Unlock the POWER of Laser Engraving | Creality Falcon2 40W - Fast, Precise, Painless

[@jimsvideos7201]

These devices have reached a readiness level where they're tools to work with rather than novelties to work _on._ I'll have to get one some time...

[@davedavem]

I was just thinking the same. They're still "behind" 3D printers in that respect, and with three safety aspects that's maybe no bad thing.

[@DantalionNl]

When yours comes out of the factory aligned and calibrated perfectly always take into account during the showcase or review that it is likely they have given you a special treatment, especially if they reached out or made a sponsorship deal.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

I guess it's possible, and there are some counterexamples on the forums and facebook. Tricky to prove if there was any special prep.

[@zebo-the-fat]

Nice! I have been using lightburn for about 3 years with a heavily modified CO2 laser, it's worth ever penny of the price! Nice big extractor fans are a must, I'm running it from a garage - having been banned from the house due to the smoke and fumes!

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

I'll probably set it up in the workshop with the 3D print and electrochemistry stuff. There's a 16 inch extractor fan in there that shifts just about anything, also proper fire suppression systems. I find myself wanting to write scripts to generate complex shapes with 50 or more combinations of speed and power

[@stimu_li]

This video is very information-dense, and yet easy to follow. Thanks for sharing what you know and learned!

[@K1ng9888]

I bought a 20w atomstack 6 months ago, I use lightburn... 0 experience... I have done so much. I can't wait for the technology to get better exciting time for this hobby/skill.

[@davidjh7]

Once again a fascinating video filled with useful information, Monty Python level English wit, actually useful tips, and plenty of technical fun to satisfy ay nerd. Well done, sir---you are and will remain far cooler than I will ever be, and I'm quite OK with that.

[@johnnycomelately6341]

Continually amazed!

[@fletcherreder6091]

PLEASE consider an enclosure with high optical density! 40W is a lot of power and I don't want to see you get injured by catching a stray glint to the eye. I must admit I do want one of these though.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

I have Edmund Optics OD7 UV-blue enclosed goggles, so I can probably take a reflection hit, but I don't operate the machine outside the cover, and I sit at the other end of the room with my back to the machine, with a webcam monitoring what it's doing. I had a laser burns on my left retina in the 1970s and I don't want another! That was caused by foolishness with a steel ruler and a big research laser. My father lost an eye working in gas turbine engineering, and I'm rather fond of being able to see!

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

The Creality enclosure covers the lower part of the frame very well, but I'm not going to take any risks at all, I throw those goggles on whenever I go near the machine. I should really try blasting the supplied goggles with a laser power detector in front of them to see how they behave. Mine drop the intensity by a factor of 10^7, but 40 watts on a 0.1 x 0.15 mm area is an immense power density

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

The other aspect is that using those zippers is going to get old REALLY fast, so I'll probably make a solid case with fire suppression and a strong suction under the honeycomb for doing printed circuit board filters and other thin materials that need to be held down to remain flat

[@fletcherreder6091]

@@MachiningandMicrowaves Ok, you are operating it in the enclosure, that is a relief. Wasn't entirely clear from the video and I'm a worry wart. The idea of these things not having an enclosure really bothers my laser safety training. Being in a room with an operating laser system without PPE, the '70s sure were different. From all the stories I've heard it seems safety was just a type of pin back then. Now that the anxiety has been placated I'm curious what you were working on. From the description it seems it was a high power pulsed laser?

[@fletcherreder6091]

@@MachiningandMicrowaves ugh, zippers. I really like that vacuum table idea though. If/when I get one of these things I'm stealing that idea.

[@mor4y]

"When I've got a great big radial arm saw...." Ah, I see you like to shake hands with danger on a regular basis! 😳😆 I was in the workshop when my boss clipped the back post with his set at a high angle, oh boy I heard some brand new swearwords that day! 😂

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

I once fell asleep using an UNGUARDED bench saw at 3 AM in a deserted part of Hull Docks. I was trying to finish a fake antique Welsh Dresser, which we were making from old ships' planking, dipping it in a stripping bath (hot caustic soda) then drilling woodworm holes and injecting wood flour, creating fake wear on drawers and doors and fake water stains, then wrapping them in old hessian sacks and thrashing them with rusty chains, then doing some fake repairs and polishing them with a 50 year old can of Briwax, before shipping them off to France. I didn't lose any digits, but it was close, and getting to the hospital wasn't easy. I still have scars and they itch a bit! I also have a 14 inch log saw and several chainsaws, so plenty of opportunities for inconvenient things like death.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

The circular saw incident was in 1981. Safety processes are a little more advanced these days

[@defenestrated23]

​​@@MachiningandMicrowaves"inconvenient things like death" - if your humor were any drier, the Corrino Imperium would colonize it and mine it for Spice. 😂

[@flintersroo4386]

C02 lasers on metal are going to he a challenge. You really need to be up in the 120w range or higher and you risk reflection burns back into your optics. Diode lasers are an interesting option and affordable hobby level approach. Once you get used to some if the common setups and experience, it will be a good stepping stone to larger commercial units from ULS, Omtech, etc.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

My next step will be a fibre laser I think. My grandson has a big CO2 machine. I'm going to push on with electrolytic and chemical etching after using a laser to ablate a resist layer.

