Our 'new' laser cutter

[Dave Jones]

Hi. We (a woodworking club) have inherited a large 2400 x 1200 bed BODOR unit in relatively good condition and I have been able to cut some basic patterns with acceptable results. However we wish to check and clean the mirrors and then measure the power output. What if any power meters are recommended by any members (if we as a club can even afford one)? Also the unit is WiFi compatible so where is the best place to look for information on connectivity and remote control of the unit.
Many other questions but we are slowly learning as we go.

[Dave Jones]

Whoops. Forget my request for info on power meters as I remembered my past days of working with medical lasers and remembered Coherent as the major supplier of power meters. We as a small club would never be able to justify the purchase of a Coherent unit or one of the other brands such as "Black Lollipop" or "DooHickey" that I've just found other members metioning here. So I think we will be cleaning the mirrors and lens and then doing some burns to establish a baseline from which to estimate future degradation of the tube. Any thoughts?
Thanks
DJ

[Pete Cyr]

Welcome Dave - be sure to back up your vendor settings.

viewtopic.php?p=20290#p20290
Burn the file in this thread to establish a baseline for the how the laser performs

viewtopic.php?f=145&t=3745
Review this thread for a pwr mtr - I am unsure if Russ is still making/selling the pwr mtr

[Gene Uselman]

Russ' lollypop is a cheaper version of a common meter which is $100-200 or so. I have a Mahoney- 100w is $125. This is low tech- a cooking thermometer with a disk cast on the end- fire full power for however seconds are called out and read the thermometer in watts. Not absolutely accurate but it is close enough and good for comparisons. Gene

Looks like this is your first post- we recommend saving the Vendor/User files as they can be hard to replace- each machine is different.

And Pete beats me to the draw yet again! Hard to get ahead of this young man!!!