Hi Perhaps things look a bit better upside down!!! That was no dance, just a series of uncoordinated spasms. My wife will tell you that I dance like a brick, so I'm just a wall flower at parties as that saves embarrassment all round. Good luck with your new venture and I hope you will avoid some of the stupid mistakes I have made in my first year. Get your ammeter on order, apart from me, it's the best laser friend you can have. All best wishes Russ

hahaha! Hey my Mrs laughs at my dancing as well! I did just catch one of your clips where you put the amp meter under the water temp display. It was on my mental list to research that. I was on my way to asking you a question but I think one of your previous clips answered it for me. I was wanting to see how much really fine detail can be achieved with these chinese cnc lasers. I just watched a clip from Epilogue (expensive is an understatement) showing a seriously intricate lattice design cut in paper and wanted to know how these less expensive machines compare. Your wife's birthday cards were lovely and they are close to what Epilogue were displaying. I suspect they would be similar? Any thoughts on the topic? Thank you for posting these clips up Russ! I'm finding them extremely helpful. Kind regards, Ben

Hi Ben As an engineering designer, paper has never been on my radar as a useful material. However, I have to admit to falling in love with card making. I was recently commissioned by my sister to make some bespoke cards to send to fellow members of her chapter this coming Xmas. She belongs to a world-wide ladies society called the Red Hatters. She wanted to know exactly how I went about making cards so I put a little private video together so she could see how her cards were made. It may interest you. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/htaloNB9tqnGdac.html I thinks tha once you have tweaked one of these machines to work well, it will match an Epilogue in many areas. It may not be as well engineered or as durable but certainly represents the most fun for the $ that you can buy. Best regards Russ

Hi This was very much a fun taskfor a friend and must not be taken too seriously. With what I know now, if I was repeating the exercise I would probably use dot mode and an out of focus 1.5" lens kzfaq.info/get/bejne/o5p4m5Bpkp-4maM.html 43:20 toast kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iMVgpcarspuqdIE.html First 2 minutes for apple pie equivalent Best wishes Russ

Hi Pablo This was much more of a fun thing. No real purpose for it but it did allow me to check out a few darker corners and demonstrate them in a non-serious way Thanks for your support. Best regards Russ

All laser beams are non-uniform in that they have a more intense central core within the beam . That variable intensity ideally will be a Gaussian distribution. Imagine a small bucket of damp sand tipped onto the ground. It will form a small shallow mound a few inches tall. Imagine that to be the "blunt" shape of your beam at 10% power. Now carefully pour another bucket of sand on top and the mound not only gets taller, it becomes more pointed (sharper). That is how your beam changes shape as you increase the power to 20%. As you increase the %power your beam changes shape becoming more and more pointed. In reality, this sharpness is an increase light INTENSITY within the beam. It is light intensity that defines the RATE at which the beam does damage Thus more power= more damage but the type of damage changes as you change power. It's the same idea as drawing with a blunt soft lead pencil or a sharp hard lead pencil. . That is what I mean by not properly formed. You can achieve the same sort of "blunting" effect by setting the beam out of focus. Best wishes Russ

That clear things up. Thanks for your answer. Have a nice day.

That was how the wife stopped scorching my shirts....I bought her a decent steam iron. This was a light hearted challenge rather than a real use for a laser machine. Printing is so much quicker, predictable and durable. It was good fun. Cant be serious all of the time!!! Best wishes Russ

Yes, I have examined their claims and to be honest they don't make logical reading. Type Laser dot Size Focal Distance Main Function Standard Laser Head 0.0039″(0.099mm) 5.0mm~6.5mm Cutting material less than 10mm, Engraving photos within 500DPI High Resolution Head 0.0020"(0.050mm) 3.0mm~4.0mm Engraving photos up to 1000DPI, cutting material less than 1mm 4″ Laser Head 0.0078″(0.198mm) 9.0mm~11mm Cutting material more than 10 mm A better source for data on lenses is here www.parallax-tech.com/faq.htm For example my machine claims to have a resolution of 4500DPI. and has a 1.5" focal length lens with a theoretical spot size of 0.003". That means I could technically burn 333 dots per inch. Their "standard" laser head with a 0.004" spot is in fact a 2" focal length lens which can only do 250 spots per inch. Their so-called High Resolution head is in reality a 1" focal length lens which has a spot size of 0.002". That means it can theoretically produce 500 spots per inch. So how that can be used to get to 1000DPI is puzzling....maybe by overlapping the dots? How it can help with 3D engraving is a real mystery because as the focal length gets shorter the depth of field gets dramatically shorter. This means that the deeper you try to cut the more out of focus your beam will get and the energy density (cutting ability) will drop off very quickly. This is exactly the opposite of what you need for 3D engraving , so I am very sceptical about all their claims. I apologize for being so cynical but I have learned the hard way that you need to read Chinese specifications with a degree of mistrust Best regards Russ

Just a thought ... :) I found it notable as they sell it as an extra on their machines on eBay.

Is the focal length longer perhaps?

