how to use a K40 LASER cutter (tool review)
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- čas přidán 6. 09. 2024
- We have had good luck with this K 40 laser cutter. We had to make a few modifications, but they were pretty easy to make. In the video we show an example of how to cut an acrylic piece using raster imaging and laser cutting. We also show the modifications that we had to make to make it more effective. Hope you find a video useful.
AMAZON LINKS
K40 laser cutter (with red dot laser, wheels & air assist):
www.amazon.com...
air assist only: amzn.to/38uIvjh
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You need air assist. It helps reduce lens fouling.
So K40 cuts transparent acrylic, could it cut 4 or 6mm of it?
ok sir, thanks for share you experience with us, but somethings are very wrong there.
1º the lens are upside down, the curve part need to be up, not down or you dont get a focus point at all.
2º for sure you need to adjust the hight between the material and the head, to set up the focus point in midle of the material to cut with eficience, precision, more speed and down power cosumption.
3º min 1:37 you really, really dont need cleaning the lens every single cut (you short the lens life, apart of time lost) you make scratch on lens surface and its really totally unnecessary at all.
The best solution is use a air compressor (aquarium air pump or a small air compressor) to take air inside the lens chamber its create a high pressure avoiding lens contamination by fog and its help with cut to, in wood and acrylic as well.
4º you clean the lens every cut but leave the machine all that dirt and mess all around?!?! if we take care ours machines, she will be our friend with better quality and longevity.
cheer
1 wrong!! curve down.
2 ok
3 agreed.
4 agreed
@@darkracer1252 I just got my k40, haven't even used it once, went to change the lens and put in lightobject air assist, and the stock lens has the curve upwards from the factory.
@@PeabodysParadise
so after some googling i have found out that it doesn't really matter.
these types of lenses will focus both ways.
though flat side down will give you a shorter focal lenght and a smaller dot size.
flat side up is longer focal lenght and bigger dot size.
but this is why i said what i said prntscr.com/ovjh1x
every video I've seen says curve side up. Mine came stock curve side down, I used it like this for quite awhile before cleaning the lens. I flipped it over and it doesn't seem to make an ounce of difference.
@@darkracer1252 Curve upwards. It says so in the instructions.
Venting smoke into the power supply might corrode your electrics, better to vent straight across to external port.
Can you please make a video showing how you made the file in inkscape then uploaded into k40. I have noticed that it needs to be implemented correctly in order to be cut & not engraved & I am having a hard time figuring it out. TIA
Great video, except one thing: Your lens is upside down. Stock lens on the K40 should have the curved side up, flat side towards material. :)
Homer Plentl correct.
FUCKING WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
what is it with people these days.
curved fucking side down. jezus fucking christ.
@@darkracer1252 You really are an unpleasant person - right? Shouting something wrong, and then later not admitting it, while still being wrong. But no no no - it is all the other people in the world who are wrong - not me.
@@hpekristiansen learn how lenses work you dumb fuck.
it's a laser CUTTER right? not a laser ENGRAVER.
so curved side down. fucking twat.
gives you a longer focal point.
Every other source on the internet says the curve should go down.
Hi
I just would like to know if this K40 laser machine cutter can engrave on acrylic very fine writing letters which you can see them but you cant read them without magnifier .
Thank you
isn't that supposed to be flat side down??
I want to buy one only for cut 1/8 acrylic. Can you give the parameters you use to cut your acrylic.
yeah....... found one where someone is talking and explaining great stuff
These laser cutters are pretty nice for the price. I got it a couple years for about $400 and we use it all the time. Great little tool. There’s definitely a learning curve though
I just bought one but it doesn’t tell me what to set it to to cut out an item
Lens should be flat side down. Good video tho.
Hi! Can you help me with my k40 laser machine? The power keeps on blinking. It started when i was just engraving a rubber and it suddenly stop and blinks. And now, when i turn on the machine, it just blinks the power. I dont know what to do. Pls help
I have one of these machines. I am still having problems cutting. Have the lens and mirrors alligned, have air assist, made numerous corrections, but still taking 10 passes to cut 1/8 inch wood. What is wrong here? It is very aggravating.
