Lasers In Maui!

We now have a Laser Cutter/Etcher!!

This afternoon (6/24/10) my Epilog Helix 24, 40 watt laser cutter finally arrived at my home in Haiku, HI (Maui).  The laser can do a variety of cutting and etching.  The manufacturer provides a good reference page that shows the types of materials that can be cut and/or etched.
The laser shipped a week ago from Golden Colorado, via Los Angeles, Honolulu and finally to Maui.

So far I’ve unboxed it (as you see in pictures) and realized I need the 4″ exhaust hoses to connect to the Harbor Freight ‘dust collector’ I brought over last week as my luggage. Its a noisy little beast but it will do for now.  I initially bought some basic vinyl dryer hose but the instructions say to use only metal hose.  Thats probably a good idea aside from the heat issues – the vinyl hose tends to collapse under the vacuum pulled by the dust collector.  The hose crushes into the fan inlet and stops sucking.

Here are some pics from the unboxing:

Unboxing the Epilog Laser

Paper Carton Removed	Air Assist Pump included, unboxed
Palette has ramps with hooks that fit in slots.	Ready To Roll off. Additional boards added at lip of garage.
Ready to roll, waiting on Dennis to assist.	Opened hood - etching software app included!
Next level - Goodies!!	Manuals, cables, pump, etc
Sample materials, catalogs, etc	Rotary attachment for round stuff (bottles, glasses, flashlights, etc)
Next layer - honeycomb cutting table	Bottom layer - z table to hold targets
Off the palette - time to set up	Laser Setup in Garage
Opened right side to look around, Z table mechanism with air inlet on upper right	Back side, air inlet in upper left, laser along top, exhaust at bottom center

My new island friend Ben Ward came over to help me set it up and play.  He brought the beer!

Our first burn is the Maui Makers logo – turtle with URL. We did it in two sizes using Corel Draw.

I’ve got a lot of reading and testing to do. The stairs in my house are the first big project.  Meanwhile the flooring people asked if they could have some more samples for a Home Expo today down at the Maui War Memorial Gymnasium. And of course, The Wife arrives today so I gotta clean the house first. Laser will have to wait.  But it is here and we have burned stuff!!

Any Maui artists out there who would like to experiment with some new medium, drop me a line: jerry@mauiMakers.com  The primary software I have is Corel Draw, although they shipped me Engrave Lab.  We can start with any image – bitmap or line art – and then chose the target (wood, acrylic, metal) and try it.