LaserUser.com Forum (formerly RDWorksLab)

Gooday. Back in April 2021 I purchased an ebay red/black chinese 60W CO2 laser with a 700 x 500 table. It has been working pretty well but for certainly not the laser for those unwilling or unable to tinker. Immediately added an ammeter and capped power at 19mA and have used lightburn since day one. Issues so far include:

• Power outlets on rear were useless. Replaced with a 4 outlet Australian socket unit.
  Y axis bearings not as free as they ought to be resulting in belt slippage during fast movements. This in turn caused an X axis misalignment. Purchased WD40 teflon spray lube and now all good after realigning everything. From the amount of metal shavings in the machine I suspect some may have gotten into the linear bearings. Even after using the teflon lube the Y axis not as smooth as the X axis.
  Found stripped threads on screw holes securing the X axis gantry to the Y axis bearings. Drilled and tapped to next size up to fix.
  Added hinges to the pass through "doors" as they were only removable from the factory. Now can just swing down out of the way.

About 4 months after purchase the beam power seemed to be reducing. Found some resin looking material under the lens at the discharge end of the tube. Scratching my head over this but suspect the tube got hot and some epoxy melted? Have always run with cooling water (machine has a protection sensor for flow) and it's been through the cooler months so water temps have been around 16 to at most 22 degrees C (without ice) after a long day of cutting plywood. I did notice that the tube orientation did not allow all the air bubbles out but figured the factory knew best about orientation.....seems maybe not. Have since rotated tube a little to orient water outlet to top to allow all the air out. Contacted seller and except for "are your mirrors and lenses clean and aligned" have had no further response.....no surprises there.
Have a RECI W2 100W tube on the way + power supply and should have those early October. Hoping I haven't made a mistake in wanting to upgrade.

Welcome Johnny. Be sure to backup your vedor settings. The issue I would check is the length of your new tube vs the space in the machine.....you will probably have to build an extension on to you housing for the new tube.

Thanks Pete. Fortunately my machine has a removable panel at the HV end of the tube so I can make a cover to mount there, as the frame was designed for multiple higher wattage tubes and indeed if u pay more it can be purchased with those tubes already, most commonly 80W, and the extension cover. The tube mounts are also height adjustable and should take the 80mm diameter of the new 100W tube. My worry right now is any changes necessary to the RUIDA controller to ensure the tube runs optimally, particularly what pre ignition frequency and what running frequency. Currently its 5000 and 20000hz respectively. I've already determined from the RECI manual that currently should be kept below 25mA.

.....and yes I have done a backup of the factory controller settings.

20khz is the setting you should have set....you can not vary the few of a glass co2 laser.
You should have no issue with your controller changing from 60w to 100w. You will have to reset power min and max.
Speed and acceleration are functions of the motors.