Hello all my fellow Carvers !
I am thinking about adding a laser to my pro 5.
After watching some vids on this it looks like they all tell you to go into the control board and add some connections?
I wanted to see if others have added laser with good results ?
Also any suggestions as to which lasers to look at would be great!
I cant see why yet but the j laser seems so expensive compared to say a 10 watt dioed laser on amazon. Does anyone know why that is ? and if I can use a lesser grade 10 watt I can buy for around $100 compared to the 7 watt from j Teck is $400
I don’t have one for the 5 Pro yet, maybe never? I may just get a separate Laser based on reviews and feedback on numerous forums.
You need to decide what you’re going to be cutting to determine which laser is for you. Fiber or Diode? There is plenty of information on the internet to help you.
One thing to remember when comparing a cheap Chinese diode laser with a JTech laser is how they justify the wattage. The lack of quality of the components used can greatly diminish the the output. Thus, a 10 watt laser may only produce an actual 3 watts of power. Plus the chance of the life of the laser’s usage is much shorter. And of course there’s the customer service side of the issue.
If you have room in your shop get a stand alone laser. The only benefit of my Jtech on my Shapeoko is that I can do a hybrid cut and burn…but I rarely do. A CO2 60w+ is what you want.
No, I do not want Laser anywhere near that strong. At most I want 10 W for high accuracy carving just burning into things. I will use my router to cut things or at least that’s the plan so far in theory.!
J Tech should have a bundled kit for your machine and it will be a plug and play install. If you have any issues with your kit you’ll find their support staff to be very knowledgeable a quick to help.
By the time you get that cheap Chinese unit, fiddle around with mounting and wiring it up, you’ll be frustrated enough to realize you tossed your money away. Support for that thing will likely be an issue.
I would suggest, before you do anything, give J Tech a call. Speak to a sales rep. Based on your machine, your needs and budget I’m sure they’ll have suggestions to consider.
Wow surprised how few people use an addon laser to there shapeoko.
My thinking is that the router would cut the majority of the cutting and then the laser would have a homepoint set on the same machine for the laser and would be able to switch to the laser to get the fine detail that would other wise blow out on my router.
is this sound thinking or am i missing something ?
I don’t think you’re missing anything, just not allot of folks combining the two based on discussions in the forum.
I would be hesitant to buy a 48”x48” laser, at that point I would add one to the S5Pro. On the other hand I still think I would purchase one smaller machine separately. I could then use both at the same time if needed.
My worry with that option and that is definitely a viable option is that if I don’t spend a lot of money on a laser all of the XYZ movement parts are gonna be cheap and not last and seeing as I have $4000 worth of those parts on the machine I have here I figured to use those excellent parts with the laser would be the equivalent of like a five or $6000 laser Which is just not in my price range at all 1000 would be cap at the moment .
That makes sense to me, Cheu stated above what his J-Tech will do and it sounds like it will work for what you stated you wanted it for. I have not completely rulled adding one. Just not at that point yet.
First, unless you get a laser that mounts into the chuck of your spindle, there will be an offset between the zero of your laser and the zero of your cutter head…and even if you have a chuck mount (which will reduce the Z amount your can burn), it still won’t be balls-on accurate (to use the industry term).
The laser cut is slow…unless you have a vapor laser (IMO).
I have the JTech 7w and love it. I don’t use it to cut. I use it to burn my logo, etch writing, decorate glasses and tumblers (Rotary attachment), etc. One of the more creative uses was to have one of my clients write an inscription on a piece of paper for his girlfriend - I then took a photo of it, brought it into Lightburn and burned the inscription into the bottom of jewelry box that I made for him to give her. It was very unique to have the inscription burned in in his handwriting. They’re married now…so I guess it worked
