Howdy from Portland!

[Gordon Christmas]

I have been wanting a laser for many many years and was always discouraged by the quip "How much smoke can you tolerate?"

Finally getting over that and very nearly buying a Glowforge I came to my senses and started small with a K40 from Ebay.
Quite a great experience really, it worked out of the box and I have updated the exhaust to a substantial unit:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085 ... UTF8&psc=1

Several other changes like swapping in some real silicone tubing for the laser tube, a flow indicator and temperature sensor.

I have a fair amount of other hobbies like 3D printing so tinkering is one of the parts I really look forward to on new projects.

Many other big plans for this little machine, updating it's bed size to ~12x24 is high on my list.

I also swapped out the m2 controller for the Cohesion 3d Laserboard, very nice and easy drop in that only took about 20 minutes.

An issue I think I might not be happy with is it's inability to use min/max power for vector cuts, such that the laser power is reduced when changing directions. This seems like a pretty key feature for getting the best results, curious how others have been coming along? I am thinking about getting a Ruida controller instead.

Anyways, glad to be joining the crew here, the video's you have produced Russ are nothing short of amazing. Being able to understand so many key concepts before pulling the trigger saved me a lot of time and money all while being very entertained!

Cheers!

[Pete Cyr]

Howdy Gordon - Most folks here run Rudia controllers. They seem to have pretty good features for the money and most are happy so far as I am aware.