Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that we’re just about to launch our LaserBeam laser system.
It’s been a highly requested product that our users have asked for, and I’m excited to share the work Ikenna has been doing to create this laser for many months. He’s put a lot of love and care into the design, features, and quality to make it an outstanding laser. Nearly every component, from the heat sink to the electronics have been designed from scratch, and every part of the laser has been tested to bring the highest level of performance possible at a reasonable price point.
@gwilki - Ikenna answered the same question that I posed as a comment to the video - "I wanted to start with UGS and G-sender just incase customers would rather have more control over the machine interface software but the more I use Lightburn the more I’m impressed with the software as a whole. Will definitely include Lightburn machine interface in my next demo/tutorial*
@djgrant181 Thanks, David. Ikenna’s comments are interesting. In my experience, Lightburn gives far more control over the laser than either UGS or gsender. Not to take away from either of the gcode senders, but that is what they are - gcode senders. LB is much more.
@gwilki I agree wholeheartedly, that was why I asked the question. It would be different if Lightburn didn’t talk with the Longmill controller, but it works so well
Laser has me pretty excited, I had not seen the announcement so when i originally saw it I thought it was just a lasre for Zeroing the Longmill, which would have been cool too. This is much better.
I see that you had the laser mounted on the right side of the router mount - The dust shoe you guys sell also mounts on the right, doesn’t it? Is there interference there between the two?
Also curious if you guys had an idea for an air system, would keep the cutting / etching more consistent.
Lastly, how dangerous is the laser light? Is the light they you see reflected off the smoke also dangerous? Just curious as depending on that i would need to keep my barn door closed while running it.
@mikecmp I was at the live stream and most of your questions were answered there. There will be an air assist that will come free with the laser when it ships in August. It will be run by a small fan and 3D printed part.
As far as the danger of the laser, you are right, the laser is very dangerous, however, Ikenna with the Sienci team on this laser, did A TON of research and testing and is including a pair of very high end Laser Goggles with the pre orders for no charge. They will be $60 Canadian after the release. He actually shot the laser directly at the goggles and measured the intensity of the beam through them.
Finally, with the magnetic dust boot, the recommendation from Sienci is to take the boot off. Easy enough with the magnetic boot. I actually have a Banggood cheap diode laser roughly the same dimensions as the LaserBeam from Sienci and the magnetic dust boot. The laser could be mounted on the right or the left of the router mount with M5 screws, but there is still not enough clearance for the actual laser module casing on the left with the dust boot on. It just touches the plastic edge and knocks it out of straight up and down. Dust boot is definitely in the way on the right. Again, that’s my Banggood cheapo laser. Pretty sure it would be the same for the Sienci Laserbeam, or Sienci/Ikenna would have mentioned that in the Livestream.
I believe the live video stream is available now on the Sienci YouTube page. Check it out!
Thanks for the reply. I tried to be on the live stream but there were a lot of problems and I bailed after a bit.
Glad to hear that, I knew it was coming with goggles, I was more wondering what the intensity of the beam would be when it is reflected from the smoke, wood dust and such. In the videos you can see the laser make a bright flash, was just curious how intense that would be just from the atmospheric dispersion.
Fan sounds good. I wonder if it makes more sense to have a small unit off to the side, some kind of pump or what not, and then just have a tube/hose/nozzle mounted on the gantry to direct the air. LEss vibration and moving mass on the gantry.
I was about to convert my LongMill to being vertically mounted after watching the video, and then I considered that I’ve pre-ordered the laserbeam system. Is the added weight of the laserbeam attached along side the makita router going to cause an issue? I have no concept fo how heavy the heatsink might be. I suppose I could pull the router or laser off depending which is being used, so i’ll probably mount it vertically anyways, but would love to hear about the experience at the sienci lab, if theres still a longmill there mounted vertically.
@Vipor Welcome to the group, Terry. I’m sure that you will find it a very helpful place. Don’t hesitate to ask questions, and be sure to post pics of your projects.
As to your question, like you, I’m not a Facebook person. You can always keep up on things by reading the Sienci blog. You can find it here:
Is there a laser beam order tracker somewhere similar to the machine tracker? I’m interested in knowing how many lasers were pre-ordered and where mine is in the queue. Still looking to ship end of August?
Am I curious as well. Looking to batch out a bunch of orders asap.
In the meantime I have downloaded the trial version of Lightburn to practice a bit. Does anyone else have any other software that they like to use with a laser?
