S2 E41 | Creality Falcon2 Pro 60W (Part 2) | Testing the Laser Power Settings

Hello Everyone,
Check out these promo links for special savings during the Falcon2 Pro 60w launch period:
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Promotion time: 5.24-6.15
During the initial sales period, the 60W engraving machine will be offered at a 15% discount.
① Global first sales of 200 units
② For the first 0-100 orders, customers will receive a gift worth $199. For orders 101-200, customers will receive a gift worth $50.
③ Among the customers who place orders during the initial sales period, one person will be chosen for a free order.
During the initial sales period, the 60W engraving machine will be offered at a 15% discount.
Please note that this discount will be applied directly on the product page and cannot be combined with any additional discount codes.
In this episode I undertake some more testing with the machine, specifically to explore the power and kerf settings.
Thanks for watching,
James

[@philmarsden8932]

That was really interesting, I have laser envy 🙂 as I only have a 20W Sculpfun. I'd be interested to see the results of a ramp test on the kerf to see if the optimal focus height is different from the factory recommendation and if the kerf reduced, not that kerf matters when you're cutting, as you said just take it into account at design stage. The only place it will probably matter will be engraving images, I'd imagine you would get better results on your bricks using 60W with the added benefit of much faster engrave times.

[@mikefreemn4154]

I was just wondering whether you had tried cutting brass sheet on this machine and whether it's capable. I'm thinking of the thickness kit wagons etc. come in that can be folded so only thin stuff.

[@north584]

Would you say this is a better alternative to a co2 laser with the same wattage. I have a 30watt but I’m finding it expensive to run and maintain and I’m looking for an alternative option to cut if laser buildings? Thanks

[@kevinstaddon8517]

Have you tried this machine on metal?

[@davidorf3921]

Hi James The reason (which I am sure you know) that Brass (Aluminium and copper as well) will not cut but steel will is down to the heat transfer properties of the materials Steel is about 10 times worse at transfering the heat away from the cutting area

[@1BCamden]

Truly great episode, thanks James

[@BexhillWest]

Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

[@klaymann888]

Lots of great info and learning alot , thanks mate 👍

[@BexhillWest]

Thank you so much, glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks for watching, James

[@Sandlingjunction]

really enjoying this subject James and learning from you for my own falcon 2 pro, cheers Paul

[@calvinstreeting1173]

avid follower of you 3d printing (as been printing for a while now my self)... and now your laser cutting (just bought one of thoose) :) can i ask what thickness MDF, and stencil board?

[@FougarouBe]

Hi again. :) I forgot something. The kerf is usually different between horizontal and vertical cuts. In my tiny designs I had to take that into account because my horizontal kerf is slightly wider. For example, using simple printing paper (80g/m2), in order to cut the framing for some windows and obtain wooden parts equally wide (mullion, transom, ... sorry, English is my 3rd language and I don't know those names but I mean the wood forming the grid between glas parts in a real window), I had to use an offset of 0.0375 mm but only horizontally. Since, it's impossible to set in the software, I reduced all cuttings by this amount vertically. A drawing would be a lot easier than words to explain this, sorry. But basically, if you imagine I have a squared window formed by 9 squares of glas parts (for some projects those squares have sides of only 0.8 mm), all distanced from each other by 0.125 mm (less is quite hard without simply burning the paper), I needed to increase this distance to 0.2 mm each square of the 3 vertical stacks of 3 squares. For the outer cuts, most of the times, this difference is not significant enough to be noticed because all the "laminated up" parts are in fact all "wrong in the same direction" and they finally fit together. I hope that what I wrote makes any sense. :D Cheers ! :)

[@1-Nice-Guy]

Great job on the video! I'm very impressed with the rather small kerf you calculated for this very powerful laser at all 3 settings. I would love to see you run some tests on 6mm (1/4") wood. I think you would want to cut with the 20W settings vs. the 40W or 60W if you're working on fine detailed projects like earrings, you would want the smaller kerf. Keep up the great job!

[@davidorf3921]

Hi James It might be possible to cut other metals, you need to do a couple of things, firstly uprate the air compressor to one that can give you a steady 40psi (or there abouts) with at least two inline moisture traps or you will fog up the laser lens, next you want to cut with a single pass to reduce heat buildup in the sheet which will of course cause warping, finally pre pierce a starting hole before cutting the profile a 2 second hole before starting the path should be enough, the higher pressure air should blast the slag off the metal giving you a much cleaner cut. In theory Stainless steel should cut the easiest but with its reflective surface it might not cut as well as regular steel ( a black paint finish may help) then brass, aluminium and finally copper run laser at full power with slowest speed possible.

[@FougarouBe]

Hello ! :) Nice video. But I think there is one thing you did not go into. Probably because your machine is reliable enough and you did not need to. The vibrations when cutting at higher speed. I got a 5W cutter and then, after getting it physically broken and dealing with a really awful customer support, I decided to buy the 10W of the same brand (I know, it might sound stupid as the dealer is the same unique one for whole Europe, but I did). And I was quite disappointed because (it got as well broken during delivey but that's not the main point), not only the kerf was wider (on the contrary of what they claim on their ad; I had 0.08 mm with the 5W), but, more important, I was expecting to be able to cut faster (I am building the same kind of things as you do for model trains but in scales N (1/160), Z ( 1/220) and HN (1/320) and engraving thousands of bricks takes a huge time) but in fact I could not at all because increasing the speed was simply making the laserhead wobble and the results were disastrous. I finally never used the 10W and sticked to the 5W. The 2 models are in fact totally identical, except the laserhead itself and the lid. I think that because the 10W laserhead is heavier than the 5W one, the problem is that the mechanics is not strong enough to move it precisely. I did not see the link you said you would leave to a video to measure the kerf. I am mentioning it because I watched some of videos that are quite wrong in their methodology in measuring the kerf. Regarding cutting brass, I am surprised you tried because my dealer told me that any shiny surface would damage the optic. Ha, if I might take advantage of the opportunity, could you please tell us where you find the materials you use (this laser grade MDF and stencil card)? I use "wood-carton" (wooden cardboard?) but it's not as rigid as your materials as I can judge from your video. I am in Belgium and I can't find 0.5 mm MDF (if it ever exists) or something similar. Your stencil card seems to be nice. If I see the product you actually use, I can probably find the equivalent here (I could not find any within the 3 hours I was searching now) . It's not always easy with the way how materials names are translated and it's sometimes confusing. And by the way, I like how you designed your windows and wall to make them look nice from all sides ! :) Thank you and kind regards ! :)