[@MrBeaach]

@@MachiningandMicrowaves hi m and m, have you done the microwave joke yet , just hold up your hand to wave and just twitch, "its a micro-wave, get it". im wondering about galvo fiber lasers ,will you try a fr2 board instead to do the hole drilling automagically or use a absorbant spray paint to completely avoid chemical etching then laser clean the surface.could it be tuned to remove a colour of solder mask eliminating a paste stencil altogether ,could it be used to melt solder paste and do everything. so many questions so little disposable income.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

Visible LED lasers are rubbish for soldering, as I found to my cost. The copper delaminates and the substrate burns before the solder paste melts! Fibre lasers are a different matter, but these days I just send files to JLC or PCBWAY and wait a few days. If I could ablate the copper on SHF laminates without coating the substrate with condensed copper vapour, then I might have a go, but I've been tied up working on my new top-secret Project Narwhal for a TV program, building up my range of products and learning how to run my new CNC mill efficiently, so no time for videomaking or electronics projects. Or reading 8 month old comments that I somehow missed!

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

...and I am SO going to have to use the hand-wave joke at some point

[@davidwilliams1060]

Thanks. A lot of good reference information here. I just got one of these and still in the set up stage to avoid recreating a Star Wars lightsaber battle gone horribly wrong.

[@DJJAW11]

... I've not got to the end of the video yet, about half way,But ... Do you think/have you tried stainless steel tube/pipe 316 etc, likes of/for exhaust tip,out of interest?.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

That might be possible using a rotary attachment on the laser. Only issue is that the surface finish would need to be brushed rather than shiny, so perhaps rubbed with 1000 grit abrasive paper and oil to take off the shine then applying the laser finish. Could be a great idea!

[@wilcojuffer5940]

Hello Neil try also by steanless plate the angreving not next to each other but on the uppersite also try the plate on a waterfilm or eysblock 👍👍🙂

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

I like the idea of using a heatsink, perhaps a heatsink compound? A water layer might cause problems with cutting, but it's worth trying!

[@spekenbonen72]

Thanks for the excellent video. I need myself a laser engraver/cutter, so this is VERY helpfull.

[@windyhillfoundry5940]

Very well informed video my friend👍 A tip for cutting on wood that tends to blow out, I have discovered if I dial down on the air flow it helps prevent sideways directional fire in between layers.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

Thanks very much Clarke, I haven't found a way in Lightburn to set the level of air assist, only turning it on or off. I reckon it might be feasible to write a program to set a level if the Falcon2 had a command for that. I guess I need to do a lot more testing. I even thought about using a CO2 or Nitrogen cylinder and solenoid valve in place of the air pump. I loved your idea of making casting flask joints with the laser. Keep up the great content. I've learned so much from you, myfordboy and olfoundryman about metalcasting. Cheers from Yorkshire UK. Neil

[@windyhillfoundry5940]

Thanks so much for the compliments Neil, it's an honor to be catagorized with names such as Old Foundry Man and Myfordboy. As for the way I am setting the airflow, I just keep an eye on the air assist led on the module and adjust a degree or two above once it turns green for most cuts. At first I thought full blast would be ideal until I noticed it works best not to fan the flames so to speak🤔

[@eulemitbeule5426]

That honeycomb plate is awfully reflective, might be a good idea to coat it black. High temperature matte black spray paint is a good candidate as it's suitable for laser beam dumps and you can just spray on another coat if it gets rubbed off.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

It would make an interesting experiment to see if matt black stove paint would work, or if it might burn the honeycomb. I think the reasoning for having it shiny is that it should reflect rather than absorb, so it doesn't melt. The material is extremely thin, so dissipating heat by conduction is tough. As there's only the top edge that the laser can touch, it's not very likely that the beam will be reflected. The aluminium plate below the honeycomb is far more reflective and it's being hit at right angles. For small parts, there is a slight risk of reflections making it out, but in general it might be better to use some black-painted baffle sheets on the top side of the honeycomb, they might be useful for alignment if they were set to run parallel to the chassis. I also worry that if the honeycomb is made more absorbent, that very thin metal might not survive slow cuts. I'm thinking in terms of a 1/4 inch mild steel plate with a very matt finish and using magnetic pillars rather than the honeycomb for cutting anything thick at high power.

