So I was online and saw an ad for the new snap maker 10W laser head. they say it can cut 8mm in one pass in basswood. Has anyone begun to investigate this? Apparently you can purchase just the head and software for under 500$. I remember spending about 700$ for a 7W laser head. Any thoughts?? Thinking about a retrofit to my CNC Lead machine
Technological limit of diode lasers are 5-6w. Anything else is Marketing (sometimes lies) I doubt it would do 8mm in one pass, definitely not plywood (maybe balsa). Plywood is almost impossible to cut on a diode laser - 445nm works on organics, which resin based glue is not. Cuts OK through the wood layers, expect 3-4 passes per glue layer
I hear you. looks like the internal mirrors help with it. Don't know all the science involved but it looks worthy of investigation considering the sticker price. I meant BASSwood and not plywood, original post edited Snapmaker 10W High Power Laser Module - Snapmaker
Yeah. Those are two 5 watt lasers combined with mirrors. I looked at some of those at one point and I realized I could get a separate 40 watt CO2 laser cheaper. But, those tubes do need to be replaced every so often at $120-140 a pop. So, I have yet to decide if that decision was right.
