Here are six upgrades that are actually worth doing for your consumer level,
laser engravers and laser cutters, featuring the Ortur Laser Master 2 Pro.
Number six on our list is a Z axis height adjusting tool.
So basically this is a way to easily move the Z axis up or down so that you
get the perfect focal length for your laser.
Perfect for cutting perfect for engraving, whatever you need it to be.
Now this does come with a stock bar here that you can use to make sure you set
it right, but out of the box, this has a little thumbscrew,
that's really tight up against the back plate here,
and it can be kind of tricky to move,
especially if you're in a situation where you have to move it regularly.
So you can 3d print your own like this. You can buy these on Etsy,
you can buy manufactured ones and I'll put some links to all of these products
in the description below, but I 3d printed this one.
I did have to modify it a little bit for the pro model here, but it works great.
I can use an Allen key here myself, or I can just use a screwdriver,
which is a lot easier and move this thing up or down as needed.
And it's just fast. It's easy. One less thing to have to worry about.
And it's just that much quicker to get started on your next project.
Number five on our list is having a proper surface underneath your material.
Now,
whether you're doing cutting or engraving will help determine this quite a bit,
but if you're doing a lot of engraving, for example,
then you can really use any piece of wood,
whether that's plywood or MDF or some other piece of wood underneath,
as long as it's level, it will do the job just fine.
One thing that helps with that,
is you can download a grid pattern that you can burn into that piece of wood,
that helps you place your material in exactly the right spot each time.
If you're using your laser for cutting,
then you want to make sure to elevate your material off the work surface.
One that I've been trying lately is just to use some $3 cooling racks that you
can get at the store. I've got one underneath here right now,
and you can clip things onto it.
It will burn through it's tough and pretty wear resistance.
So you don't have to worry too much about it. If you want to upgrade from there,
you can get a honeycomb aluminum mesh pattern,
and I'll put some links again in the description below where you can check some
of those out. That's a little bit more of a professional option.
It gives you a little bit more depth to work with. Also, you can use some pins,
whether ones that you buy yourself,
or you can 3d print some to help push into the mesh and hold your work down
securely to that surface. There are lots of other options out there.
Everything from people using a bed of nails or a bed of screws to glass,
to different types of materials. So do your homework on that,
but having a proper surface underneath your material, makes all the difference.
Onto number four is the enclosure having an enclosure for your laser cutter or
laser engraver is in my opinion, pretty much essential.
And you've got lots of options and a whole wide range of budgets for these.
So at the cheapest side, you can just use a cardboard box. Honestly,
that'll work just fine. If you want to get your project started,
put the box over it and let it do its thing.
You can cut a hole in it for seeing,
especially if you put some plastic over it or something like that.
I decided to make my own box here using some different plexiglass type material.
This is actually walls for greenhouses, that I got really cheap.
On the local classifieds, and you can do all different options like this.
After having built this one,
I actually found some online that I liked a lot better.
So I think I might do a bigger,
nicer one that's a little better sealed and maybe a little easier to work with.
So I'll put some links in the description to those videos of some great
YouTubers out there showing different ways to make some really cool enclosures
for this. Now, if you want to take it one step further than that,
you can actually buy a proper metal enclosure for these. Now,
depending on the type of laser cutter you go with,
you may have different options from the manufacturer or third-parties as well.
On the Ortur, which is a really popular brand of laser cutters and engravers.
You've got the Laser Master 2, and like this one, the Laser Master 2 Pro,
and for each of these for about 300 US dollars, you can purchase one
that's totally custom built for this specific machine. Now,
whether or not you pay for shipping and depending on where you're living,
all of those factors will have to be considered. But in any case,
I highly recommend having an enclosure, which leads us onto our next one.
If you've got the enclosure, you may as well put some proper ventilation in it.
Now this is not necessarily required.
I suspect you could just leave it all trapped in there, let it settle.
And maybe that'll be okay. I'm not quite sure how that would work,
but if you can ventilate it or filter the air,
you're going to be in a much better situation.
