i ran across a artical about laser welding. never heard of it and looks like 3-4k for a rig. anyone actually use one? looks like the kitty's posterior.
A friend of mine bought one and we have had limited success with it. Works good if you get used to the speed and pull it at the same rate as the feed. Does good on 20-26 guage, iffy down to 1/8". Makes some pretty colors on stainless steel, makes a mess on aluminum. I only got to play with it for about half an hour a few months ago. He may have figured out more by now. His has a cleaning tip that is pretty awesome, uses the laser to clean the metal first, which makes me want to buy one for that feature, but I have other things to spend $8500 on.
A neighbor and friend of mine son is moving here, and he is a master welder who has his tickets for everything as far as I know. He currently is leading a team in California doing stuff for SpaceX. He visited here and we talked about welding on the boosters which was way over my head. Anyway, I will ask him about this Laser welding next time his is here and post. I imagine he is coming for Christmas as his wife is already here working and looking for a house.
It helps to have other welding skills as well such as stick TIG MIG and gas, even plastic. Knowing the thermal limits of the material you working means a great deal. Sometimes preheating is required as well. If I ever get the means to have a laser, I'll get a load of copper as well so when I do cutting, the coper stops the laser in stead of going through to the floor. I made stents and worked after the laser did the cutting.
Most of the "Laser Welders" you see advertised are junk, made in China, and mostly just an arc welder dressed up. A REAL laser welder will set ya back some serious coin, around $3000,00 for one of the halfway decent ones from Britian or Germany, and even then, the learning curve is pretty high. One thing to know, this type of welding is NOT good for structural welding, or any sort of heavy use, areas where you need deep penetration or lots of heat for good fusion, especially when root welding, here is where even a good MIG will struggle if YOU are less than good, with Stick being the preferred method for that sort of industrial work. Lasser is quite capable of very precise welds, and can even be used for fusion welding on dissimilar alloys, so it's gaining uses daily as it gets added into inventories. Personally, i'm waiting for costs to come down, and an American Company to launch a well proven model. Second, it needs to be cost effective to use, as in not requiring some exotic gas or welding wire. Once we get more mainstream, I would absolutely pick one up, just the performance on Aluminum and Stainless would justify it's use, but i'm not giving up my Miller-Matic Multi Process welder for anything!
A stent looks like a Chinese finger lock, they are used in places of one's restricted artery to hold them open.
I always wanted to shape rocks like a volcano myself. I watched those laser rig ads recently too. The ultimate cnc machine is what they are. Cutting and welding on the same machine doesn't get any easier or more precise than that. These are machines that need their own house, so to speak.
YEP! https://youtube.com/shorts/o8eRltAwhe8?si=0U4UNC7wwCFAdzB4 And here's another one: https://youtube.com/shorts/l-zVPZjz4aM?si=KQHFB7hD_t1bHtno
