Ya, its especially good for cutting things like leather, paper, cloth, etc. The air nozzle on the laser tends to blow those things out of position with no hold down, and you can't get enough magnets on them to keep it all flat, but the vacuum works great.

Ya, most CO2 smoke extraction is just in the back, but they don't seem to take advantage of the vacuum part. I'm sure you can figure out how to build something in there though.

Ya, if you look at around 10:44 you can see them. I think they were 3/4". You want to have enough airflow to draw the smoke towards the intake, but not so much that you would lose much vacuum.

Hi Dan, Thats a great question. I haven't ever seen embers coming out of the bottom of my laser cuts before. Through cuts seem to just burn the wood that the beam is contacting. However, that doesn't mean it couldn't happen under conditions I haven't seen yet, and as I mentioned in the video larger lasers are on the market so as power goes up that may also change. I may put a vacuum gate at the bottom of my cyclone that I can close so that there is no pile of dust for them to fall in, and everything would be contained within my metal cyclone when using the laser. Emptying the dust bin before lasering would also be a good thing to do. I'm definitely keeping an eye on it (checking my bin after use) and will follow up if I run into any problems. My bigger concern is my stationary sander. Sometimes I will grind a little steel on that and that throws sparks that can get sucked in. I always check my bin a couple times after doing that just as when welding/grinding in the shop (turn out the lights before I leave and look for embers or flames, etc.).

Hi Bob, I realized after I posted the video I didn't say much about my dust collector. Yes, I have a cyclone, and then I vent that to the outside through my wall. That was mainly to reduce noise, but it works out great for the laser as well since it gets the smoke out of the garage as well. You don't really lose vacuum if you don't have too much airflow, so as long as the holes in the plexiglass are small enough relative to the hose port, you'll still get full vacuum, and it really doesn't take much flow to get rid of the smoke. I think you could neck down to 3" , or a pair of 2" Y connections, or even just get a 4" metal duct and "squish" it so its oval shaped - a flexible hose could still fit onto that shape. I would prefer if it were an inch or two shorter as well. If I remake it someday, I will probably lower it.

Hi Jim, I’m just about done with my laser honeycomb vac table. I went with the XLNT 900mm x 600mm x 22mm galvanized honeycomb on Amazon (I really like the quality and stiffness of this panel). I did two 2” dust ports with a wye to 4” and the total height of the table is 4”. I laminated the 1/2” base with a sheet of 24ga aluminum. Regarding the aluminum, I know you mentioned that a higher powered diode laser is in development and will be in your stable in the future… is the aluminum impervious to all diode lasers (irrespective of the thickness of aluminum)? I just want to make sure that this table is future-proof if I add a stronger diode laser down the road.

@@bobmaze2406 Hi Bob, any aluminum will be impervious to blue lasers, it just doesn't absorb much light until you get down in the ultraviolet wavelengths. AL can reflect back into the laser though, which is why I used stainless steel. However, I think with a 2" distance below, the likelyhood of the laser being perfectly perpendicular and reflecting back that far and through the kerf of the workpiece is pretty darn unlikely. I just searched Amazon for honeycomb and I'm amazed at the selection now compared to when I first built mine a couple years ago. I guess all the new laser heads that are coming out with 4, 6 and even 8 diodes are driving demand for it. There are some pretty nice complete tables on Amazon that you'd just have to add sides to and a vacuum port and they'd be ready to go.

Hi Frank, Opt lasers has a 30W laser out now, you can see it here: optlasersgrav.com/plh3d-30w-series/high-performance-universal-cnc-laser-upgrade-kit-with-plh3d-30w-engraving-laser-head?opt=y2035 This one does not have the longer focal length. As I understand it, it is basically the same optics as the 15W laser, but with 6 diodes instead of 3. I have not gotten a chance to test this one yet. However, Opt does build custom lasers as well, and I have ordered one based on their unit that they attach to a galvo head. You can get it without a galvo head, but with regular lenses. This one should have much better optics (but it is bigger and more expensive too, nothing is free :-)). Anyway, I hope to receive that and do some testing and a video sometime in the next few weeks. I have also played around with different lenses on my 15W laser that had longer focal lenths. My goal was to cut thicker materials. However, it didn't work out well (other than it was a good learning experience) because you need a more uniform beam to use longer focal lengths otherwise you can't get enough power density. BTW, there are some 20W and 40W chinese lasers out now too. However, they are still built pretty cheap as far as the optics and other parts, so they may not have very good spot sizes, and who knows how long they will last if you run them at full power. Diode laser modules are advancing pretty quickly in the power department in the last few years, but Opt is the only one I see really improving on the optics at the same time. In the next generation or two I am hoping that diode lasers will give home CO2 lasers a run for their money in the cutting department.