off hard after 100ns. But I may be talking out my ass; I know gas lasers, not semiconductor lasers.

>>1137929
That also makes sense, saves my thirty dollars + nitrogen and shipping time. I was just browsing for the premium consumer laser components, but I guess you can't buy them from Mouser.

Is that 5W laser small enough to put into a handle, and how much is it?