Early Preview of the Ray 40W

Snapmaker Ray
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Hi All. I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on a Ray 40W + Enclosure delivered early to play, test, provide honest feedback, and share with ya’ll my findings and fun times! I will update this Thread with my journey over the next good few weeks. Happy to take questions as well!

First, here is the packaging. The first thing you will notice is the ‘Quick Start Guide’. For those of you that had a SM1 or SM2 (possible other devices, but I’ve only owned SM1 and A350 + Enclosures), you will be missing the thick and beautiful assembly book.

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I was sad to see it wasn’t included, and instead there is some basic information in the Quick Start Guide, and a QR code to the online Wiki. BUT - I was very happy to find the online Wiki still has the very clear and simple instructions. I still get the same vibes from it as reading a Lego instruction manual - so clear, and just fun for to assemble. Here is a sneak peak at the Wiki’s first Page (Subject to change!):

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And below is the peek into the box itself. It is extremely well packaged, and nothing came loose during shipping:

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Assembling was a lot of fun. Below is a timelapse of the process.

Note: We assembled it WITHOUT instructions initially, as we got the device earlier than anticipated, but decided to give assembly a go anyway. Instructions were fully live shortly after we had finished assembly, and we confirmed we had managed to assemble it correctly.

Pro Tip: Use the Wiki - It’ll save you a lot of time, especially with cable management!

You’ll notice a couple things in that timelapse:

  1. My wife and I are slightly odd. Yes, you are correct.
  2. Our cables are awful. Again, correct - we didn’t want to go too crazy on them until we read the official guide. AND we wanted to get a test burn as quickly as possible to see the Ray in action!
  3. We are reviewing our phones a lot - this is because we are using stills from the website and promo videos to confirm our assembly.
  4. Me standing partially our of shot for a good while. This was me on a laptop getting Luban talking to the Ray, and getting things ready for the burn.
  5. The amount of smoke that it pumps out when cutting! I had to get our garage door open fast!

Talking about cutting… Check this video out! Raw unedited camera work, but gives you a great feel for the power of the machine!

And finally, a couple of stills of the final product. Things to note:

  1. This burn was of the provided Example Project for the Ray, and we used the provided test 5mm wood, and not edits to the project made.
  2. It came out pretty good actually! And was VERY fast.
  3. The writing was a little ‘square’. This will be because it was using vectoring on the text. Same with the other machines. You can easily get great detail with a few tweaks in Luban
  4. There is some burn residue on the underside, but not nearly as much as on the A350. And nothing a wipe with vinegar/isopropyl can’t fix easily.
  5. We didn’t get a photo this time round, but there was little to no residue from the cutting edges when running a finger along it. I was quite surprised and impressed!

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Initial impressions?

We are genuinely impressed, and excited to start putting real projects through the machine. It is easy to use, fast, and the laser is a beast!

(Tease note: The above all happened yesterday… Today we assembled the Enclosure and did more burning… It was… a… lot… of… FUN.)

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That’s awesome, thank you for sharing! Definitely looking forward to some projects done on it.

Wiki would be much easier to update after your feedback lol :slight_smile:

Can you control the air assist flow?
Could you try to set it up for tall objects/rotary?

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Air Flow is either on or off, and you can control it put tool path. So generally on for cutting, off for engraving, would be the thinking.

Yup, we got some thermal mugs we want to play with engraving, so will update on the results of those! As far taller objects - hmm, we’ll have to hunt something down. Are you looking for ‘how easy is it to raise up’ sort of scenarios? We have been thinking about seeing if we can get a guitar to engrave.

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Read my mind :slight_smile:

Thanks!

This will be fun, my brain goes to color oxidizing the stainless with 40w, with the inline power and proper design one could make gradient lines or backgrounds on tumblers… Hm…

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That was my thinking on the 40w. Was planning on getting one when the price goes down, if my A350 is still running.

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Where can I find the Eagle Template as shown in Snapmaker ray Ad?

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Luban 4.9.1 should have it…

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Thank You very much, I really appreciate you!

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@nweolu You can get the following Eagle vector design in Luban.

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If you are looking for the following Eagle image, download it here.

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Phew! It was a busy weekend! We got the Enclosure all set up, and it is beautiful! Took a long time because of documenting the process, and trying some alternative options to the provided guide as far as cabling goes.

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I’ll get a timelapse of (most) of the setup uploaded hopefully tomorrow for ya’ll (most because the camera died at the end… as they like to do…).

We also designed a Test Burn Matrix that tests Work Speed, Laser Power (Half Diode only), and 100%, 75%, 50%, & 25% greys. We wanted to find out the best settings for different situations: Speed. Line Darkness. Cutting Depth. Burn Scarring. And I was pretty happy with the matrix design - it achieved all of the things. Now note - I say Half Diode. The 40W is incredibly powerful, and thankfully has a great future for engraving that lets you opt to use only half the diodes. But even with only half, it still is a beast! See below:

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In case you need explanation - Vertical is Work Speed, and Horizontal is Power (at Half Diodes). It is hard to tell from a photo, but there is some serious depth to the engrave as the power is increased. The 100% at 1,500mm/s went right through in a number of spots (4mm MDF). But 7,500 at 100% is also a good 2.5mm deep. We will be creating another burn matrix that has finer settings in order to determine how to get the darkest lines without any depth as well. This will focus in the <1,500 speed range most likely with 5 to 20% Power (Half Diodes).

I’ll also upload the Luban files for ya’ll once I complete the next one.

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may not be an actual depiction of @CandleFX
fire-flame

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This looks like a permanent setup. With all the wiring and other bits and pieces around. Do you have to remove the enclosure in order to attach the raisers?
Looking forward to the timelapse :slight_smile:

@Skreelink - :rofl:

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I don’t believe so. I’m pretty sure I can do it by raising it whilst in the machine. I will test this this weekend hopefully. That, and some thermo mugs =)

Timelapse of Test Matrix (I’ll keep working on better ways to capture these - it is hard to have enough space to do it from inside the machine!)

And Timelapse (LONG!) of assembly. Sorry, again, not the greatest as we have a lot of action out of shot. And BE WARNED… The camera died again, so there isn’t a satisfying end… So you have to refer to the picture above for that!

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The machine seems pretty loud while operating. Please share the noise level in and without enclosure.
Is the controller/power module as loud as the original psu of the 2.0?
Thank you for your work!

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I bring you a challenge from planet Facebook

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Without the fan and air assist running, it is pretty quite. With them on, and the lid open… pretty loud. Louder than the A350. With the lid closed - I’d say on par or quieter than the A350. Now, this is all subjective. I’ll actually test this more scientifically for ya’ll and get back to you!

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Haha, challenge accepted. Where do I get the image?

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So the original was done using a fiber laser and metal. But, 40w should be able to chip away on some slate, certainly on wood.
I don’t think Luban is capable of depth maps, just don’t know how it is with Ray :slight_smile:
If curious you can checkout the process with lightburn here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vvwpa32p8I

I’ve attached a sample depth map image to this post

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Luban doesn’t have a ‘depth mode’, no. But all you do is invert the depth map to achieve this. I’ll give it a go =) Lightburn would be easier though, because of the level of control around the power. I’ll play with Lightburn as well at some point - but my main goal is to see how far I can push Luban on the Ray.

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I applaud your ability to sit on the floor cross-legged that long :slight_smile:

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