So I did a pretty budget set up here just to see what I could get working with
mostly spare parts and just spending a few bucks. Right here,
I've got a little two inch fan that is just blowing all of the air from the
front to the back. In the back,
I've got a four inch pipe here and I had an old four inch PC fan for a PC
case. And these were both things that I had lying around.
And then I purchased a dryer vent, a four-inch vent,
and then the adapters that go on either end,
and I've got a baffle on the back end so that it's not letting cold air in.
Then it's going out to the window, which is right behind me here.
And I've got more of those greenhouse walls on there.
Three layers thick to create a little insert in the window to let light in,
and also a hole that's four inches to let the air out.
So that's the setup I'm using here. There's all kinds of different options.
Underneath here, I have my Snap Maker 350 version two,
and that one actually has a full-on air filtration system with it.
So that is a really ideal way to go because it doesn't require you to have any
sort of window access,
but you do have to pay for filters from time to time when those filters begin to
wear out. So lots of different options,
but filtration and some sort of air movement to keep it out of your room and out
of your space and get it outside is ideal. We'll let the ozone worry about that.
Number two, on the list is air assist. If you're not familiar with air assist,
basically the it's the concept of having a small amount of air blow directly
onto the surface that's being cut or engraved.
Air assist has a few main benefits.
One of them is that it blows away any of the charring or the ashes that are
created while you're burning or cutting.
Another one is that because it's got air constantly blowing on it,
it helps maintain any flames that might want to burst up.
And it keeps everything a little bit cooler. Now,
the third thing that this does for you is when you're cutting,
because it's blowing away some of that loose debris that's staying in there,
by blowing that out,
it clears the path so that your laser can effectively get down a little bit
deeper and produce a cleaner and stronger cut. Now,
just like with most of these options we've talked about,
there are lots of options for air assist, how you install that, what you use.
In my case, I purchased a pretty cheap fish tank pump from the local store,
and then just ran a little bit of hosing out here,
drill the hole in the side of my orange plastic enclosure here and just have it
blowing right on it. I drilled it at a little bit of an angle,
taped it in there, and it's doing a great job.
I haven't had any issues with that.
If you look online on Thingiverse or My Mini Factory or other resources like
that online,
you'll find all kinds of downloads that you can use to 3d print your own that
either attaches to the laser module itself or screws on all different kinds of
options. So be sure to check those out. Now,
another option that I saw that I actually think is really cool,
and I might try that makes it so that you don't need the hoses,
you don't need the pump and all of that, is to take a little blower fan,
the kind that you can get for your 3d printer, for example,
and have that blow some air,
direct it right down to where you want to focus the laser. And by doing that,
it's all mounted right here.
You do have to power it and run some power wires here,
but that's pretty simple to attach like I've done here. And, with that,
no hoses or anything like that. And that would be pretty cool.
Now the number one accessory that I recommend for laser engravers and cutters is
job monitoring. And by that,
I just mean having some cameras and some eyes to be able to see what you're
doing at all times. Now there's two parts to this.
And the second part is really cool. I think you'll enjoy it.
So the first part is just to have a camera of some sort to be able to see what's
going on,
especially if you've got a job that's a little bit longer and you want to keep
an eye on that. So I can sit on the other side of the room, for example,
and see on my phone and kind of look right in here and see how everything's
going.
I designed in 3d printed this little stand here that makes this just the perfect
height for my particular setup. And these are pretty easy to come up with,
or you can just use books or whatever you need.
And these cameras cost about $40 or even less for the kind that doesn't move.
So whatever you need to be able to monitor is really helpful. Now,
if you're doing cutting, one of the trickiest things is,
and most frustrating is if you cut through everything,
you pull the piece off only to find out it didn't properly cut.
So you either have to try to break it and it's going to be ugly and messy and
kind of ruin the piece.
Or you try to put it back on and cut it some more. Now,
as soon as you remove that object from its original place,
it's very difficult to get it to stay in the exact same spot that it was to keep
cutting.