[@JohnHoranzy]

@@MachiningandMicrowaves A reflective mat finish would reflectively scatter and dissipate the energy rather that absorb it.

[@hedleypepper1838]

Bloody awsome review..... thank you so much from nottingham 🎉

[@MCsCreations]

Fascinating! I wonder about making PCBs with it... Should be fun to try! 😃

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

I think small PCBs are best made by sending the Gerbers to PCBWAY or JLCPCB, but for a large one that doesn't need plated-through holes, like a giant patch array or slot array, or metamaterials, it might be a good solution

[@MCsCreations]

@@MachiningandMicrowaves Oh, no doubt about that! But for fast prototyping, mostly for THCs, it should work fine!

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

@@MCsCreations I need to test what technique works best and how clean a line I can produce. If the precise beam is square and consists roughly of four Gaussian spots, there will be interesting dimensional corrections needed on diagonals and circles, plus the variation in intensity across the dot will perhaps lead to soft edges to the ablated varnish or paint. Simple enough to test, and for large features > 1 mm it's probably unimportant.

[@blahblahblahblah2933]

So no SMD stencils it looks like? what kind of lasers do they use for making those in industrial settings?

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

I guess fibre lasers. The resolution of this thing is decent, and it might work on a very thin stainless foil, so I need to try that. Perhaps 0.05 mm would be less likely to oxidize at the edges. I'll get some ordered and try some tests. I want to try metamaterials and diffraction gratings at mmWave. That really needs chemical etching. Problem is that all the folks on the forums are interested in etching on painted stainless mugs or glass or leather or wood, so there's not much info about coatings for cutting shiny, highly conductive metals. It might be that to get clean edges, I'll have to use an argon feed into the Air Assist to prevent oxidation. Back-purge might also be required, like for TIG welding. I'll look into the possibilities anyway

[@xenoxaos1]

I have 2 usb 3 cables and it only has 4.4-4.6v even some powered USB hubs don't even like dealing with the lower voltage or attenuation.

[@OldePhart]

I've been wanting one and wondering where this cycle ends. There is an old investment saying about waiting until the market dips or buying today ensuring it dips tomorrow and that's how this diode laser craze seems to be. 40 watts seems to be the longest duration iteration thus far but if I buy mine today I guaranteed the 60 watt version will show up the following day. It also appears that for technological reasons (heat probably) 5 watts is all the individual diodes will ever be able to output so now they are stacked and aligned. Will they be stacking 2000 of these at some point and taking out incoming projectiles? Why no liquid cooled models? So many questions...

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

The new ones are supposed to be 6 watt diodes, but there must be some losses in the FAC lenses and mirrors from reflection and diffraction. 22W seems an excellent compromise, but having that extra oomph to make finger joints in 3/4 inch oak is nice. I like the way I can just pick the thing up and put it on an 8 by 4 foot sheet and slice things without even needing a computer, just keep repositioning it and pressing Go

[@joshaconnor]

I love all the numbers and exactness you put in all your videos, but I struggle to hear numbers and recognize them/put them into context quickly, and with the speed you speak, it tends to mean I lose some of the next part of the sentence. Do you think you could put numbers and measurements on the screen as text a second or two before you say it, maybe as a "digital whiteboard" to the side of your head type thing? I find it far easier to parse the written version of a number than the verbal version without losing my place in the verbal conversation. Thanks for the excellent videos and detailed reviews of really cool stuff!

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

I ran out of time so couldn't get the graphic overlays done in time. If you enable closed captions and play at half speed in that section it might help. I didn't get enough measurements to make a statistically-valid set of measurements so I'll try to do those in the next video

[@joshaconnor]

@@MachiningandMicrowaves oh, that's a good idea, I didn't think about the captions being an option!

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

If I get a few moments, I'll publish the details in a pinned comment. Kinda tied up with some machining and 3D printing work right now!

[@1ytcommenter]

If the airflow from the duct is not enough you could install another fan directly in that plastic piece that sticks out of the window.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

Good idea. I'm wondering about mounting a large fan in an outside enclosure, to reduce the noise level. I have a large Xpelair fan that can mount in a window, but I like the idea of having a box on the wall outside, like an air conditioner. I think I have a coaxial shower extractor fan that fits into a round duct, I might try that

[@theradiorover]

Where do you find the time Neil?

