08-30-2025 — Later Laser

Howdy all. Another fine winter day here in northeast Ohio. Except, it is still August. Temperatures were in the 40s to start the day and only made it into the 60s. About 15 miles south of here, the low last night was 40-42. Ugh. Even Kitty wasn’t all that excited this morning to get near the open window. She preferred the back of the couch, near me and my space heater.

I had an early morning visit from my brother today. Third visit in 2025. Good to see him. We caught up on all that was going on with his family and his various health issues and doctor visits. We did a quick “harvest” from my garden of lots of carrots and a few tomatoes. He is going to make some sort of vegetable sauced pasta for him and his wife.

I grabbed all of the peppers from the plants, seeing as they aren’t likely to keep growing with these kinds of temperatures. This was the worst garden season since I moved back here in 2020. Spring was super cold and super wet. Then it was just hot and dry. And now it is too cool and still dry.

I did clean and cut up the peppers and tossed them in the freezer. I’ll use them the next time I grab a bag of frozen tomatoes out of the freezer to make some sauce or chili, or tomato soup.

How’s this for a dusty harvest? Too many of those mini tomatoes are split, and ended up in the garbage disposal with the inedible parts of the peppers and carrots.

My brother did go upstairs and try and help me get the CO2 laser up and running. It is an OMTech K40+ (40 watt) CO2 laser. I may have read the manuals and the specifications, but that was like 4 - 5 months ago.

Why did I buy that piece of junk?  Oh yeah, it was as inexpensive a CO2 laser that I could find.  Boy is it missing features that I use on my XTool Diode laser.  

When we were trying to get it going, it kept getting errors, and I had no idea how to use the LaserGRBL software they supplied with the machine. First, importantly, I was missing, when trying to print, was setting the home position.  Yes we tried a lot of the right things, but I never hit the icon labeled “point” after using the arrows to move the position.   Point apparently means, set the X and Y axis home here. I was getting frustrated as I would move the home, press “Home” and watch it move back away.  

Notice I didn’t say that it sets the Z.  That is a very important axis point for focusing the laser POINT as to where the burn happens.  

Turns out, on this machine, you have to do that manually, from inside the machine, while wearing the protective glasses, and use a tiny acrylic piece, they supplied in a baggie, to get the distance correct from the object to be burnt.  

Oh, and the power limit dial, that we kept trying to set to 18 (which somehow translates to 70%) can only be set when the laser is active.  

And the laser is active if you press that little TEST button beside the dial. Which I had done to temporarily change the power setting. I recalled seeing a YouTube video stating not to run the laser at 100%, and that dial was how to limit the power. 

The test button is ONLY supposed to be used when you use the tape supplied on the laser mirrors to ensure the laser beam is aligned correctly. And using it means the laser is on, and since you have the lid open, you should be wearing the safety glasses. If I was designing that box, I think I’d move the “test” button somewhere else, and certainly put a warning sticker above it.  

I mentioned to my brother that it seemed the included software does not have any capability to move or resize SVG files, that you would like to print.  It can alter a png or jpg as it’s opened but nothing after. 

And, the SVG file has to have all the settings for the laser machine like power and speed preset when the file was saved by creation software, that they don’t include.

This laser cutter / engraver works more like a hobby toy than a tool. I was hoping to buy a tool. I want to use a tool to create my visions. I don’t want to tinker all day just to get it to do simple things.

For example, my Diode laser has automatic focus of the Z axis. Also the included software allows moving and resizing and altering of images. And you have full control of the power and speed settings when you send a file to print.  So you can choose the wood or acrylic at print time and either use the defaults for that output type (from a default XTool supplies automatically that they think is correct) or do your own settings if it is for some unknown wood / acrylic piece. 

To get all of that from a CO2 laser would cost about $3500 minimum and the laser power (watts) would be much more, and the working bed area twice as big as the 8x12 inches this toy has. Not to mention it would have a built in water Chiller and would weigh at least 150 pounds. I had a lot of trouble getting this 90 pound machine up the 2 flights of stairs as it was. Hey, old and out of shape weaklings can only do so much.  

What I was thinking back then, is that a small, with lower power, and an external add on water chiller, would have most of the features I need and still be reasonably priced.  

I was wrong.

I was looking at more expensive ones. But at the time, I was being saddled with some large dental bills and a bunch of other expenses. So, I went with this toy, and bought upgrades for my 3D printers. Maybe next year I’ll replace this with one I will like more. Also, I’m hoping if I use LightBurn software to control the laser, I may find it easier to set up some parts of the printing process. Obviously the focus (setting Z axis) will still be manual. However, I do use a lot of materials that are the same 3mm depth, so it won’t need to be changed too much.

All of this is just so I can use clear (or opaque) acrylic pieces for cutting/engraving. A blue Diode laser can not handle cutting clear items because the laser doesn’t hit anything the Diode “light” does not bounce back and just shines through glass like objects.

I believe tomorrow, now that I watched a few YouTube videos, I will get the CO2 laser optimized and will run a quick test to ensure it doesn’t burn the house down. If it works, I can Enjoy Life