So a solution I've come up with for that is I've got all of my engraver and the
surface raised up on these little 3d printed blocks here. Again,
these are just downloaded from Thingiverse in this case.
So I'll put links to those. And once that's raised up,
that gives me room underneath to be able to put a camera under there and see if
everything has cut through afterward. And this has been a lifesaver for me.
I've got some on here that I didn't do this with.
And I pulled them off thinking I was all set.
And a lot of them look like they cut through and were, but other ones were not.
And so I ruined basically all four of these little outs because I couldn't see
if they were actually cut through. So with this,
I've got a very rigged up little set up here,
but basically I've got a webcam on the end of a coat hanger that I can
push through. While it's printing,
I can either pull it out like this to keep it totally out of the way,
or I can just push it through to the other side. And, but once it's done,
I can just move this little thing down here underneath and see exactly what has
been cut through and what hasn't.
And because I've put some led light strips in here,
that helps me have great illumination underneath,
and then I never have to worry about cutting something that didn't actually get
all the way cut and then ruining it by taking it off.
So that's been a real lifesaver for me as far as cutting,
which is one of my main focuses with having a laser engraver and laser cutter.
Now there are some honorable mentions here that we have to go over really
quickly. I'm just going to list through three of them.
One of them is upgrading the laser itself.
The Laser Master 2 Pro does come with a 5,500 milliwatt laser
on here, and that's decent. It will get through most things.
It's excellent for engraving, for cutting, you can get through paper,
you can get through card stock, you can get through thin acrylic.
And as you've seen here, we can get through this three millimeter ply as well.
If you want to go much past that,
then you are going to need a more powerful laser. Those can get pretty pricey,
but that's definitely an option to take a look at.
Another one is a good set of laser engraving protection glasses.
So some glasses that will make it so that you're comfortable and you're safe and
you don't actually ever have to damage your eyes looking at that.
And it's always good to have some.
This and most laser engravers and cutters do come with some,
but they're usually kind of a cheaper set.
So it's nice to have something a little bit upgraded.
And then the last honorable mention is the software.
There's free software that you can get like Laser Gerbil that's really helpful.
And that's what I've been using for a lot of my stuff.
But if you want to try out Light Burn, for example,
that's one of the more professional level pieces of software that you can use.
And there are others as well that might be a great upgrade to your laser burning
or laser engraving experience. Now,
if you happen to be in the market for a laser cutter or engraver,
let me take just a minute to tell you a little bit about this one.
So you can see if this is a good fit for you. Now,
I've been using this one for a couple of months now,
and it's been a pretty impressive little machine for a lot of reasons.
Number one, it's got all kinds of features and accessories. It's high quality.
So everything on here is built out of metal. It's got a 24 volt supply.
It's a 32 bit motherboard.
You've got drag chains in here to keep everything in place,
and it's very rigid and solid. So it's accurate. And because of that,
it can cut and engrave a lot faster and it can move a lot faster with high
accuracy compared to other laser engravers.
The laser beam itself that comes out of this is less than half the size of a lot
of the competition.
Another cool thing about this is it comes in a very small box, honestly,
just about the length of the longest one of these bars, just this big.
And with that,
it took me about 30 minutes to get this thing fully assembled and ready to
engrave. Now,
because it's got this high precision focus on here that makes it,
and that small beam,
that makes it so that you can do awesome grayscale images for engraving.
And then if you want to do cutting, this comes like I mentioned,
with a 5,500 milliwatt laser on here, which is pretty great for most things.
If you need to bump that up even further,
this is available with higher power laser modules,
and you can even cut things up to nine millimeters and beyond as far as
thickness of wood and other materials, which is pretty crazy.
So lots of cool options with this, it works well.
And it has all the safety features that you would want.
I've got an emergency stop button here, a flame alarm.
And then if it's sitting in place too long with the laser on,
it will automatically turn that off.
All kinds of things to make sure this is a safe and effective machine.
So if you're in the market,
check out the links below where you can save some money on the Ortur Laser
Master 2 Pro. And if you have any questions, leave those in the comments.
I'll be happy to share my experiences with you on this.