Yay! So my new toy of a Chinese 40W laser arrived a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been trying it out doing some Christmas labels. For anyone considering buying one of these I recommend doing lots of online research as there are lots of resources out there from other hobbyists more skill than I (so I won’t be badly repeating there advice, but will add some links), my only addition is that for a precision instrument they are really crappily put together so be prepared to dismantle & reassemble some parts to make them work properly.

However, that said the level of cutting precision is frankly rude; I was doing a test piece for setting the laser focal length of 50.8mm but when the piece cut and I measured it with a caliper it came out at 50.3mm I was grumpy for maybe a whole second before it occurred that the error was less than half a millimetre (about the thickness of a finger nail!). Incidentally this also told me that the cutting width of the focused laser is about half a millimetre, which is interesting fact to store for later.

So after a bit of design work in Inkscape (and some replacement control software – K40 Whisperer) I’ve started creating edging and floor tiles (whoop will never have to cutout cardboard tiles again!) to go on the GW terrain sets that I’m refurbishing at the moment. I’m unsure whether the bricks detailing will come out after painting but we’ll see I suppose.

Cheers

Nick