I have the same issue. Someone please advise.
Adjust your bed height.
hola q potencia y velociadad le has dado para cortar el acrilico?? gracias
Other than you should never use distilled water, your video was very informative.
Distilled water seeks minerals and actively attacks metals. Use deionized water for best results.
How thick of material are you able to cut?
I’ve never tried anything more than quarter inch. We’ve done a lot of plywood and acrylic. Thanks for the tip on deionized water, I have to look into that
Live Free also. If you need antifreeze in the system go down to your Toyota dealership. It’s non corrosive.
Factory says to use distilled,,,,,,,
@@livefree6878 I use deionized water with no problems
Does this laser cut 4mm to 6mm acrylic
Regarding the red vs black in Inkscape - that's really interesting - what file type did you save it as to import to the Laser program? Thanks!
Bruno G. Following
He very very likely saved it as SVG then imported it with K40 Whisperer rather than the highly problematic stock chinese software.
I'm planning to buy this to start a small business (Engraving pictures on wood, glass, rubber) do you this this is perfect for what I want? And what mentanance it requires over time? What spare parts should I buy with it which needs replacement?
The most important maintenance on this machine is clean in the lens every single time you use it. So far we really haven’t had any problems with the laser. When you’re using it you can smell fumes, so it is important to make sure that you exhausted outside, even with that you’re still smell fumes. I do not use ours as production machine, But if I did I would consider having a spare laser tube because they do wear out. As they wear out you need to increase your laser power to compensate. There will come a time when the laser tube will need to be replaced, especially heavy use.
Live Free thank you so much for your reply 😊
Everyone keep saying that this machine would not work well without mods. Did you make any to yours? Plan on getting one shortly but want to understand the total cost. My work will be mostly balsa and play. Thanks.
It works without mods, but air assist makes a big difference. I made a simple Air assist with a plastic straw zip tied do the machine. It cuts a lot better with air assist I couldn’t believe it when I tried it. We’ve cut plenty of things without it but I think if you try it with it you’ll agree it’s worth the mod. There’s a lot of other simple man at the Air assist is the most important. For 400 bucks it’s hard to go wrong with a machine like this.
I've been wanting to get one of these for a while for custom custom car emblems. Is it possible to cut acrylic with there being double sided 3M tape applied to the back?
I haven’t tried that exact combination, I sure wouldn’t see why it wouldn’t work. It may take multiple passes. Adding air assist seems to make a big difference in the ability to cut thicker and cleaner
Hi, i need help!!! I can cut and engrave wood and similar materials, but I can not cut methacrylate in any way. I tried all the possible settings like speed and power, but the processing is never as clear as in your video. what can it depend on?
Try with a black background behind see through materials.
Hello! What speed and power you use for cutting?
I made this cut a while ago, I’m not sure the speed and the power are used for cutting, as the laser cutter tube gets more and more depleted these settings change. With a fresh charge on the laser you will need less power and your speed can be a bit faster. Because there are stepper motors controlling the movement there comes a point where you can be moving too fast. You’ll know you’re going to fast if you see a skip in your work. Once you know your maximum speed then you adjust the laser power until it has completely cut through your material. It would be a good idea to have a clipboard so you can Record the feed and speed for each material. Make sure it’s in pencil because as the charge is depleted you can make changes to your settings. Each laser cutter is going to be a little different due to the charge in the laser. I know this isn’t a fast answer but this is what I’ve learned over the years of working with these types of machines. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions
Looking for someone in the New England area that has K40 experience. Is that you?
No, but once you got The hang of it it wouldn’t take much to train somebody on it. You can’t beat the price of the machine. Just out of curiosity what are you looking to do with your K 40.
About how think will this cut?
With the air assist I’ve had no problem with quarter inch acrylic or plywood. I’ve never really pushed it beyond that.
Can you tell me from which user on eBay or Amazon you bought it from?
