[Lab] Laser cutter advice?

[Carl Montgomery]

On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 10:32 PM, Carl Montgomery <carlwmontgomery at gmail.com
> wrote:

> Adventures must be doing pretty damn well....
>
> I worked for Carleton's version of the same camp while I was in school
> (Virtual Ventures) and we had to always get a bit more creative due to our
> budget. If you're in the same situation you may want to look into talking
> to professors and TA's to get access into some of the labs. If you we're
> just looking to use it for a demo or something of the like for the campers,
> you might already have a laser cutter on campus you can get access to if
> you know the right people (Industrial Design or Architecture people). I was
> able to run a few lessons on CNC and 3D printing just by talking to a few
> of my profs and making nice with the lab technicians that run the on campus
> machine shop.
>
> ~Carl Montgomery
>
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 10:17 PM, Matthew Bells <matt at mbells.ca> wrote:
>
>> Kwartzlab and Site3, maker spaces in Toronto area, have G. Weike lasers.
>> These take a bit more setup but are cheap. And there is someone sort of
>> local to talk to and iron things out with it. Find out more from their
>> website: http://www.kwartzlab.ca/wiki/Laser_Cutter. The initial cost of
>> these is fairly low, though they may burn out the laser more quickly than
>> higher end systems. The kwartzlab one is 60W and is less than half the
>> price of an Epilog of comparable specs. You can expect to replace the laser
>> after about 1000 hours, and this part is a few hundred dollars. They needed
>> to make a few fixes like replace the switches with better (higher current)
>> ones.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> If you have deep pockets and want a turnkey system, then Epilog<http://www.epiloglaser.com/>makes good and reliable laser cutters. These range from 8k$-45k$. You can
>> expect 4-5 years of professional use before having to replace the tube.
>> That is upwards of 8000 hours.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Generally, the current consensus from various maker spaces is the solid
>> state lasers tend to be flakey and burn out very quickly. Possibly having
>> to replace the tube after just a couple hundred hours, far shorter than the
>> listed MTBF. Cheaper ones also tend to have crappier software as well, and
>> the tool chain is very important.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> For cardboard and acrylic, a 30-60W should do fine, though you may need
>> 60W to cut acrylic 3mm thick rather than just engrave it (others more
>> expert can comment on this). Other things you’ll want to ensure is that you
>> have power for it; you will probably need in excess of 50amps and 220V,
>> depending on the model. If you are cutting anything other than cardboard,
>> you may want to install external ventilation as well.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> You should also read up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_cutting.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> -Matt****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> *From:* lab-bounces at artengine.ca [mailto:lab-bounces at artengine.ca] *On
>> Behalf Of *Britta Evans-Fenton
>> *Sent:* 2012.November.12 10:27
>> *To:* Wesley Ellis
>> *Cc:* Lab at artengine.ca
>> *Subject:* Re: [Lab] Laser cutter advice?****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> I like the Zing Laser which is what we have at Artengine, but I am bias.
>> We got ours from Engravers Express.
>>
>> Britta
>>
>>
>> ****
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 2:34 PM, Wesley Ellis <tahnok at gmail.com> wrote:**
>> **
>>
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> I'm Wesley and I'm new around here. I stopped by once over the summer and
>> i think I recognized a few faces at the mini make faire.
>>
>> I'm working with the Adventures in Science and Engineering summer camp at
>> UOttawa and they are thinking about purchasing a laser cutter. I think they
>> are mostly looking to cut cardboard and some acrylic/plastic for more
>> durable construction bits.
>>
>> Do you folks have recommendations for models and vendors?
>>
>> Wesley Ellis
>> http://about.tahnok.me
>>
>>
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>>
>> ** **
>>
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>
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