Any advice on a cheap laser module in the 7-10w range? I see some knocking around eBay for about $80
Unless you go with a CO2 laser you will never get the listed wattage from a diode laser.
What that means is you buy a 15watt diode laser, at the max workable wattage is not more than 7watts if it is a good quality one.
I don’t think it is a property of diode lasers, since I have heard similar issues with CO2 lasers, at least the cheap ones. It’s more an issue with the people selling them. Whether they give the input power vs output power or max power vs max continuous power. I think it’s probably true that most cheap lasers can’t run continuously at their advertised power. I think one of the things you get from the more expensive American suppliers is more honestly described continuous output power.
I think I have seen somebody here describe getting a cheap laser as “guess and hope”. It would be great if people who have guessed would do reviews so others could make more educated guesses.
I’m also looking for a laser and having trouble deciding. I wonder if you just assumed the cheap laser claims were exaggerated and only ran them at half power you would get good results. I think the $100 laser you can find instructions for here are about 2.8 watts and people seem happy with that so maybe a cheap 5.5w ebay laser ran at half power would be good ? (not saying that is the case, just wondering)
I think you are correct!
Read the reviews on any laser you buy.
My 15w will NOT put out more than 2.5w continues. Also I bought the cheapest 15w on Ebay, live and learn.
The oxlasers I have are 5.5w they put out 4.5w continues meaning I can do a 3 hour engraving or a 6 hour dithering with no problem, the heatsink only gets slightly warm.
The other buyer beware things I have heard are:
- Higher wattage diodes often result in larger dot sizes, so they do not perform better, actually worse. When the dot is focused, it is at minimum size, and some diode sources just have larger sizes. So if it is twice the area and twice the wattage, it is going to be worse for us.
- The endurance lasers are a bit dodgy. There is a good video from teaching tech. The EL guy tried to get it taken down, and it leaves me very against that company. Maybe other 15Wish lasers would work better.
I think the 2.5W cheap ones are good for us. Especially if you are a beginner. Adding an air assist can have a bigger impact on the performance than wattage. If you out grow it, you will know so much more about it, and can decide if a CO2 laser is a good choice, or a higher wattage diode.
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I was on the fence between a 3.5 watt and 5.5 watt and ordered the 5.5 watt one mostly based on delivery time due to the pandemic. So 2X bigger than the 2.5-2.8 watt ones people seem to be happy with but hopefully the dot will be 2x bigger at the most. I will try to post a review if I ever get it and get it working.