LaserUser.com Forum (formerly RDWorksLab)

Hello Friends! Currently the machine my office has is a 17mm lens/nozzle/head setup. If anyone's familiar with the cheap china special it's a "100w" china laser with ruida controller. I was hoping to be able to upgrade it to a 20mm lense/nozzle/head setup using https://www.cloudraylaser.com/products/ ... 0379335841. Will this work?

17mm isn't a laser size for lens tube or lens.

Add a pic of the head / lens tube / nozzle you have and we'll go from there.

Will do! I had measured the diameter of the lens with a caliper and it looked like it was 17mm? Maybe my eye sight is going... Either way, I'll include pictures tomorrow when I get to work where the machine is!

18mm is one of the standard dimensions. The next part is the set up you already have. Don't know what your options are until I see what you have. How long a focal length are you shooting for? Quite often a few swapped parts can get you up to a 2.5" without a complete head change. It's when you want to get up to the 4", or the possibility of Russ' long compound set up that it becomes a bit more involved.

Honestly I was looking at the 4in to 6in meniscus lenses from cloudray that are 20mm. Wanting the long range for better cuts, and the meniscus for a tighter spot at that distance. Am I wrong in thinking that'll get me there?

Can't say on the plano vs meniscus, I have all plano. You might hold off on the lens and head purchase. Russ is working on a long compound lens set up that promises to greatly enhance cutting. He's playing with not only focal lengths, but plano and meniscus combinations. He's posted three videos so far for the process, but no final results yet. I'm hoping for a long thin beam to give me nice square cuts in thick foam, and thicker MDF cutting.

Yeah, I saw his videos and that peaked my interest in the cutting aspect. From the documentation I find, linger focal distance means more square cuts, and a meniscus lens is smaller spot size vs a pcv of the same length, so hoping 1+1=2 and get good thick square cuts. I'll post those pics tomorrow of the current setup!

Here are those photos of the machine we have

I posted some thoughts to your other thread. Gene

You have a front mounted rail, the head you linked to is for a top mounted rail. I could have sworn Cloudray sold a head for that, but I don't see one pictured. It would be worth an email. I know LightObject in CA sells them, and Russ' MK2 lightweight head would bolt right on. If you are looking at his long compound lens, I'd go with his head and pick up the C series tube and nozzle. I did and love mine.