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

I don't sleep! Except I fell asleep this evening and missed an important online meeting. Oooops. One day I'll retire, then I'll have loads of time for making vids. Perhaps...

[@theradiorover]

@@MachiningandMicrowaves I really enjoyed that video. You really put that machine through its paces. Just don't fall asleep when it's lasering. Wouldn't want a Goldfinger scenario 😁

[@victoriakonung9369]

By any chance. Do you know how to disable Fire alarm completely. I'm working outside and every time sun comes out Fire alarm triggered and it stopes working. It creates a lot of hassle for me. Please, help

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

In the Falcon Machine Settings you can change: $154 to 0 to cancel the fire alarm function but It doesn't say what happens if you set that value before printing.

[@nicolasmargottin8982]

Can you link the usb c right angle cable? Thank you for introducing me to this radioelectromagnetic world!

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

amzn.to/3RZFAsP or amzn.to/3PMiTFM should work, or search for "Syntech Link Cable 16 FT Compatible with Meta/Oculus Quest 3" or "Syntech Link Cable 5m Compatible with Meta/Oculus Quest 3"

[@davedavem]

I can see so many possibilities with these, and the 10-12W versions are almost in reach budget wise. But i still feel at that budget level they're too much of a project in themselves. If you add a zero on the end you can get a machine that's fully enclosed, has auto-shut-off when the lid is opened, etc. I love getting into things and nerding out about them, but where lasers that can cut metal are concerned I'd rather it was a bit less homemade. I reckon I'll give it a few years.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

I've always used a local fabrication shop with waterjets and 10kW lasers for metal cutting. This unit isn't going to replace that element, but it means I have a way to add serial numbers and branding and scales to products without having to send them out. I'm going to fabricate a metal enclosure with extraction, fire suppression, camera and interlocks, but then I won't have the laser right there in my home office, because the enclosure will be too large. I'll be making a nitrogen TEA laser with pumped dye laser cavities as a future project but only as a rather dangerous toy.

[@DavidKutzler]

Ummmm... I don't see any links to Creality in video description.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

Indeed, the links aren't working right so I killed them, should be back shortly

[@KarldorisLambley]

this was jolly interesting. as i mentioned in a different comment i have been, of late, on an autodidactic electronics journey. as part of this i wanted to learn about using voltage regulators. it seemed the 'easiest' way to do this was buy a bunch of nichia 445nm 2W LO diodes. along with costly safety goggles, a fog machine, glycerol and de-ionised water to make better fog in the machine, hosts, heat-sinks, a twisty thing to push diodes in hosts, fans, prisms, x-cubes, diffraction gratings, some 620nm 500mA diodes, a green laser pointer, some strontiated aluminates, fluorescent marker pens, and a shed-load of ballons. in short i accidentally became fascinated with lasers. i don't care about doing useful things with them. i just want to pretend to be destroying Alderaan when i sit at my bench. i must say i am very surprised by a device having, essentially, an exposed laser when working. who thought that was a good idea? have these people not considered an inter-locked box around these fantastically dangerous lasers? i even, whilst embarking on my faffing about with lasers voyage, put reed switches on my study door. 2 of them. then i use logic to insist both return a signal showing door is closed before a relay allows power to the bench supply i use with my lasers. heaven forfend my hobby injures my wife.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

if you want to have an immense amount of fun with lasers, try making a nitrogen TEA laser. Relatively simple construction, but you need to find a way of using a nitrogen feed for best results. Constructing the channel needs a bit of mechanical precision, but the rest of it is just microwave/fast pulse engineering and dealing with extremely high peak currents and fast risetimes. It's a UV laser of course, but if you then use that to illuminate a dye in a cuvette or do something else fancy with using it to pump a visible laser then you can make something really quite exciting. Huge peak power and lots of neat challenges. Also, almost entirely useless for anything practical, so of great value just for the sheer joy of making dangerously scary stuff. See also Marx generators and adaptive frequency Tesla coils. Bzzzzzzt!

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

My laser has an enclosure but having suffered a retinal laser burn back in the 70s, I operate it with my back turned, sitting at the other side of the room and use a webcam to watch progress. I wear expensive Edmund Optics wrap-round goggles if I go near the machine while it's running.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

The particle accelerator accident in Korea (?) was caused by a lack of interlocks and poor safety engineering, plus slack human-factors controls

[@KarldorisLambley]

@@MachiningandMicrowaves i have been looking at plans of these. i have some ZVS drivers i have bought, and indeed made, and some LOPTs. i just need a pair of what looks to me, rather like 2 pencils made of aluminium.

