20 watt laser need blue locktite

[markjonesranger]

2 days ago while using a 2" flatten bit on my spoil board we noticed the lasers bottom safety view port was hanging down. I had 4 screws work loose and fall out of the laser head. I was very fortunate to find the 4 screws and catch the loose hardware before it got damaged.

I put the unit back together with blue loctite thread locker.

I had wondered how the laser would do being out on the front of the router and all the extra vibration that it would take. Found out to keep a eye on it.

The laser seems to be made by AtomStack and is a highly rated product. I have burnt in over 31 test cards in Aspire using about 5 different setup cards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4b6m9aMoKU

[markjonesranger]

Everything is holding together just fine. The 20 watt laser has been out carving Buffalo River Backpacking Trails on a 12 by 18" piece of wood for the last 7 hours. 1st 3.5 hours was testing the toolpaths on a piece of mdf. The last 3 hours it's been lasering out a very cool keep sake for a good backpacking life long friend. We have hike several hundred miles of trails in this area and the laser is etching the River basin deeper.

[markjonesranger]

Well yesterday. My laser quit cutting and the laser light was much larger than usual. I removed it from the shark and looked it over. Removed the safety laser shield. Then removed the air assist cone to find the brass lens nut had unscrewed and fallen off and was sitting in the bottom of the cone. The lens was charred and etched and wouldn't clean off with denatured alcohol. The focusing lens had some suit on it but it came off with denatured alcohol.

I tried to clean the etched lens and put it back on the laser but it won't cut it barely etches at full power. I have a call into Nextwave support and they are due to get back to me today. Running out of hours for that to happen.

I have done a bunch of laser work this past month. I went on a search on youtube for 20 watt laser lens cleaning and repair and found this is more common than I thought. The manufacture Atomstack has replacement parts. I just felt with less than a month of use there should be more information on the care and cleaning of this laser to avoid this problem. My 3.8 watt just kept working and working for years and still works with no issues. Learning here.

[markjonesranger]

I never got a call back from Brad at Nextwave CNC tech support yesterday. He was going to check with his boss on what to do with this 2 month old 20 watt laser and get back with me.
I tried 3 times today to get ahold of Nextwave Tech Support. Line was busy all 3 times. Anyone have a secret handshake method that works? I am not having much luck on normal means of contact.

A side note. The Nextwave 20 watt Laser is made by Atomstack a Chinese Company with a good popular product... It is a S series type diode laser. I emailed Atomstack. They sent me a Chinese video on how to remove the 20 watt housing , safety shield and unscrew the lens and the focusing lens. No English or how to text with this email.

Made in USA is a loose term we use in the USA now adays. Don't get me wrong. Almost nothing in today's world is made in one country of origin. Most things are a combination of many countries output from raw materials to chips to other parts.

I do like good support from any nation that does what it says it will do. Nextwave please start by please answering the phone.

[markjonesranger]

Well sadly I was told today by Nextwave tech support I was on my own and to call Atomstack.

So. I had already called Atomstack and have ordered 3 lens glass brass caps and one focusing lens with another glass brass cap. Not sure when they will be here all I know is they are ordered.

1. The 20 watt laser is a good laser and is highly recommended on the web.
Noted:
a. Nextwave sent me a cleaning kit and a picture of a 7 watt laser on a post card and said to clean your laser (please note this is a 20watt laser and it is not pictured)......
b. Atomstack sent me a video in Chinese on how to replace the focusing lens and protective lens.

2. There are several videos on youtube on the 20watt Atomstack laser that have had the same issue that I have experienced. The protective lens gets pitted.
a. They show how to disassemble and clean and best practice to put it back together. Not hard but it's tedious and the screws are very small and takes about 10 minutes to do.
b. Some people recommend not running your laser at 100% power.
c. Beware that the protective cap may vibrate loose and fall into the air assist cone and the laser can etch that lens and smoke up and damage the focus lens before you realize what has
happened. This is what I am facing. So I ordered $100.00 worth of lens replacements to get the laser back up to focus.
d. I will in the future after I get the laser repaired will remove it from the router mount when I am not using it and the CNC Router is running. Becareful as the little 4 connection plug may
wear out after a bunch of plug ins and outs.
e. I will keep a cleansing bottle of 99% alcohol and some Qtips and clean the laser by inserting a qtip that is saturated with alcolhol into the air assist cone tip and do my best to wash the laser
protective lens clean by using several qtips.

So the bottom line. I like having the 20 watt laser on my SharkHD. I have used it a lot this past month. It requires MORE attention than the 3.8 watt laser in cleaning and power settings.
I have enjoyed making hybrid cedar carved and laser etched projects that look really neat.
Nextwave you guys and gals kind of let me down on this $1300.00 laser purchase. You didn't call me back when you said you would. Your phone lines were ringing into a Village mart like someone had call forwarded your techsupport lines to another business in the state. (I worked for at&t for 42 years I have seen this happen before) After verifying with the Village mart people what their phone number was and reverifying the same number I call that is in my cell phone so no personal error here. You may want to look into it. It's costing you business.
Nextwave you need to update your manual to include the use and cleaning of this laser addition. Also telling me to call the Chinese to get this fixed .... after owning it for less than 2 months is a FAIL on your customer support efforts. You can do better than that.

[markjonesranger]

While were all in the learning mode. Here is a update to the Laser Test Card files. I changed the power settings all from where I was using 100% power to 90% power. Added reminders to clean the Laser Lens and to check that it was tight so it doesn't come loose and fall into the cone air assist and then get etched by the laser (my experience) Replacement protective lens 3 pack and replacement focus lens with protective lens are almost here. Here is the link to the test cards that line up with Vcarve Pro and Aspire included both file types for your 20 watt laser.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ka6f6F ... drive_link

[markjonesranger]

I did remove the damaged protective lens. Ran some tests and found the laser to be working like new. The new parts came in from Atomstack and are installed. I did get a small screw driver allen wrench set found in the Lowes electrical tools section. I figured I will be taking this apart often and needed the best tools for the job. Nextwave did a follow up tech call yesterday. Were good!

Here is a short video on this process and testing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVkuhBWsIVU

I did figure out the largest thing I can burn on my 25 by 25 shark HD510 is a little over 25" wide 19" long as the laser offset is a little over 4 inches so it brings the boundries in by length a bit. Now having said that I could offset my project that distance past the infeed side of the spoil board and still get the 25 by 25 just would have to do some shifting to get it to work. I do like it that the 20 watt lasers xy is still set off of the center of the router bits home position.

I have a 24" round 1.5" thick Ranger Emblem with the code being carved around the outside of it on the CNC right now. It took almost 7 hours to carve that one. Cool stuff!

[sharkcutup]

Question: Soooooooo, Have you learned any Chinese from these experiences?

I believe I will stay with the 2 Watt Laser. Not really interested, wanted, or needed to actually cut anything with it. If I was interested and wanted to cut with a Laser I believe I would invest in a dedicated Laser Cutting CNC Machine Table.

Sharkcutup