@Dennis_Fuente The K40 isn’t a cheap version of a production laser, as some people mistakenly think, It’s an experimenters kit, pre-assembled for shipping convenience.
As far as it coming with bad mirrors, complain to your seller, most of them are pretty free with cash solutions once you mention you’d like a replacement unit, or them to repair it. Mine was pretty trashed (shipped from China with the pump and blower loose in the cutting compartment). I settled for $250, made a billet carriage on the mill, fixed all the loose and broken fasteners and used the cash for improvements.
It’s amazing the CPSC hasn’t been all over them, but I’m not complaining, I don’t think outlawing stuff due to safety issues is right, I do believe fair warning is adequate, and if they just slapped a sticker on it, it would be all fair as far as I’m concerned.
I just hope somebody that has no idea of the danger doesn’t just open the door grab on, and get electrocuted. A couple of guys read somewhere they could test the power supply by jumping wires while it’s running, and when I told of the of the danger were stunned. (Hey, it was on the internet…) The HV isn’t caged, interlocked, with nary a warning sticker of a lightning bolt hitting a little guy with smoke coming from his ears.
That being said, it can be made into a pretty nice machine with some time money and work. When done, it’s a lot of bang for the buck. You can get used to the software, and you can do quite a bit with it once you learn it’s way. It’s not a polished user friendly system, and the controller’s lack of compatibility with gcode driven systems is arguably the biggest issue with the k40. (Lack of interlocks being #2, lots of people have forgot to turn on the water)
The solid state blue lasers that you hang on a mill or plotter are pretty weak, and not worth the cash in my opinion (and lots of people who bought one) Decent ones are a couple hundred bucks plus, they’re somewhat hazardous as the wavelength can really get your eyes, where IR from a C02 laser is stopped quite well by plain glass. You can engrave some materials with them, but paper is about what they’ll cut. It’s 2w of blue short easily reflected light vs 30W of IR (Heat energy).
They’re cool if you have a couple hundred bucks to play with, but that’s half of a K40 (or a Smoothie upgrade)
There’s a lot of different people using the K40 for different things, some people just like to mod and build, others like writing software, and others like to create art with them. Most people here are a combination of several different things.
Whenever somebody asks me if they should buy one, I give the the unvarnished truth, if they still buy one, they’re in the right place here on our little club, I can’t imagine owning a K40 without it, heck they should be paying US!