Btw. one of their images shows roughly what you probably get there. 10W from two diodes (another image) if I read this image correctly. Given the little heat sink it will probably not last that long even with two fans.
I thought about it. You could actually get this somehow working. Put the SM2 on a table and the tube below it facing up. Drill a hole through the table and SM base plate to let the laser beam pass along the linear modul of the z axis. Install a mirror at the x rail itself and a second one on the carrier together with a focus lens. It is basically like the K40 cutter but 90Ā° rotated along the x axis. Other orientations of the tube are possible with an additional mirror.
Ok this has got to be the best thing iāve seen yet.
Wreckless loose laser guided only by mirrors attached with chewing gum? CHECK
Invention of the year award? CHECK
Have a pesky mother-in-law youād like to burn a reminder into? Well ok maybe not, but you can do it on her purse!
Tbf, this is basically what many CO2 laser setups Iāve seen look like. Usually though, the tube is simply mounted above (basically, add another mirror in the head, and rotate your design 90 degrees along the x axis), since most co2 lasers donāt move on the zx plane like sm does.
I wouldnāt be amazed if you could even get a co2 kit meant for that and just stick it on the SM (Iād hope it comes with proper mounting hardware so it wouldnāt be āattached with chewing gumā).
Only thing Iād worry about is the vibrations, my SM frequently rattles my enclosure a bit, so I wouldnāt trust anything (esp a CO2 laser) that wasnāt mounted directly into the frame so it rattles along with the rest of the machine.
The R&D team will make the prototype of the 8-watt laser engraving module in Q2 of 2021. Before release it, we need to arrange a lot of tests on it. We have to take usersā safety and marketās regulations into consideration, so we need to get some necessary certifications for this add-on.
I bet they also have to consider the costs for such a device. No one would probably buy a single tool head which costs more than the whole Snapmaker set. The most powerful blue laser diode on the market today is a Nichia NUBM-47 with 7W. So you would need at least two of those and the right opticts to get close to 15W. Looking at other laser heads with for example three 5W diodes gives a good estimation of how much you would probably need to pay for such a deviceā¦
Thatās the point. Snapmaker 2.0 is a 3-in-1 modular machine, and we do not want make the laser add-on more expensive than the whole machine, which will hurt our company and users.
Modularity is the core of Snapmaker 2.0 modular 3-in-1 3D printers. You choose which add-ons to further upgrade or customize your printer. We are devoted to make the machine more stable to use and affordable to users.
Pretty sure that depends on if they run into any issues. Especially when the part theyāre developing is a laser which give off radiation. Iād think they mean develop AND release in 2021 but Iād rather have a delay from them making sure itās as good as can be (excluding minor issues here and there with market release, those always exist) and not get a product that could end up being damaging the machine one way or the other. I really donāt want to see Snapmaker buckle to community pressure and rush things too fast that results in low quality.
Unfortunately, I had already found that table (and linked it in an earlier post of my own) The data in that table did not help. Auto-Focus has never worked, so I donāt know if I am just selecting wrong when it comes to manual focus? Do you guys have any instructions on what to look for when selecting manually? Iāve tried to avoid selecting ones that look to burnt on the edges, Iāve also tried to figure out how gauge which line cut the deepest, but that is proving hard to tell as well.
I hope nobody is looking at this with their bare eyes while the laser is running. BAD idea.
I think the autofocus is pretty dependent on material. I remember that if the AF failed it asked you to pick which line was the sharpest, but I donāt remember there being any way to tell which line is which. No labeling, just lines.
Iāve had good results with the AF marking on plain white cards, like a blank 3x5 card.
After AF on white card, I was able to mark borosilicate glass using Molybdenum lube spray.
Very interesting results, which I posted on a couple weeks ago. The moly absorbs the laser heat and causes shallow fracturing of the glass. Fascinating, and VERY VERY permanent.
I shouldāve repeated that when youāre doing manual focus itās with glasses on. Thatās part of why using your phone can help.
For setting it up itās somewhat dependent on material. The official instructions expect you to use the ply that came with it. After itās set correctly then you just need to know the thickness of the material. One more reason you should have digital calipers. Most wood isnāt actually the marked thickness. Theyāre very useful for both 3d printing and cnc.
Ive tried that, Itās still super hard to tell when it is the smallest size and when you missed it. Especially from the little ruler thing it cuts out and says auto calibration failed, then you have to just pick which cut āis the bestā
