I just got a little demo of the new 40 watt Xtool diode laser and a 40 watt Metal CO2 Radio Frequency laser tube.
The Xtool was, well pretty cool. It was cutting crazy thick stock and came in about $995.
The 40 watt Metal CO2 RF system the size of a spindle and will mount directly on your Z axis. Crazier still, it is was air cooled unlike the much larger glass tube version. It was about $2,000 + a lens and air assist.
Pretty darn crazy how fast this is moving now. Like I have said before, I might add one for serial marking but I will wait another year and see if I can get a 80 watt
Thats a really nice price. I’ve looked into those in the past and they were just too much money. Did they say what kind of power supply they require? I think those should eliminate the need for the 10-15KV power supply that CO2 tubes need, which would be nice.
Was this being developed for use with a cnc, or as part of a complete system and you are just thinkiing ahead to just integrating the laser source yourself? Just curious.
Sure thing, so ~960W at the input which is ~8A from a household outlet. Wouldn’t heavy gauge wire nor an oversized breaker if one had an extra household outlet that wasn’t already loaded around.
That one (30W model) lists 12.5A@48V on the details tab, so definitely in the same ballpark and easily run on a standard US home wall plug. 10A for the 40W model.
These have been around for a while, but were always a very expensive option compared to the tube source. This price is now very viable for a CNC add-on.
Keep in mind its still CO2, so deep infrared wavelength. Will work about the same as a blue laser on organics, will be excellent on transparent stuff like acrylic (blue lasers suck at that), and won’t touch raw metal at all (but will work fine to remove the pains, and probably anodization on AL as well).
Yes, and cutting acrylics is something I do a huge amount of. Would be nice to put it down like doing a plasma cut without having to think much about fixturing. Just plop down a sheet and have at it… I think I mentioned in another thread, I’ve got a tube, and a high voltage supply and a water chiller, etc just waiting for me to clear out the backlog of hobby projects, but if they make a bolt on all-in-one solution, that becomes more tempting.
Cute! A miniature money sucker that can spend 90% of its life broken and waiting for parts while just taking up your desktop instead of expensive shop space
UPDATE: I shouldn’t be so negative. It’s a tool and it works for some use cases. Just not mine
