Me too!

What do you want to see?

I put the link in the description box. It’s just a cloth for cleaning glasses

I have the 2.0” on their 95% of the time. I’ll use the longer ones when I need a thicker cut.

@EdmondsWoodshop I'm not sure what you mean by thicker cut, does the 2" only do up to a certain thickness...say 1/4" baltic birch needs a different length? About to order at least the 2" but unsure if I really need any others

Youll want to do some more research on lens with different focal lengths. When a laser beam focuses through a lens it creates an hourglass shape. That hour glass shape is called the depth of field. The depth of field is longer with lenses with longer focal lengths giving the ability to cut thicker pieces. However, on average you’ll be cutting up to 1/4” pieces of material. A 2” focal length lens will definitely have the ability to cut through that so long you have everything setup correctly.

Please join our FB group (link in the description) for help troubleshooting. The polar has many safety switches and other things to look out for. There’s the tray safety switch, the door sensor (lid needs to be closed), and lightburn process requirements. For example, in lightburn you can’t have your design too close to the edge otherwise the laser may not have enough room to accelerate or slow down so you’d need to pull the design away from the edge. Other issues could be a water flow issue. This is also why having a ruida control panel is so important. It helps identify what the red ring errors are. I have a video on it

Not with the stock roller. You need a chuck rotary. Atom stack makes a chuck rotary that fits on the polar. I have one and will make a video

Nope. Type of tape doesn’t matter. You just need something to see a pulse mark from your laser

Check out my new alignment video kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fd9_ft2qktjNfHk.htmlsi=HJhGIq56dZNIR1-u

The 50w or 60w are going to be more versatile than the polar because of several things: - bigger workspace and depth - already includes a control panel which makes alignment and addressing errors easier - has more versatile mirror adjustments The cons is that you need to buy an upgraded inline fan because the stock fans are not very effective at all The perks of the polar is that it’s basically plug and play. Already includes an inline fan and you just need to learn how to use the software. But the polar does have some cons itself. The bed is not magnetic which makes holding down bowed material hard. It does not include a control panel which makes moving the laser head and identifying issues a pain. It has a smaller workspace. I own an AF2028-80 and I use it 90% of the time due to the versatility . Hope that helps. Whatever you choose don’t forget the discount code: LASERGUYS5OFF

@@EdmondsWoodshop Thank you! I ended up ordering the 60w and used your code. :)

There isn’t a reason not to. If you can move the head in the direction that you need then that may be easier to do.

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching

Actually if you join my polar community on FB you’ll see that I added a 3D print file for the polar that I created. The thought process behind this video was that everyone doesn’t have access to a 3D printer but they do have a laser so why not make laser cut risers?

Thank you for the feedback!

Make sure to join our FB group. Link is on the description box Diodes and co2 lasers are different. With the co2 the laser will focus through a lens. Those lenses can have different focal distances. The focal distance is the distance from the lens from the top of the material. Different focal length lenses have different capabilities. For example, a 1.5” focal length lens has the ability to focus to a finer dot size making it ideal for detailed engraving where a 4.0” focal length lens makes it more ideal for cutting. A well rounded focal length lens is the 2.0” because it’s the best of both worlds. As with any product, the quality will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. OMTech is decent but it’s made with cheap Chinese quality. American photonics is American made and small business owned. They make very good products. You can choose to use a loose lens that fits in your stock setup, or you can choose to use something like I have shown in the video. The advantage with American photonics is that the distance from the tip of the nozzle to the top of the workpiece already preestablished meaning there’s no guessing or testing involved to find out the distance. The lens is also glued in so cleaning it is pretty easy.

​@@EdmondsWoodshopI will join the group now bud. Well that makes a whole lot of sense...thanks man!! I will start with the 50.8mm(2.0") w/nozzle and the American Photonics mirrors to get started. Anything else from them you reccomend? I'm doing most of the upgrades on the Laser Guys website..except the rotary..thats gotta wait a few weeks. Thanks again buddy. Not a lot of folks would have taken the time to explain that.

