I have been a hobby woodworker for about a decade now, and this thing is by far the most fun I have in the shop. Unlike building a big piece of furniture that can take me weeks, I usually can come up with an idea and be assembling things within a few hours.

I am posting this for people wondering what you get when you order a $350 CO2 laser cutter off eBay. I purchased this 2 years ago and have had no issues. All of my woodworking project posts that involve a laser cutter are using this machine, although I have upgraded/modded the machine since purchase

K40 is name for this generic Chinese laser cutter platform. There are lots of sellers under lots of names, but they are all basically the same thing.

There are some American resellers, like Omtech that you can buys these machines from and they will offer upgrades and tech support.

Here was the original posting, doesn’t look like this seller is around anymore

Shipped from a warehouse in California so I didn’t have to do any import tax stuff

Double boxed with unformed styrofoam

Inside stuffed with the “accessories” which were mostly tossed in the garbage, and some loose foam.

Cutting bed and fume extractor both of which I would later remove as part of the modifications

They had the water cooling tubes routing out through the exhaust fan for shipping, easy process of rerouting them during the initial setup

Lots of info online about ensuring proper grounding with these. I followed the guides around sanding off the paint to ensure good contact with the metal from the case. I think this is probably the only modI did before the first cut

This splice on the high voltage line seemed pretty ghetto to me, but the internet “experts” on the K40 forums assured me this was fine/normal.

Stock fume extractor fan and water cooling tubes. I added a water movement indicator and removed the fan and added a inline exhaust as part of later mods.

Mirrors were hot glued in place, but actually alignment was perfect right out of the box for me and this thing cut without issue on the first try. Over the years of mods and banging it around I have removed the glue and fine tuned but the tube and mirrors have held up well.

Here it is today in all it’s glory.

Cross posted from my post here https://lemm.ee/c/lasercutting

  • curioushom@lemmy.one
    6·
    1 year ago

    This is cool, thanks for sharing. I saw your pugs piece, very cool! Are you using it make jigs or forms too?

    • Hypnotized@lemm.eeOP
      2·
      1 year ago

      Yep, I’ve done some router templates. And used it to help make accurate interior dimensions for boxes

      • curioushom@lemmy.one
        2·
        1 year ago

        Nice! I’ve been wondering about a 3D printer but I might need to think more laser cutter. I’ll feel less bad about making more plastic with my failed prints that way 😂

        • Hypnotized@lemm.eeOP
          2·
          1 year ago

          Nice thing about a laser cutter is the speed. They are much faster than a 3d printer for templates.

  • A_big_to_do@lemmy.world
    5·
    1 year ago

    How is it on power consumption? How much software tinkering is there. I just started 3d printing, and using blender to make my own stuff. The learning curve on that is as steep as I want to go. I assume this is similar difficulty?

    Anyways cool setup!

    • Hypnotized@lemm.eeOP
      4·
      1 year ago

      I don’t think it actually pulls too much current, compared to other power tools. It’s powered off 115v, amps aren’t super high. Less than most of my tools.

      I have not used blender or a 3d printer but I would guess it’s probably a lot easier to design since it’s 2d. There is a little more planning maybe because you have to visual how the 2d plans will come together in real life.

      I think you would have no problem if you are already doing 3d printing

    • Hypnotized@lemm.eeOP
      3·
      1 year ago

      Regarding power consumption I found this on the Trotec laser website. In the example they provide they are working with an 80watt laser so cut that in half for the K40. They are a commercial laser company so they are also assuming you are cutting every day.

      https://www.troteclaser.com/en-us/learn-support/faqs/laser-power-consumption

      In order to give you a specific figure for power consumption, we have drafted the following example:

      A Speedy 400 laser machine with 80 watts laser power An average effective working time of 2 hours a day Of which 50% of the time with maximum laser power (80 > watts) and 50% of the time with half laser power (40 watts) This results in a power consumption of approx. 50 kWh per month, which corresponds to the consumption of 2 office PCs. This is always a surprisingly low value for many customers.

    • Hypnotized@lemm.eeOP
      3·
      1 year ago

      Yep, that software worked well for me. Eventually I upgraded the board and switched to LightBurn.

  • Rick@thesimplecorner.org
    3·
    1 year ago

    Great write up. Been interested in something similar. If you know what your getting into this seems like an affordable route. Thank you for taking the time to do this post.

  • wmrch@lemmy.world
    3·
    1 year ago

    Thanks for the post, I stumbled upon these and always wondered if it’s a huge waste of money. Can you actually cut with it or is it for engraving only? What kind of wood (and what thickness) are you working with?

  • Cullen
    2·
    1 year ago

    Thanks for this! I’d never really considered a laser cutter, but this read and the other posts you’ve put in !lasercutting@lemm.ee have got me thinking about it

    • Hypnotized@lemm.eeOP
      4·
      1 year ago

      It really got me in the shop more, and actually using all my tools more often now too.

      It also got me into new hobbies with microcontrollers and LEDs as I have built several wifi enabled Led signs and a flight control box for Microsoft flight Sim

    • Hypnotized@lemm.eeOP
      2·
      1 year ago

      I started with K40 Whisperer, then after about a year I swapped out the control board and use Lightburn now.

      I use inkcape usually for the initial designs.

  • stevestevesteve@lemmy.world
    1·
    11 months ago

    Almost identical to my experience! I see a lot of tape and mods on your current photo, definitely would be interested in more info on the mods you’ve done now

    • Hypnotized@lemm.eeOP
      2·
      11 months ago

      Hey there,

      Lots of things over the past few years. I will list them here and just let me know if you want more details.

      Most recently to oldest

      *Built a new stand/rolling cart with laptop drawer and monitor mount

      *Air hose regulator so I can easily toggle the air for the assist on and off without messing with the compressor valve

      *Microcontroller based thermostat that triggers LED lights when water for the coolant gets too hot

      *Cohesion 360 board so I can use lightburn and control power intensity from computer

      *Secondary power supply to run case upgrades

      *Extra case lights

      *Intake fans

      *Laser crosshairs

      *Drag chain for air assist and laser cross hair wires

      *analog Ammeter

      *analog flow gauge

      *Scissor lift

      *Honeycomb bed

      *Inline exhaust setup

      • stevestevesteve@lemmy.world
        2·
        11 months ago

        How do you like the scissor lift? I keep thinking about trying one but it seems like it’ll be wobbly / hard to keep level…

        • Hypnotized@lemm.eeOP
          1·
          11 months ago

          It has worked fine. No issues with stability or leveling.

          Getting it to the right height is a bit of a hassle if you change material thickness frequently because in order to adjust it I have to remove the work piece and the honeycomb bed, turn the screw, add everything back to check if it’s right, and if not, repeat the process until it’s dialed in. Usually I am working with 3mm ply though so it’s not very often I need to fiddle with it, and when I need to work on something bulky it’s nice to be able to lift it without for added depth.