Chinese Laser Engraver

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
keithncsu said:
My laser just pooped out too.... Probably only engraved about 25 pens at most. Never more than 3 back to back and always with a fan. But the fan had always been about 3 ft away blowing towards the laser on high. Wondering if it was too far away.

Either way, just purchased the replacement diode linked several pages back. Definitely going to set me back as I have about 20 pens to engrave for a friend and eBay says delivery is not until Thanksgiving. Looks to be a simple plug and play swap so hopefully no issues.
Click to expand...

My replacement diode only took a few days to arrive, hopefully yours does, too. I had to pull the back off the unit (have never bothered to put it back on), then take the two hex head screws out of the heatsink (they are SOFT, so try not to muck up the heads like I did) and the diode pulls up and out. Just slide the new one in, tighten the screws, plug the connector in and it's ready to go.

Michael
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
eduardomachado said:
How do I center the laser on the pen???? Tried all


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Attach barrel to table w/elastics, eyeball alignment as best you can. Focus the laser to the smallest dot you can get. Over on the right side of the software, there is a check box for Use Keyboard. Check it, then you can use the keyboard arrow keys for fine alignment. I usually start by clicking the Center of Image button.

Regards,
Michael
 
Michael, can you snap a picture of your fan set up? I thought a gentle breeze in the direction of the laser was enough. Seems like I may need something a bit more direct. I haven't used mine nearly as much as yall so it must be an airflow thing. Or a crappy bad part from China thing haha.
 
keithncsu said:
Michael, can you snap a picture of your fan set up? I thought a gentle breeze in the direction of the laser was enough. Seems like I may need something a bit more direct. I haven't used mine nearly as much as yall so it must be an airflow thing. Or a crappy bad part from China thing haha.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I haven't got around to hooking it up yet. I have a little muffin fan out of a PC that my plan is to mount to the top of the unit, blowing down. I'm thinking that should dissipate the smoke and help keep the heatsink cool.

I have done a few pen barrels since changing the diode, but haven't stressed it like I did making the fridge' magnets one right after the other. And yes, it might just be the luck of the draw on a chintzy Chinese component!

Regards,
Michael
 
I merely point the fan in the general direction of the diode (angled-up toward the diode). I let the fan run, during and a few minutes after engraving. I don't do much heavy and long engraving though, so I have no idea if it really helps....I guess it doesn't hurt.
 
c8288a944a0441acd7bf5095ef28186f.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
eduardomachado said:
c8288a944a0441acd7bf5095ef28186f.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Looking good! You're putting that right to work.

I engrave my barrels before assembly so I can put some finish on them. I've had good luck sanding, then sealing the wood w/Myland's sanding sealer, polish with 0000, do the engraving, then apply the friction polish.
 
I engraved before but just added a little polish by hand,
Next time I will turn, sand and engrave then I will apply finish... still learning all at the same time lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
My grandsons had so much fin with this last summer, that I just ordered one for a Christmas present. I paid $99 for mine, and now they have a 1.5 watt one for the same price, so I ordered it. They say it will burn plastics. Since the boys got a 3d printer for Christmas last year (I had fun with THAT last summer!) they should be able to engrave on printed items. I'll keep you posted on what it can do.

Mine has been absolutely sterling. I use it almost every day at the center for the blind and it has had absolutely no problems.
 
I just bought a little 6" table fan from walmart and set it on the desk by the laser, about six inches or so away. Works fine, and makes a great desk fan when not in use on the laser.

I carry my laser back and forth to the Center for the blind. I just put the laser and all it's "kit" in a small cardboard box that will fit in one of my canvas bags and stand the laptop (an old XP Dell) on edge next to the box. Mouse and pad and laptop power cord go in with the laser. Takes about two minutes to set up and take down.

I've also made bookmarks with some scrap leather I had running around. Worked fine. (keep burn times short or the leather will "pucker")

I do a CA finish on the pens at the center, and burn after finishing. On dark wood I then rub in a little "Rub N Buff" to fill the engraving so it shows up. If you have a good hard finish on the pen, the excess will wipe right off.
 
Last edited:
My friend here in Phoenix just ordered one of the 1.5 watt engravers. I get to help her set it up and I will report on it's plastic burning ability. She turns a lot of corian, so that is what we will test it on first.
 
A tip: If you are not sure how well a particular blank will burn, test your monogram/logo on the unturned blank before turning. It will all turn off when you make the pen, but you will know how well it will burn and how long it will take. You can do several "test burns" on the blank until you get exactly what you want...correct font, correct size, correct burn time, etc. Record the settings and turn the pen, then you will get exactly what you want when you burn the actual pen.
 
How do install the software if every safety, Antivirus, malware immediately deletes my install and tells me it is a severe threat? Download site does the exact same thing. The instructions say to turn off all anti virus and download or install. Something seems wrong about that.

