I want to get into laser engraving and cutting shit. What do I need to keep from going blind and setting my shop on fire? I'm pretty sure the laser glasses that come with these are fake china shit, what should I look for in a good pair that won't cost me $200?
I think your brother has posted on this board a couple of times with concerns about your laser.
Pour a shot of black on the goggles, that's what the pros do.
Depends on your laser type. For CO2, it makes a lot of smoke, I tried it but had to stop because the landlord lives next door and the room was literally hotboxing full of burning wood lol
You should extract it outside. A sheet filter will clog quickly, I've seen sawdust filters work ok
CO2 is absorbed by acrylics, so if you have a sheet of that in front of you with full goggles, you'll be ok. You can get goggles from industrial laser/optics sellers and they can get you the perfect safest goggles for your type of laser but they mark it up for the safety certificate.
Keep the laser moving and not focused in one area to avoid fires. You cut cleaner with multiple shallower passes.
If you have the space for it, it's a lot of fun.
Any CO2 laser worth having with the exception of a galvo will be enclosed. Unless he is using a big boy laser with a pass through its mostly a non issue.
An open frame diode you can get glasses inexpensively, if you don't trust scamazon buy from Jtech Photonics or a similar US company that deals in diodes.
With fibers they're expensive enough and specialized enough that if you have one you're probably safe getting glasses from the vendor, they're mainly the same Chinese units anyway. I would probably be reluctant to trust $10 1060ish nm laser glasses from amazon.
I built my own CO2 CNC laser which is how I found out acrylic would be adequate. It was a great project, silent stepper motors, internal cooling and extraction. When the internal LEDs were off the translucent acrylic made it look like a monolith block. But I got cucked by the smoke and took it all apart for spares. I even tried a big weed farm air filter and it just clogged up quickly and didn't hide the smell. And cutting plastics smelled like ass.
should probably get glasses just so you can actually look at what youre cutting and never worry about glint
Laser is just light. Get goggles that are at the other end of the color spectrum. Blue laser? Get red goggles. Where quality matters is for gaps around the perimeter where light could still come in.
Do note that with goggles on, you cannot tell if the laser is on other than if you're making sparks or producing smoke on your work piece.
it's a 5w diode laser. idk what color it is yet but I think its red. it came with green glasses but idk if they work.
>I don't know if they work
Well, point the laser at a black piece of paper and place the goggles in-between. If the paper is smoking then they don't work.
it melted a hole into the goggles. 🙁
Well now you know the goggles, zey do nothing
I have an Ortur diode laser. Most lasers will have a little light shield at the bottom, you'll still want a pair of laser safety glasses like these and a ventilation fan. My fan is overkill for this, but it works well. I have a 4" duct mounted onto an articulating arm that I can move around with it. An enclosed box around the laser would be best. And then route the ducting to a window.
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