I am puzzled about your 25% suggestion You don't indicate if this is your experience for cutting or engraving and for what power tube because all have different characteristics. I can can say with certainty (because my videos are there to be seen) that when you are engraving you have to tick the Output Direct option to enact the max/min power feature. It was designed specifically for varying the power on the fly to achieve 3D engraving. The min% = white level 255 and the max% = black level 255. If that switch is not on during engraving then the min power will be ignored and it matters not what the min level is, the machine will only use the max. Even if you have Output Direct ticked for text engraving or black and white logos (as in this T shirt bit of fun), the min% will be ignored because anything white will switch the tube off and anything black will use max% power. When it comes to cutting things are different. If you set a min and max power then the min % power =zero velocity and max % power =your set speed. Again knowing this fact, I can see no logic for your 25% advice. In practice I rarely use max min for cutting because it seems that is feature is only really effective at VERY low min % power. I keep max and min the same whatever the cutting power. Best wishes Russ

Thank u Russ for replying me. I am helpful like many others for whom u devote your time and knowledge. Many thing want to learn from your experience . Plz provide me your e-mail I'd . Thanks once again. Great day ahead.

check your You Tube messages

Hi Ben I'm sorry I'm no lover of Coreldraw, I have a home and student version that I keep trying to break into but every simple thing I try to do is made so complex in relation to the cad program I am used to using, I just give up and go back to the simple way. . I have never tried to integrate them but I do believe that when you install RDWorks there is an option page that allows it to integrate with RDworks.. But hey, dont listen to me. there is an open and friendly group of RDWorks minded people at facebook.com/groups/900528680076062/ Many folks have already done this and I'm sure you will get the help you need there. Best wishes Russ

Hi I am a bit confused about your problem If your head only moves ACROSS the machine (the X axis) and not BACK and FORWARD (the Y axis) how have you been able to engrave. Can you cut a square with your machine? I need to understand your problem before I can offer a solution. Best wishes Russ

No, no, no! The machine works perfect in X and Y axis. It make perfect engravings, I only need to know what do I have to do make the laser head work free like the video you upload. I mean circle by circle not the whole image at at same time. Did I explain myself better? Sorry for my lack of english

OK, I think I understand now what your question is. Normal engraving (scan mode) runs left and right across the machine. This is not SCAN. This is CUT mode. If you run with very low power at high speed and put your work maybe 5mm lower than proper focus, you will be able to SCORCH rather than burn through the material. BUT to do cutting (or drawing , as I am doing here) you will need a VECTOR file. A BMP file will only engrave. Hope this answers your question Best wishes Russ

Ohhh! Now I understand.... Thank you very much!

Hi Michael This was two and a half years ago so that is a very cruel question to ask a guy who is old, grey fat, ugly and with only 2 grey cells left!!!. All I can say is I was probably using an out of focus 1.5" lens because that was all I had at that time. I had great fun then but with all I know now, would probably do it very differently and it would not be as entertaining. Best wishes Russ

Thank you very much Russ for your reply. I will definitely keep watching your videos to find out more information about the software. Best wishes ! -Michael

Hi Dave At this point in my learning journey I did not understand about the Gaussian power distribution in the beam but this was a fun project. I had already experimented with wetting a shirt . Water does absorb some of the energy but evaporates so rapidly that after a few nanoseconds the local fabric is water free and burns just the same . If I was to do the same thing again I would be using the pre ionization zone along with an out of focus 4" lens I may even add dot mode. Thanks for the comment Best wishes Russ

@@SarbarMultimedia Try this, Wet the shirt first then cover the design to be cut with brown packing tape, the tape will still simi stick to the shirt and then do your burn, you will need to weed out some of the tape when finished, but you should get a good result.

@@dmaher2007 Hi Dave Brown packing tape (plastic) has a slightly higher damage threshold than cotton, so is your idea to attenuate the power to the cotton by absorbing some of the light energy as it vaporizes the tape OR is it that you are trying to melt the packing tape onto the cotton? Best wishes Russ

@@SarbarMultimedia vaporizes the tape

@@dmaher2007 Hi Dave I anticipated that may be your reason. So why not just turn down the burning power of the tube to match the damage threshold of the material? Adding a layer of tape will have no effect. A car crashing through a wall loses its energy in crashing through the wall so what is behind will not feel the impact. That is what you are imagining will happen with the tape. Hmmm.... not quite the same . Instead, stand behind that wall and imagine a high pressure water cannon firing a jet of water at the wall . For a second or two you will feel nothing but once the water has pieced the wall ........... Can you now see the futility of adding a barrier? The whole problem boils down to balancing the energy density supplied by the beam to the damage threshold of the material. Energy density can be controlled in a mix of 4 ways 1) watts. 2) the largest spot size lens, 3) some defocusing and 4 ) linear speed.. Anything you put in the way is just fogging the real problem that has to be solved.. Try it for yourself. Best wishes Russ

Hi Sea Yes, that seems like an obvious solution but sadly it only confuses the situation. If you fully understood the nature of energy transfer between the beam of IR light and the material it interacts with, you would be able to imagine the effect of your suggestion. Perhaps this example will explain the problem. If you hold the palm of your hand at the tip of a candle flame long enough it will DAMAGE your skin even though the energy density is relatively low. However, if you move your hand over the tip of the candle flame (even very slowly) there will be insufficient energy per unit of time to damage your skin. It's a speed against power balancing act. Now make your hand wet and repeat the experiment. Yes you will be able to move your hand slower, but that's because the available energy has to heat the water first, it does not change the damage threshold for your skin, that remains the same as before. This was just a very lighthearted fun way to demonstrate the near impossibility of achieving that balancing act because every time the laser approaches a sharp corner the speed reduces but the power does not. Thus you get excess damage to the material at the corners. Best wishes Russ

SarbarMultimedia gotcha. I just bought a 100watt chinese laser, an I'm watching all your vids to prepare myself for delivery. Very excited, and thank you for your experiments. Best, Sia