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
 
CrashmanS said:
How do install the software if every safety, Antivirus, malware immediately deletes my install and tells me it is a severe threat? Download site does the exact same thing. The instructions say to turn off all anti virus and download or install. Something seems wrong about that.

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

If you disable your AV temporarily, it should install. Then turn your AV back on and do a scan to ease your mind.

If you absolutely can't make it work, let me know and I'll send you a copy of my .exe that should work.

Regards,
Michael
 
https://youtu.be/1E8gXHNV_8k
Don't yell at me for the portrait video. I should have done it it landscape. But I wanted to see how close I could get to the edge of an ash cigar pen top. And to try out my "custom" maple v block centering device.
8c458c1e32fe46fc1a8d7d24f9a22db7.jpg
right to the edge. I'm happy with it!
Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
Hey all,
I love my NEJE but now I'm thinking of getting a larger laser for engraving cutting boards and larger items. The 60W Epilog type laser is out of the question so I was looking at the 5000mW or 5500mW laser like this:
EleksMaker EleksLaser-A3 Pro 5500mW Laser Engraving Machine CNC Laser Printer Sale - Banggood.com

Does anyone know if this machine or one like it will do a gray scale pictures?

I like the black or dark, one color engravings that the NEJE does but I feel it is best suited for logos. I'd like to be able to have a little more that just the dark color for other engravings. Or is that even possible?

Thanks!
Doug
 
alankulwicki7 said:
Hey all,
I love my NEJE but now I'm thinking of getting a larger laser for engraving cutting boards and larger items. The 60W Epilog type laser is out of the question so I was looking at the 5000mW or 5500mW laser like this:
EleksMaker EleksLaser-A3 Pro 5500mW Laser Engraving Machine CNC Laser Printer Sale - Banggood.com

Does anyone know if this machine or one like it will do a gray scale pictures?

I like the black or dark, one color engravings that the NEJE does but I feel it is best suited for logos. I'd like to be able to have a little more that just the dark color for other engravings. Or is that even possible?

Thanks!
Doug
Click to expand...

Doug, have you checked out the 40 Watt laser thread? It doesn't seem that for that kind of money that 5.5 W would be all that much better than the NEJE 1W . Now 40W is some real power. I believe the 40 W jobs support Corel Draw, perhaps G code. Don't know if they'll do grey scale. For that, it would have to be able to control the laser pulse intensity on the fly, I'd think. As you've seen, the NEJE just pulses at what ever intensity you choose in the software.
 
mecompco said:
alankulwicki7 said:
Hey all,
I love my NEJE but now I'm thinking of getting a larger laser for engraving cutting boards and larger items. The 60W Epilog type laser is out of the question so I was looking at the 5000mW or 5500mW laser like this:
EleksMaker EleksLaser-A3 Pro 5500mW Laser Engraving Machine CNC Laser Printer Sale - Banggood.com

Does anyone know if this machine or one like it will do a gray scale pictures?

I like the black or dark, one color engravings that the NEJE does but I feel it is best suited for logos. I'd like to be able to have a little more that just the dark color for other engravings. Or is that even possible?

Thanks!
Doug
Click to expand...

Doug, have you checked out the 40 Watt laser thread? It doesn't seem that for that kind of money that 5.5 W would be all that much better than the NEJE 1W . Now 40W is some real power. I believe the 40 W jobs support Corel Draw, perhaps G code. Don't know if they'll do grey scale. For that, it would have to be able to control the laser pulse intensity on the fly, I'd think. As you've seen, the NEJE just pulses at what ever intensity you choose in the software.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen that thread. Thanks for the info!:)
 
How are you hold pens lined up. Some sort of vblock? Maybe some photos are buried in this thread somewhere?

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
 
I ordered the 1000mw WER laser engraver from Amazon on Dec 3 ($109) and received it yesterday.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DG5JWAE/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I set it up on my MacBook Pro. A Mac driver was included on the chip that came with the unit and hooking it up and running was easy. Not what I expected after reading about all the problems others seemed to have.

Evidently WER and NEJE are the same entity because the PDF instruction manual that was included had NEJE on the front cover.
 
larryc said:
I set it up on my MacBook Pro. A Mac driver was included on the chip that came with the unit and hooking it up and running was easy..
Click to expand...

Thanks for this information -- I have the Neje DK-8-KZ but at the time I bought it there wasn't a Mac driver. (I've been using an old Windows laptop with it.) I just went to the download site and got the updated installation pack, I'll try it out this weekend.
 
My First Laser Project

I got my 1000mW engraver in the early fall, but with all the shows I do then didn't really have much time to play with it. Here's my first real project with it.

My old High School was abandoned for years, and it's now being renovated and converted to apartments. I was able to buy about 8' of bleacher wood at the ground breaking ceremony they had in late summer. I'm going to make pens for alumni.

