Does that fit around the outside of the spindle up in the dust boot?
That would make a bit more room for collet spanners.
Thanks,
Is that the SuckIt you’re running as a dust boot?
How does the ring light interact with that?
1 Like
The light covers the work-peice enough for my camera to work as if there was no dust boot.
2 Likes
@Julien I would really appreciate it if you can help me with a bracket to attach this 20Watt laser to my HDZ with the Suckit boot. I got it connected directly to my board and was tested working as it should. I soldered a 4pin Molex to the board, next to the Bitsetter/Touch Probe connector, to make things look good. you can see the connector on 2nd picture.
I see a white cover that shows in your picture, what is that? or, what is it for?
2 Likes
Hi @ispot,
The white thing in my pic above is part of the (over-designed) 3D-printed frame I added around my HDZ to have a Z-independent mounting structure for various things (dust collection, laser, air jet), all the details are in that thread.
You need to decide if you’d rather
- attach the laser on the spindle, to have variable-Z lasering capability, which I discovered is interesting at times. I did just that recently.
- or have it Z-independent…and then reusing those Suckit arms is the way to go in your case. I’ll be happy to help with a little Fusion360 prototyping if I can.
3 Likes
Man, coming from Carbide3D that’s harsh…
Actually, I second what Luke said. The cast ones for sure are junk.
And I can confirm that the machined mounts and HDZ designed by Luke are really rather good, I wasn’t sure whether to put them on my machine or in a display case when they arrived.
5 Likes
Got my hdz and 80 mm mount in today. I can confirm. The cast one that came in my key was junk. The stuff from carbide was perfection.
Hell the guy who bubble wraps the mounts uses so much bubble wrap and tape you’d think it was a piece of art inside.
2 Likes
Take care when mounting this, the center screw is for opening the spindle mount ONLY! That screw must be removed when you tighten the mount to the HDZ. It’s not written anywhere and super counterintuitive. IMHO using the bolts that mount the spindle to also adjust tension is a “unique” design choice. Other than that a great mount. Oh and the cast ones are indeed garbage, I returned two, then built my own 80 mm and ran that for a year and a half before getting the HDZ and mount.
4 Likes
…is that the input power?
The seller claims it to be 20 Watt output power. Comparing it with my 60Watt CO2 laser, I would say it’s somewhere between 12 & 15 Watt. I tried to get the Amazon link for it, but apparently Amazon no longer sells it.
Almost certainly the 20W is input power. Currently, commercially-available, cheap, single blue-diode lasers will top out at around 5W output power. If anyone has has a link to a more powerful one, please share!
Until there is some technological breakthrough, I don’t foresee this product segment getting much more powerful. The major limiting factor for these small diode-based units is heat extraction. The diode itself is really small and you have to extract a lot of heat from it. Expect that if you use this for cutting at max power, your diode life will be pretty short, like 10’s of hours. Dropping your max power to, say 80% will have a major bump in the diode lifespan, potentially into the 100’s.
And as always, buy good glasses. Don’t go cheap there!
3 Likes
You are correct about the NEJE laser. They list the input power & not the laser power. This specific laser is made by a company called Kunshan. Here is the specs & the certifications for the BX20 that I got.
When it comes to laser, I think I learned a lot from using different products, from a 60 Watt CO2 Laser, to the BX20 20Watt laser in question, to two different laser heads for my Snapmaker.
I can tell you that this BX20 is about 16 to 18 Watt because I successfully cut 5mm of Baltic Birch Plywood in 2 paths.
1 Like
Ah, but did you say “No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die” ?
3 Likes
Thank you for reminding me. Hre is what the BX20 can do.
1 Like
awesome, thank you for sharing!
It’s interesting to see that they too utilize multiple diodes for the higher end (double and even triple). I’ve also seen some other mfr’s that have multiple diodes in a single housing using mirrors for combining beams.
For the real output power of 10W, this is compelling. Thank you again!!
Thank you! Do you have an online source for purchasing?