EleksMaker A3 is on sale right now for $200 on BangGood. I re-read all the laser threads and saw that folks were having trouble getting consistent results on multiple passes, placement, etc. But I'm not sure if anyone ever got these dialed in and working well or not. Been looking at getting one, just haven't been able to get settled on it based on some of the comments I've seen around here. Should I spring for one??
On a related note:
Grabbed up a cheapo 1.5W laser over the holidays like the one from this thread
http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=28072.msg271875#msg271875 (http://www.madbeanpedals.com/forum/index.php?topic=28072.msg271875#msg271875)
Does ok marking the light colored thinner powders or rattle can paint. But its pretty weak and barely even marks some of the thicker powder coat jobs (pedal parts plus). Definitely not deep enough to back fill for contrast. This would be ok if it weren't for the struggles with repeatability between passes - I don't touch the enclosure or laser and don't change settings between passes. But for some reason there's randomly up to an 1/8" offset sometimes. Made up a template in Inkscape with grid system which i also marked on the flat surface its attached to for enclosure alignment - worked well at first on some test runs, was actually pleasantly surprised at how accurate it was between runs. But have had mixed results since then. Sometimes, the graphic even gets skewed at an angle on the enclosure. Even though I'm positive it's square to the grid. Not sure what's happening with this guy.
Think the A3 sale is going through the 22nd. Will prob keep trying to nail this guy down for a few more days before jumping on an A3. Unless it's absolutely worth it.
I never did. I could never quite get the frame/rails 100% square, and I couldn't get all of the slop dialed out of the laser head assembly/wheels. So going faster than very slow made for not-great results. And even then, there was the issue of not being totally in square. Probably somebody a bit more knowledgeable than me could get all tuned up. But if you're new to stepper motor driven machines (3D printers, CnC, laser, etc), this one might not be the right pick.
Hmmm well that's not really what I wanted to hear. But I guess it's better than spending 200 bucks and not being satisfied. Spent some time over at the Benbox forum and saw that people were having some pretty good success with it. I honestly don't know that I've got the extra time to spend trying to fiddle with it till it works anyway.
Thanks for the info though!
mine is as square as possible I guess since I mounted it on a square base plate. However, the 2.5 W laser is still not strong enough to get through tayda powder coats in 1 pass. It's deep enough to refill with ink I think, but not to get to the bare metal. Second pass is just slightly off, but enough to blur the graphics (and it still doesn't remove the residue from the first pass)
Thanks for the info guys, was really hoping to hear some better news. But i didn't need to drop the cash on that anyway.
Tried another approach on the small laser over the weekend. Wooden faceplate style with 1/16" maple from Inventables.com. Turned out pretty nice. I jacked up the alignment on this one so i haven't been able to actually get one on a pedal yet. But I think slapping a good thick clear coat on this will really make the contrast and grain pop.
(https://i.imgur.com/KGlmIhCl.jpg)