20 watt laser vs 7 watt laser

[mhgumbyd]

New owner of the HD520, still working on getting everything all set the way I want it. Once I do, I will add a laser to it, and I have a bunch of questions about them.
I've been playing with the milling, and am learning, learning, learning.

The 2 & 7 watt laser will chuck up in the spindle, but the 20 watt bolts on the front of the spindle bracket. 2-watt does not do raster images so it is 'out' for me.

Question 1 is, is the mounting of the 20 watt laser repeatable? I would have to take it off to use the dust collector for milling, then put it back on, will it go back on in "exactly" the same position each time?

Question 2 is, what is the offset of the 20 watt to the center of the spindle? Is this something I would have to monkey with to 'marry' it to something I milled every time I put it back on?

Question 3 is, Does the 7-watt laser do a good job of rastering images?

Question 4 is, how good does the 7 watt laser do cutting through material?

Question 5 is, how much room for 'error' is there on the standoff (height) of the laser from the work piece? If I have a curved work piece (or milled) will the laser etch at a range of heights above the work piece?

Specs show 12mm (1/2") single-pass cut through for the 20 watt laser, but say nothing about the 7-watt and how much it can cut through.

Thanks for any info all you good people can provide.

[markjonesranger]

You may find some of the answers to your questions in these videos I just put up.
Updated video: Here is the new link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYPdjRD ... e=youtu.be

I am adding a gate to vent to outside feature on my CNC dust collection. 2 boxes that slide inside and out of each other that will redirect the output from the fan to inside or outside like a vac gate does. Will have a video on that this week. I have it designed in Aspire already.

Over all I am impressed with the 20 watt laser. It is a lot faster at etching than my 2 watt laser did. (Don't get me wrong I did a lot of laser work with that 2 watt laser on hundreds of projects it's a good product for etching) I have 0 experience with the cutting of the laser will learn that this week after I do the outside vent thing.

I just finished milling 30 4' long cedar logs on my 17" grizzly resaw variable speed winch driven with limits table. Most of this cedar will be processed by my Shark HD510
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heaH1nOnKAU

[markjonesranger]

Here is a link to 4 vcarve test files for the 20 watt laser. Check your file settings and keep a eye on any files you try for the first time.

These 5 files are setup to use the Laser Module in Vcarve Desktop, Pro and Aspire. I used the laser module in vcarve to make these test files. Pretty straight forward.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ka6f6F ... sp=sharing

[markjonesranger]

Video on making some laser test cards and the Vcarve files I wrote to test with. I have added another 2 filled test files to the download file that is not covered in this video.
Here is the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb3kwD8BLpo

[markjonesranger]

Compiled this Laser Database of laser settings from 5 watt to 40 watt lasers. Got the information from xtool and Atomstack and a bunch of Youtube videos as well as burning 45 test cards that FIT VCARVE PRO and ASPIRE Laser settings and inputting the information and pictures of these into the database. This program works on any windows platform. Here is the video. Link for download is in the Comments.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K1fvJA ... sp=sharing