2W IR Q&A Introduction

[Skreelink]

I know there’s likely a lot of questions, so lets see if we can get some of them answered.

To start out? WHAT’S IN THE BOX!?

Regular snapmaker thingamabobs… calibration card… cleaning cotton swabs… instructions… and supportive packaging.

Surprisingly, there’s also a laser module in the bottom! I think they snuck that one in.

But what does it do?

Little bit of stainless steel;

Anodized aluminum;

And if you’re lucky… Clear acrylic;

I will say on the acrylic, YMMV. I don’t have any other acrylic to test except this 12.5mm thick industrial acrylic. Normal acrylics might not work, but if they do make sure if you get the module and test to upload results.

I’ll be doing more tests and setups so maybe if I don’t have an answer quite yet, I might revisit your question later if it’s something I can test.

Some information;
Disclaimer, Snapmaker sent this to me for purpose of testing and has allowed me to share results with you. So hopefully when the final begins shipping, any major problems are already ironed out and you all can simply make wonderful things!

All the above tests were produced in the upcoming Luban, however, I’ve also began Lightburn testing and it seems to be just fine. I’m hoping around the pre-order begin date to have a new guide out so when the first people begin to receive theirs, they can get the best results right out of the gate.

Now that’s out of the way, feel free to ask questions, comments, or other such nonsense you wish. I encourage any other testers to share their information, experiments, images, and anything else as well.

Sidenote; it’s a chonk. My setup is an A350T with enclosure, and no quick swap.

[Skreelink]

Black PLA is pretty stunning.

[NeX]

looks good, what is the difference between this 2W module and the 40W module? surely the 40W should be better right?

how do you get to a point where snapmaker are nice enough to send you stuff for testing??

[Skreelink]

@NeX

what is the difference between this 2W module and the 40W module? surely the 40W should be better right

The 2W laser is a lower frequency and lands in the infrared rage outside of our visible light spectrum. Hence the name IR, specifically 1064nm.

The 200mW, 1.6/10/20/40W lasers are blue diode, which is within the visible spectrum at 455nm.

The biggest difference is the fact different materials absorb different wavelengths. Despite being only 2W, the lower frequency of the IR effortlessly and quickly marks metals without any sort of marking spray or covering. where as the blue can only do stainless steel and takes a lot more energy to do so.

Also it seems to attack the pigment in the plastic first, you can see how bright that came out. Whereas if I used the blue laser, it would simply dump heat into the plastic and melt it. I’ll be doing more tests of this specifically this weekend.

Recap: Blue diode lasers like all the current releases are good on things that absorb blue light. Organic materials like wood and leather especially.

IR is good for non-organics and harder materials, such as metals and plastics.

While there are crossover on the materials they can work with, some things will be faster/easier with one or the other. Like stainless steel, I have the 10W and had to slow it down to 500mm/min to get comparable results to the IR at 3000mm/min and the IR has finer detail. As far as testing it’s likely random choice of users that have been around awhile. I don’t know their thinking, but I’m glad to be able to help others make things.

[NeX]

thanks for the detailed reply, now i understand, that makes a lot of sense, most things absorb infrared so it is more likely to affect those things.

sorry if I’m being stupid here, but isn’t the blue laser higher frequency? and that’s why it’s wave length is shorter? i thought infrared was a lower frequency?

can it cut any metals?

oh one other thing, doesn’t this make the laser filtering enclosure kinda useless now?

[Skreelink]

You are correct, the IR is a lower frequency. It’s very early for me and brain simply remembered numbers. I’ve edited my original post for the information of others.

It cannot cut metals, no. The required power for that would need water cooling and a dedicated machine. You can rip through plating, however. Such as plated jewelry.

The enclosure becomes more important, since the IR is outside of the visible spectrum, you cannot see scatter radiation and thus might damage your eyes without realizing. ALWAYS USE ALL AVAILABLE PROTECTION. Even with the enclosure it’s good to use the goggles as well.

[NeX]

ah lol i thought i was going crazy for a moment then!

ok so for metals its probably best to use the CNC still for that.

but isn’t the enclosures laser filter plastic tuned for the UV frequencies and not infrared?

[Skreelink]

IR is easier to block. Even clear acrylic can block it. Also if you look at the goggles that came with the snapmaker lasers, they list it as

“190-540 nm OD6+
800-1700 nm OD4+”

So hopefully the enclosure is a similar rating.

[NeX]

ah ok awesome thats good to know!

[bonfireman]

Will it cut clear Acrylic?

[Skreelink]

It will not.

[bonfireman]

Won’t be buying that then, that is what I was looking forward to in an IR laser.

[Skreelink]

You will need to invest a lot more for a C02 laser then. You will not get that from any IR diode.

[Mitch]

Will it be possible to engrave coins ?

[Skreelink]

Yes.

[Mitch]

Looks good. Thanks for the Info.

Did you try to engrave it deeper?

[Hauke]

Did you perchance try to engrave PCB raw material? Is it possible to do isolation routing with the 2W IR laser? I.e. engrave the copper plating so deep that you get down to the carrier board?

[Skreelink]

I do not have any PCB material to test, sadly.

[Mitch]

@Skreelink , could you make a video while Lasering a coin?

Also i would like to know how deep the laser could engrave material such as the coin is.

I have the 10 W laser with cam. Therefore it would be interesting how you coordinate the position of a coin as example.

thanks for your answer.

[Skreelink]

It’s pretty much a surface engrave, not really even deep enough to feel. As far as positioning, there’s a new A-B system coming soon to Luban that’s not bad, but I’m also working on an updated Lightburn guide with repeatable origin to make use of jigs without worrying about lining anything up.

Similar to this; I know the coin is 30mm diameter, 1mm thick. I also know the left side is at X0, and front is at Y9. So all I have to do is position according to those numbers and use absolute coordinates.

In Lightburn it looks like this;

I make a 30mm circle, place it at X0Y9 and set it to a layer that doesn’t output (that’s the gray circle) then simply position whatever I want within that representation, and that’ll be exactly where it engraves, input my thickness and engrave settings go. No fussing around with the crosshairs, focus bar, etc.