K40 Lasers: A Starter Shopping List

So you want to cut things with light?

This is the first blog post in a mini-series aimed to help you get up and running on your quest to laser greatness. Whilst I don’t claim to be an expert on the subject, I wanted to collate all of the things I’ve learnt so far into a (hopefully) valuable resource for anyone who may be interested.

If you’ve spent some time looking into K40 lasers then you’ll already appreciate that these are not plug and play machines. There are many things you can do to upgrade your laser, and some of these things are more essential than others. It’s easy to get lost in all the possibilities so I wanted to provide you with a reference list that covers the things I purchased alongside my K40 in order to get it up and running. This list provided me with a good set up which continues to produce reliable results:

• Distilled water - Absolutely essential. You need this to keep the laser cool while it’s operating and it must be distilled. You’ll need at least 5L, I use 10L.

• Water container with lid - Make sure your container can hold the capacity of distilled water you have chosen. I drilled holes into the lid of my container that were the size of my piping. This let me connect the pump to the laser whilst still being able to keep the water sealed from the environment.

• Extraction Upgrade - Not strictly essential but very highly recommended.

  • Duct - ensure this matches the exhaust duct diameter on your laser

  • In-line Extractor - sized to match your duct

• Air Assist Equipment - Not essential but highly recommended. Without air assist things are much more likely to ignite and your results won’t be as clean.

  • 20L/min Piston Compressor

  • PVC Hose

  • 3D Printed Mount for attachment to laser head

• Masking tape - useful to help align mirrors

• Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) - useful to clean mirrors & lens (I use cotton wool buds to apply)

• Safety Equipment - A good idea to have on hand

  • Fire Extinguisher

  • Multimeter

  • CO2 Laser Safety Glasses (for 10600nm)

  • Respirator

• An upgraded bed set up - Recommended for cleaner cuts. I began with a budget friendly upgrade by removing the bed the laser came with and stripping it down to the inner plate. I then mounted a mesh to this plate using standoffs. This gave me a mesh bed that was definitely a big improvement on the one supplied. It worked well but if you’re looking for the best results possible then an Aluminium Honeycomb bed would be preferable. If you decide to invest in this straight away you won’t need the mesh or the standoffs.

  • Scissor lift - allows you to raise/lower your new bed to the correct focal distance from your lens

  • A4 sheet of stainless steel mesh (I use 3.33mm hole/0.9mm wire)

  • M3 standoffs

• Materials for cutting - 3mm Birch Plywood and Acrylic are my staples but there are many options. I have cut up to 6mm Birch Plywood with my setup but results may vary laser to laser.

You may also require a water pump depending on the type of K40 you opt for. My laser came with an adequate water pump so this wasn’t something I needed. (I got the 40W OMTech CO2 Laser for reference).

The next blog post in this series will cover the initial set-up and testing of your laser and will be released within the next few weeks.

Thanks for reading!
If you have any questions or comments feel free to get in touch.
You can contact me through my website or socials - I’m always happy to hear from you.