Here's a couple of shots of the pen (PSI Executive.) Also, I was pretty happy with the engraving on the pen box. I did the logo first, then the left word and then the right. I was fortunate to get a very nice clean .jpg of the logo.

Gary
 

Attachments

  • Pen in Box.jpg
    Pen in Box.jpg
    225 KB · Views: 430
  • Pen on Stand.jpg
    Pen on Stand.jpg
    141.6 KB · Views: 363
  • Engraved Box.jpg
    Engraved Box.jpg
    219.4 KB · Views: 388
I use MS Word, then use Snag-it or the like and save it as an image. Then I drag and from the image onto the field that the laser s/w provides. There is no leveling, spacing, or orienting involved. MS Word was the only application that I was familiar with; I am sure there are better approaches out there.
 
I get that part. But he makes it sound like he engraved the symbol then repositioned for each word. That's the part I'm curious about. Interested in how to reposition the piece and keep that level of accuracy.
 
keithncsu said:
Very nice!! What did you do to make sure the words were level and spaced correctly?
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the part that I worry may not be as repeatable as I like. I put a light pencil line across the box first, then marked the end of the 1st word and the start of the 2nd word on the right of the logo. Then just ran the preview function until it seemed like I had good alignment.

Maybe I was just lucky that my first try came out well (although I had run a test on a flat piece of scrap 1st and it came out well.)

My plan is to make a small jig with a stop across the bottom horizontal edge to butt the box against. At least that should help with the alignment.

Gary
 
I am interested in purchasing a laser engraver but I am fluent in Mac OS but not Windows. I can and do use Windows, but the location of files and installs, along with the plethora of pop up suggestion/question dialog boxes drives me nuts. I have Windows 7 on my Mac and it runs fast - at least with MS word, and Excel with large files.

However I got excited when I noticed that some lasers run by blue tooth and can print from Android/IOS phones and iPads.

Has anyone used the blue tooth print function from an iPad or phone to the laser engraver?

https://www.amazon.com/Meterk-Engra..._rd_wg=GIhwW&refRID=WGH8KEG1XRM2JEPWH7YZ&th=1
 
Last edited:
For those looking for a way to rotate your pen blanks on the NEJA/WER laser, if you'll do a search on Facebook for Benson Pace, he has developed a novel way to rotate the blank. I built his jig and it works like a charm.
 
I saw that on the Facebook group too. The other guy saying he's going to make a 3d printed one has a cool set up too. Just less DIY and more "just take my money so I don't have to think" HAHA!

Very interested in it as I've had a few sales go away because the engraving wouldn't work out.
 
I just ordered the NEJE 1000mW laser for $72.36 shipped from Jet.com. Should be here sometime between 4/17 and 4/25.

I'm pretty excited to check this out. I have a Christmas order coming in soon that will make this thing worth the money.

--Micah
 
larryc said:
For those looking for a way to rotate your pen blanks on the NEJA/WER laser, if you'll do a search on Facebook for Benson Pace, he has developed a novel way to rotate the blank. I built his jig and it works like a charm.
Click to expand...

keithncsu said:
I saw that on the Facebook group too. The other guy saying he's going to make a 3d printed one has a cool set up too. Just less DIY and more "just take my money so I don't have to think" HAHA!

Very interested in it as I've had a few sales go away because the engraving wouldn't work out.
Click to expand...

I thought of doing the same thing but instead of rubber bands my thought was to use pretty much the same setup but push the tube onto the bed and have it rotate it. The only drawback is that you would probably have to mirror the graphic. Also maybe stick a bit of craft foam on the bed to give the tube something to grab onto.

Oh and I so want one of these.

Here is the YouTube link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AJpfxNPLgI
 
Last edited:
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
chartle said:
larryc said:
For those looking for a way to rotate your pen blanks on the NEJA/WER laser, if you'll do a search on Facebook for Benson Pace, he has developed a novel way to rotate the blank. I built his jig and it works like a charm.
Click to expand...

keithncsu said:
I saw that on the Facebook group too. The other guy saying he's going to make a 3d printed one has a cool set up too. Just less DIY and more "just take my money so I don't have to think" HAHA!

Very interested in it as I've had a few sales go away because the engraving wouldn't work out.
Click to expand...

I thought of doing the same thing but instead of rubber bands my thought was to use pretty much the same setup but push the tube onto the bed and have it rotate it. The only drawback is that you would probably have to mirror the graphic. Also maybe stick a bit of craft foam on the bed to give the tube something to grab onto.

Oh and I so want one of these.

Here is the YouTube link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AJpfxNPLgI
Click to expand...

I made that jig and here is a pen I engraved with it.
 

Attachments

  • Butterfly.jpg
    Butterfly.jpg
    451.3 KB · Views: 260
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom