Creality CV-30 Laser Falcon 5/10 Watt home/entry level Engraver/cutters

[LitterBug]

@Merv
Been playing with speeds and power with the 5W model. 1000mm/min at 100% power will cut through the paper and lightly etch the foam beneath. Helps guide the razor when cutting. 2000mm/min at 80% to put light marks on the paper. (. Ie the canopy glass marks and alignment marts seen in the above picture. This is with the 5Watt version. Would be interesting to see what the 10 watt version could do.

 

[LitterBug]

Basically, the cut time will depend on the complexity of the cut. For This Bronco, roughly 10 minutes. Here is a full sheet of redi-board with the stock 400x400 usable area shown around the plan.

 

[Tench745]

Even if it doesn't cut DTFB all the way through, this is still a win for me. I can use it to put plans directly onto the foamboard without the need to print, cut, trace, etc.... Right now I can not do an entire sheet at once, but eventually I will get longer rails.

This is most of what I use my laser for. I can lay out a whole set of plans onto foam for cutting out whenever. A small bonus is that the etched sheets stack up just as nicely as the uncut ones, so I can laser a couple planes out then easily stack all the sheets back up where I keep my foam. Next time I crash something I can just thumb through the foam-file, pick my favorite, and pull out the next plane to build.

 

[PsyBorg]

This is just what the hobby needed.. frikken Lazure beamz!

Howdy LB and friends! Hope the new year is treating you good and making you happy.

 

[LitterBug]

This is just what the hobby needed.. frikken Lazure beamz!

Howdy LB and friends! Hope the new year is treating you good and making you happy.

We could etch some spiders on yer LECTRIC Guitars 'Borg!

 

[PsyBorg]

We could etch some spiders on yer LECTRIC Guitars 'Borg!

I have been working up airbrush skills a bit. Just got an even smaller .02 with a mac valve to start messin with. So paintin spideys on ery thing is not out of the realm of possibility.

 

[LitterBug]

I have been working up airbrush skills a bit. Just got an even smaller .02 with a mac valve to start messin with. So paintin spideys on ery thing is not out of the realm of possibility.

I need to rig up an air brush module to this puppy to paint the models as I cut them!

Think I'll etch a big spider on my work clipboard!

 

[LitterBug]

Picked up the Creality Air Assist for the CR Falcon and it arrived a few weeks back. Unfortunately, despite what the manufacturer's web site said, it is NOT compatible with the 5W version. Tried to raise support, but they were on Chinese new year and didn't get back till late last week. They agree, it is NOT compatibly with the 5W laser module despite what their store site said. They wanted to just refund me. I personally want Air assist and asked them if there would be any way I could get a 10W laser module instead. Even offered to pay. They said, no, cuz I didn't get my CR Laser Falcon from them. >sigh< So much for parts availability. They did update their storefront at least.... So at this point, I am looking at picking up a smaller Falcon SE 10W version, swapping the laser modules, and re-selling the smaller SE kit with the 5W laser.

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

Picked up an open box CR Falcon SE 10W from MicroCenter which is a 300x300 version of the laser falcon with a 10 Watt laser module. Comparing all the parts between the different models, the controller and power supply are exactly the same, the length of the rails, wiring harness, and power of laser module are what is different. It is VERY easy to modify the controller with the length of the rails. It is not a hard limit, but rather there for the software creating files to burn what the technical limits are. Lightburn reads it as the default size when creating a new profile, but also allows it to be modified.

Going to redo the foamboard tests previously done for comparison with the higher power level, and then again with air assist to see what if any change is seen.

Also picked up some black DTFB to test. Should be able to cut through it with both the 5W and 10W modules.

Debating which frame to keep. If I am going to upgrade the rails/harness to cut/engrave a full sheet of foamboard, it doesn't matter which one I start with.

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

Friends,
A few words of caution since I haven't mentioned these in this thread yet. DO NOT EVER LEAVE AN OPERATING LASER CUTTER/ ENGRAVER unattended. Things can go wrong quickly. One of my first tests with the 10W module went from cool blue light bouncing around the room to warm red. USE EYE PROTECTION and DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT WHERE THE LASER IS CUTTING/ETCHING!

10W will cut into bare foam as seen here. Cross cut test. Had made one pass, peeled the paper off before 2nd pass, and you can see where the laser actually cut the foam. (this is also when all heck could have broke loose had I not been right there....

I also managed to get a cut all the way through as seen from the back

Have air purifier runing full tilt before next test tomorrow. Do not want to set of smoke detector and wake up the fam.

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

Comparison of Creality 5W and 10W modules

5W has a screw attached light filter with a drop down height adjuster. 10W is taller with a magnetic mount light filter and uses a sperate height block to set the height. Thus why the air assist kit would not work with the 5w module. Focus length and attachment are different.

LB

 

[LitterBug]

What is air assist?

Adding an air nozzle/outlet where the laser exits the module to blow a stream of air where the laser is cutting. This does several things to "assist" with cutting.
1) keeps smoke from blocking the path of the laser to the material
2) keeps smoke and other debris from getting on the laser output lens
3) moves burnt material out of the way so the laser can penetrate further
4) helps keep smoke from staining the material around the cutting area.

Basically a glorified fish tank air pump routed to a funnel on the output of the laser. This picture shows the nozzle replacing the output lens on the 10W module. An air hose attaches the nozzle to an air pump that is placed next to the cutter. The light shield is swapped out to make room for the nozzle and has a cutout to allow the air hose to pass through. The 10W module light shield has a quick release magnetic mount that is easily removed and replaced.

Cheers!
LB

 

[LitterBug]

No assist vs assist. No air on the left. I will need to play with different amounts of airflow. All other settings the same. Top box is 200 mm/min at 100%. Bottom is 1000mm/min 100%. Note small fire happened on that initial test with no air. NEVER LEAVE A RUNNING LASER CUTTER/ENGRAVER UNATTENDED!

No penetration on either of these tests. Probably running too much air the right side test.

 

[LitterBug]

Playing with amount of air, and number of passes with the 10W output laser module otherwise the same test as previous. You can see on the top left box that there was not enough air and it was burning out around the cut. I also need to test cutting with different laser heights for "best focus".

As you can see, I AM GETTING FULL CUTS THROUGH WITH THE 10W laser module. Just need to dial things in a bit more.

Best cutting was the center box with 2 passes, 100% power, at 600mm/min for where I had the air set after the top box finished. Surprisingly, most of the cut was made on the first pass. Getting close to finding the sweet spot. The bottom box was 3 passes at 1000mm/min. looked good on the top side, but the paper flared a bit on the bottom side.

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

The cuts below the paper are not as pretty. When the paper burns below the cut it flares out the foam on the inside. Some dialing in needs to be done to clean up the cuts. Here is what it looks like after peeling off the paper.

 

[danskis]

Thanks for the very interesting and informative write up. Yeh, laser safety where I used to work was a huge deal. So how long would it take to trace a plane onto one sheet of foamboard? That might be one advantage of a needle cutter in that you don't have to watch it to make sure it won't burn anything down.

 

[LitterBug]

SWEET So looks like I can do the FT Dart with hardware no mods. Each wing BARELY (like by 1mm) fits on the official cutting dimensions. Everything else can be moved and cut EZPZ. My dart has seen a few very tough landings. Would also like to build one out of Black DTFB for a stealthy look.

Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

Been playing with these lower power laser cutters for a while now. Have recently used them to trace out the FT Dart, FT Slow Stick S250 and @AgentC 's EZ Bronco. I have recently added an enclosure with a vent to cut down on smoke and stench in the work area. I am now looking into getting longer rails. 300x300 and 400x410 are getting me by for smaller cuts/traces, but will not do for a full sheet of foamboard. (762x508). Rails are the relatively cheap part of a laser cutter. I've found several sources of 1000mm rails that I can cut down to a more manageable sizes. I'll need to drill a few holes in the rails to use the "stock" mounting hardware, longer drive belts, and to extend the wiring harness.

Cheers!
LitterBug