Another great video. I bought the cheaper analog version for it's simplicity of control. I have a power knob and meter is all the control I need without the fuss of membrane buttons. I added a digital temperature gauge and paddlewheel flow indicator for monitoring water status.
This is not a show-stopper. But some have a panel on the right side you can take off to put in a larger tube if you want to upgrade later. To me that is a good thing to have. You will have to replace the tube at some point. That would be a good time to upgrade power supply and tube.
So most of the ones on Ebay right now say they are compatible with "CorelDraw, NewlySeal and NewlyDraw" Any idea if that would be the same as Lazer Draw?
Did a bit of digging and what I understand is that CorelDraw should allude to compatibility with LaserDraw and therefore means K40 whisperer compatibility. From what I understand LaserDraw is what CorelDraw uses to “talk” to the laser. Now the definitive way to tell is to ask the seller what controller the K40 they sell uses. Most will be M2 Nano which is what you want. More known working boards are listed here. www.scorchworks.com/K40whisperer/k40whisperer.html
Thank you for a great and direct point of a review. Watched many videos on this k40 as I am in the market of purchasing one. Now I know this video is a few months old, but as I search, I find now that they are making them with the integrated fans. What are you thoughts on those models? Alao noticed some mention they have a water cut off switch, which hear can be a problem if ran on low water. Please advise.
Thanks for the kind words! I looked around a little and found a few k40s with integrated exhaust fans but I don’t personally have any experience with them. Considering they’re the same price as a regular k40 you could always give it a try as long as the seller has positive feedback. Worst case the fan doesn’t work well or burns out and you’d have to pull it out and rig up an external one. But it may work fine. For more info you could post on the r/lasercutting sub on reddit, there may be someone with hands on experience there. Water cut off shouldn’t give you any problems and if it does it’s easy to bypass it. I have a video explaining how on my channel. As long as your pump is submerged and working as it should a cutoff shouldn’t give you any hassle. Definitely isn’t a dealbreaker though when looking for a k40.
noob here, so just going in like this video, I'll be fine? I want the cheapest, best. Budget should be around $400, but how comes the mods cost as much as the product?
Yeah, to get true grayscale you’d need a different board since the stock one can’t control laser power. I’ve actually been looking to get a gerbil mini for that reason. It is possible to emulate grayscale via dithering with the stock board though, which has given me pretty decent results.
Yes, leather you can engrave with this laser. I personally have not tried it before, but the process for engraving will be similar to wood. Power and speed settings may differ though. Metals would need to be coated or painted to be engraved, but actually etching into bare metal won’t work with a co2 laser as it’s not powerful enough.
great video im going to get the one with the estop which comes with digital % readout.and digital temp readout and light power switch....i do agree the actual amp meter is needed and the % readout is useless but .an analog meter is cheap to maybe $5..on ebay the estop and temp gauge is more important to me ..one question i have is that it seems there are not many k40 on ebay anymore..are they being discontinued? or issues? or covid 19 related? .. and does k40 whisperer work on the k40 that come with coreldraw?
Thanks! I haven’t checked k40s on eBay for some time but I’d assume if there’s any shortage it’s a short term issue due to the pandemic. Yes, k40 whisperer should work with virtually any k40 laser. And for your question regarding the red k40 vs the blue one, generally it’s just a cosmetic difference and they use the same parts. If the control panel looks the same then it’s likely they are. Hope that clears things up!
Haven’t used one personally but I’ve researched them a good bit. Glowforge is going to be a more refined user experience. Useable out of the box, larger cutting bed etc. but much more expensive. As far as cutting capabilities they’re going to be about equal as their tubes are close to the same wattage. There will be more tinkering and learning involved with the k40 but with the cost savings I’d say it’s worth it for most users. Yep, you can cut/engrave leather, just be wary of the dye used as some can be more harmful to breathe than others
Haven’t had any issues with the digital power controls, they work well and are easy to adjust. All power settings are done through the front panel of the laser. I use k40 whisperer for my control software and don’t have any options for ppi adjustments. That would come down to the steps of your motors which are fairly fine. So if you’re doing some photo engraving or something intricate you should be able to get fairly good results.