What software are you using to cut with? You mention you designed it in inkscape, are you using corel Laser? how is it determining the difference between red and black
John Smith K40 whisperer will open .svg & .dxf files, you just need to set the color to 255,0,0 for red and 0,0,255 for blue (r,g,b values), I think there is a +/- 10 on the values. To utilize the full bed on these lasers make sure you square up the mirrors, then adjusting them with the thumb screws will be easier to get them aligned.
thank you for making this video, I was actually looking for something like this before buy the laser cutter. So if I want to cut lets say a 4mm acrylic sheet and I can go twice over it and that should be enough right? also can I work from my mac computer to use it?
many thanks
+Natalia Steele
Yes it should cut 4 mm acrylic. If it does not cut all the way through you can make another cut. I've actually seen people make five cuts on really thick acrylic. One feature that I plan to add is an air assist, this will allow you to cut thicker materials as well. I added that fan to pull the fumes out from around the laser, and this seems to help. I work with a lot of lasers at work that are a lot more expensive. For $400 I am very satisfied.
This is great to know! I just ordered the exact same one cause of your comment, I'm sharing this video to a laser cutting facebook group I'm in. thank you very much!
Hi! Nice video! What speed you use to cut acrylic? Thanks for the answer
Hi i had the same machine, only problem is you window to run the program, if you had bought the machine since it was 8 months ago, are you able to run it on mac?
Awesome work, useful 👌
Hi there nice video mind if I ask yo a question what tipe of laser does k40 have..??
It comes with a 40 W laser, if everything‘s turned up 40W works great for cutting all kinds of stuff.
@@livefree6878 thank you thats helpful..!!
Aargh! Don't stick your finger right next to the laser focal point with the machine turned on!
Do you think it would etch a square whisky glass?
You shouldn’t have any problem engraving glass. It be a good idea to try engraving on a scrap piece of glass first. Because the whiskey class is Square this should be less of a challenge than a round glass. Some of the laser cutters have a special jig that will turn something like a wine bottle so it would consistently engrave on a circular curved piece of glass.
Let me know how it goes,
Thanks for the reply!
Can this engrave river rocks?
I’ve never tried rocks, the flatter the better though. The focus of the laser can blur, If it goes too highFrom its focus point.
Wondering if this machine will work with my Mac
coralia Alcala
Flat side down on the lens.
+Jesper Skovsgaard
Thanks I appreciate you pointing that out, I've tried to be meticulous on keeping the lens clean. I'm surprised it's been cutting so well with the Lens upside down. I'll definitely get that corrected, thanks again for the comment.
did the same on mine. when i got it from China the lens was mounted with the curved side down. And found out later than it was wrong :)
Glad to help
make sure you clean the lens. NO. make sure you use the airpump to blow air past the lens. both cooling it and keeping any smoke and deposits from even getting on the lens. AND blowing away the smoke so you can actually cut things
How many mA did you use for cutting?
from what i could see. about 3x as much as he needed. (around 16-20 mA)
Will it work with Illustrator?
That’s such a frustrating question, because illustrator is not open source I haven’t been able to get it to work. For years we have how to convert illustrator files by re-drawing them in CorelDRAW. I was so excited when I was able to get ink scape to laser engrave it directly from a native ink scape drawing. If you hear of a way to use illustrator please let me know but so far I have not found one. Every once in a while I’ll jump online to see if anyone has been able to get it to work. Currently I am trying to move completely over to escape because I’m able to interface with just about everything. I wish adobe would at least leave the door cracked open a little bit to allow it to be accessed.
Why would you add music to a video that's louder than your voice????
no et sents ni del coll de la camisa
N
That was not even basic how to use . What's on the laptop?
This is funny and scary at the same time. A cheap laser device in a what seems to be a hillbilly backlot with a toilet paper roll used as exhaust and a tiny fan fixed with some duct tape, running on an external (!) power supply. Wow! I mean, you spent $400 on that laser and you couldn't spend a few bucks more to buy a decent plastic tube for the fan (may be a hair dryer in cold mode would be more efficient), some metal brackets to mount it properly on the internal power supply and wire the fan's power supply internally to the main power socket? This is not even hobby level, this is crap level.
Shoot the guy who added the horrible music WTH?
...I gotta be honest, I think any video using the background music you have, that generic LOOK! 'I made my very first youtube video" music... should be immediately removed and the user banned from ever making vids again lol.