Shedding Light on Laser Selection:

Guest Contributor: Michael

When it comes time to choose a laser, there are so many options in this very important decision. Brand name, power, size, and type are all part of the equation. In this article, I’ll talk about the last one, laser types, so that you can better understand that part of the decision. Each type has its benefits and its drawbacks and those should be clear to you by the end.

Diode Lasers

Diode lasers are inexpensive, low power lasers that are popular with beginners. The diode is housed in a small rectangular cube about the size of a stick of butter. They are rated in the range of 5 Watts to 40 Watts, but you have to be very careful with this number. With all other lasers, the Watts refers to the actual out put of laser light, but with diodes, that number is often measuring the input of electricity. So a 5 Watt diode only puts out around 1.1 Watts of laser light. Be sure that the diode that you buy tells you what the actual optical output is somewhere in the detailed description. Diodes are slow. They typically top out around 4,000 mm/min which is only about 67 mm/s. A good CO2 laser can engrave at 500 mm/s. The low power limits what you can cut and most do not have any kind of enclosure or exhaust fan.

Some common diode lasers are Atomstack, Ortur, xTool, Sculpfun, XTool, TwoTrees, NEJE

Benefits:

Diode lasers start at around $300 and the best barely exceed $1,000, portable, small, light, most can use Lightburn (gCode version), some have rotaries available, low cost allows users to get into laser engraving for a small investment, some new models can mark metal without any coating

Drawbacks:

Slow, low power; most do not have enclosures; most do not have exhaust fans; cannot engrave clear acrylic

Co2 Lasers

CO2 lasers have ignites the laser waves are in flowing water around 30 watts watts in industrial nesses use CO2

Some common GweikeCloud,

Benefits: Can cut many top to very large range of prices

Drawbacks: Glass tube is in temperature sprays