[@KarldorisLambley]

@@MachiningandMicrowaves i think you mean Anatoli Bugorski in CCCP. it was a concatenation of errors and happenstance. jolly interesting.

[@jimsvideos7201]

There's something about blue light - biological rather than physical, I gather - that makes it more hazardous than other colours. I'll have to find a source though.

[@hullinstruments]

At these power levels you'll be blind faster than you can even blink. And that's just from a random reflection....god knows what a direct hit would do. Doesn't matter the wavelength at powers like this

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

As I said in the vid, human eyes are optimised for visible light, so there is zero protection. My Edmund goggles only reduce the optical power by a factor of ten million, but the original power is around 3GW/sq m, so even with 10 mrad of divergence, a direct hit is still going to be 200 watts per square metre, at a metre distance, similar to looking at the sun. I've had laser burns on my retina in the past, but they were peripheral.

[@BobDarlington]

Still on my list. -N3XKB

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

I like that you don't need to care about the technical details of this machine. Something like the way laser printers have become usable by anyone without any engineering skills. I know there are lots of other diode lasers around, and they have dedicated and passionate followers, but this feels like a consumer product, like a fridge or washing machine or freezer. Plug it in and it just works. I value my time very highly, so any time messing about with a machine is time wasted. Doubtless an enthusiast could make something like this using component parts and building it themselves, but for me, that's not my idea of fun, like building PCs. Maybe 25 years ago I'd have enjoyed that, but I want tools that just work and deliver results.

[@occasionalmachinist]

Are you going to disappoint me and tell it it won't cut 6mm steel plate?

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

I think the steel would rust away before it made it through. Actually, now I'm wondering. 100 passes at full power might just do something if I can keep the workpiece cool. A scriber would be a faster way to cut it though.

[@occasionalmachinist]

Damn! Looks like I'm still waiting for that magical clean, accurate profiling device.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

Waterjet made from a pressure washer is still probably the best option!

[@occasionalmachinist]

one day...

[@Blake-gh8xl]

Love to find an unsponored video... but not much like

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

Very hard to justify making a product video without sponsorship. The deal is always that I can say what I like about the product. I wouldn't review something that was awful, and I'm only doing things I find useful for what I do. This little laser gets used almost every day for making fixtures and for engraved part numbers and serial numbers and logos. Next vid is due soon and it is mostly machining but the azimuth scale of the thing I'm making is engraved using the Falcon2. It just works. I might have been ok with the 22W but the 40W saves me time. A fibre laser or a big CO2 would be nice but for different things

[@Erik.411]

Awesome video. So glad I found it. But never, NEVER engrave your cat. They really don't like it.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

@@Erik.411 I have two Chihuahuas. I guess the same no-engrave rule applies to them also?

[@Erik.411]

I have no personal experience with chihuahuas, I have two cats. But I've been told that chihuahuas can be notoriously evil tempered, surpassed only by the obligatory contempt and arrogance of cats. So the temper paired with their tiny sharp teeth, really suggests that it's a mystery best left unexplored. Give your dogos a pat from a friendly internet stranger from Denmark.

[@Tensquaremetreworkshop]

As 'an engineer' , you should be using mm/sec, not mm/min…

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

Disagree, mm/min is the predominant usage, like miles per hour or km per hour instead of metres per second. Anyway, it should be metres per second for the feed as well if we are going to be all sciencey about it!

[@Tensquaremetreworkshop]

@@MachiningandMicrowaves As engineers, we should do what is correct, not what is popular. It is also correct to use subunits in measurement - so mm is fine. However, values such as 25,000 mm/min should be shown as 25m/min to be consistent. Using the correct scaling factor is kinda basic. No vector on such a machine will take minutes- it will be seconds. Interestingly, when I installed Lightburn the values were already mm/sec, suggesting that it is the default... It is also practical- the vast majority of feeds will be in the 1 - 1000 range, allowing a single scaling factor for all values. So, three good reasons for using mm/sec.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

@@Tensquaremetreworkshop Wishing for consistency in a consumer-targeted product is probably never going to happen though.

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

At least it isn't in feet per minute like many of the CNC tool ratings

[@MachiningandMicrowaves]

I'm from the lost generation who had to deal with the transition from imperial to cgs and then mks and SI, so I'm unit-agnostic and having studied Astrophysics, I'm happy with angstroms, avoirdupois, parsecs, furlongs per fortnight and cups as a volume measure. I'd prefer all measurements to be like 3.45e4 standard form and SI units, but then I'm more a scientist than an engineer, so what do I know!!