For sure you’ll need the in-line fan. If you took advantage of the last sale you should have gotten the chiller for free. Those would be my top two upgrades. If you have the extra finances, the Liberty controls air assist makes a huge difference, but don’t be afraid to hold off on it and learn the laser a bit first. Make sure to take advantage of our setup guide on the laser-guys website too. It there to help newer OMTech users from a user perspective

Take a look at my newest alignment video. It’s a lot easier to follow and has new techniques

This is an old alignment video. I have a new one out now with different techniques. If you think you’re having power output issues I’d try to run a power line test to see what kind of mA output you’re getting. I have the video on my channel. If you have an 80w you should be getting around 26-28 mA as a max output. If you can’t reach that it can be either the tube or the laser tube power supply

Yes. It matches directly. If you join our polar community you’ll find many successful users showing how to use it

@@EdmondsWoodshopThank you! No facebook here...I am not really (that is to say not at all) a fan of social media!!

We’ve been partnered with OMTech for over three years creating content for them and running their social platforms. OMTech is actually owned by Oceania international LLC headquarter in Shanghai China. OMTech products were formerly known as Orion Motor Tech, followed by preenex, and finally OMTech. I helped launch their Anaheim office. The more you know.

Do you have an OMTech? Only the AF2028-80 model comes with this beam combiner. It works great for me. Unfortunately they don’t sell it online, HOWEVER if you call the office and ask for them to sell you the beam combiner from the AF2028-80w they might be willing to do so. In our FB community, I suggested the same thing and have heard of many successful calls. You can also try and tell them that you have an AF2028-80 and yours busted and need a new one.

@@EdmondsWoodshop Awesome! Thank you for the info. I have reached out and hopefully will get some info on it. What community on FB? I essentially quit social media a few years ago, but I'm willing to drop in for some good info and collaboration. 🙂

You can toggle the air assist off in lightburn in your cut layers menu. Did they change that capability?

@@EdmondsWoodshop I guess so they said its automatically on. sorry. The lightburn tap doesn't turn it off. It makes my engraving look bad. Guess I have to install a on/off stitch for the pump.

Awesome! Make sure to check out our OMTech setup guide at laser-guys.com/setup

Awesome. Glad to hear. Tried to break it down as much as I could. I too threw away the reverse alignment tool. Thanks for the feedback

Absolutely. Make sure to join our polar Facebook community linked in the description. We have people doing all sorts of designs on 6mm acrylics all the time.

@@EdmondsWoodshop awesome will definitely do!!

Depends on your laser and how they setup their settings. If you have an OMTech laser you need to calibrate your autofocus meaning that you have to find out the focal distance first through a ramp test and then input that number into your settings. After that, you can use your autofocus

@@EdmondsWoodshop excellent...thank you very much for that info. I narrowed down my first CO2 purchase to OMTech, but because I'm not in a super rush...I'll wait for the next Polar to be released. This is purely for fun, so I really don't want a large laser.

I usually do it in the center of the Y axis

@@EdmondsWoodshop Thank you. I ended up getting things figured out. I was having issues with the far right corner not cutting. ( I made sure the beam was coming out of mirror 3 to the nozzle at the 90 degrees.) your video was a huge help!!

Did you upgrade your lightburn license from gcode to DSP. Diodes run off the gcode license where the OMTech lasers with ruida controllers run off the DSP license. Once you upgrade you’ll have access to both. If you did upgrade, it sounds like your controller isn’t communicating with lightburn. For further help, please join our FB community linked in the description

@@EdmondsWoodshop I did upgrade to DSP but for some reason it was losing communication with the laser I am using Cat5 cable for coms. I switched out the cable for a new cable and I am no longer having that issue... Thank you so much for your response and for all the great videos you have to help Newbies like me out !!!

Not 100% sure the process to do that, but a set of mirrors are so inexpensive it may not be worth doing. Roughly $25 a set

@@EdmondsWoodshop recycling could bring the cost to less than $5....and definitely help in conservation of global resources... im working on this.. if you get any information do share....

Actually people in my polar FB group have figured out how to do the 40oz Stanley’s. Join our Polar community! Link is in the description

Thank you!

Thank you! Hope it helped!

@@EdmondsWoodshop works great now, thnx

I actually had the MAS effects red dot. It’s a pretty awesome device. It’s great for people that need a red dot indicator for visualization of where the laser is going to hit. I didn’t actually need it for what I do so I ended up donating it to my Polar FB group

From what I’ve experienced in our group, people are having to call and OMTech is replacing through warranty or selling over the phone.

Nope. You have to call OMTech directly. They’ll sell you one over the phone.

Hi, I also have a setup guide at laser-guys.com/setup Hope it helps

Laser cut