Newbie question, does anyone using k40 whisperer have difficulty adding a multiple items that need to be cut to one file? I had 24 wooden coins I was trying to cut, the software lost its cookies when I tried to load it. I cut that number to 6 and it was fine. I thought at first maybe my PC’s specs were not up to the task but nothing was maxed out and other apps that were running were not struggling. I was wondering if this is normal or maybe I have a bad install? i did not the cut time for the 6 at my current setting was an hour, so I was thinking that 24 might have been too much... I’m open to thoughts and suggestions.
That’s strange. You should be able to place all of your cuts into an Inkscape svg file, and open it in k40 whisperer. What is your software workflow like? Sounds like a file issue maybe
JMKDIY Thanks for the response! IDK what you mean the workflow? I use Inkscape to create the art then save it. I open K40 Whispper press the open design file, select the art created in Inkscape and then a blue circle happens for a really long time and I just kill the software. Also at the top of the K40 Whispper software it says (Not Responding). The file with less coins on them does the exact same thing except within 1 minute it actually loads the art file. I hope this is what you were asking.
Yes, this is what I was wondering. In that case what you may need to do is leave the software to process the file with more coins. I sometimes render really intricate designs and it can take up to ten or twenty minutes to be ready to laser cut, in that time it may not respond due to the processing it’s doing. So you can either do less coins or try and wait it out to see, but it should eventually load the file with enough time
@@JMKDIY Yes, but seems that market for USA and EU (I am in Croatia) is not the same. Shipping may cost a lot. Found something on AliExpress, but still collecting money. I hope that they will not rise prices as well.
Another great video. I bought the cheaper analog version for it's simplicity of control. I have a power knob and meter is all the control I need without the fuss of membrane buttons. I added a digital temperature gauge and paddlewheel flow indicator for monitoring water status.
This is not a show-stopper. But some have a panel on the right side you can take off to put in a larger tube if you want to upgrade later. To me that is a good thing to have. You will have to replace the tube at some point. That would be a good time to upgrade power supply and tube.
But it is not serious to declare and sell a cheap and weak 20W laser for the price of a 40W device. This is a swindle.
So most of the ones on Ebay right now say they are compatible with "CorelDraw, NewlySeal and NewlyDraw" Any idea if that would be the same as Lazer Draw?
Did a bit of digging and what I understand is that CorelDraw should allude to compatibility with LaserDraw and therefore means K40 whisperer compatibility. From what I understand LaserDraw is what CorelDraw uses to “talk” to the laser. Now the definitive way to tell is to ask the seller what controller the K40 they sell uses. Most will be M2 Nano which is what you want.
More known working boards are listed here. www.scorchworks.com/K40whisperer/k40whisperer.html
Hi I'm John my k40 laser not firing when you high the power 30% to 99.9% won't work, what should I do?
Thank you for a great and direct point of a review.
Watched many videos on this k40 as I am in the market of purchasing one. Now I know this video is a few months old, but as I search, I find now that they are making them with the integrated fans. What are you thoughts on those models? Alao noticed some mention they have a water cut off switch, which hear can be a problem if ran on low water. Please advise.
Thanks for the kind words! I looked around a little and found a few k40s with integrated exhaust fans but I don’t personally have any experience with them. Considering they’re the same price as a regular k40 you could always give it a try as long as the seller has positive feedback. Worst case the fan doesn’t work well or burns out and you’d have to pull it out and rig up an external one. But it may work fine. For more info you could post on the r/lasercutting sub on reddit, there may be someone with hands on experience there.
Water cut off shouldn’t give you any problems and if it does it’s easy to bypass it. I have a video explaining how on my channel. As long as your pump is submerged and working as it should a cutoff shouldn’t give you any hassle. Definitely isn’t a dealbreaker though when looking for a k40.
noob here, so just going in like this video, I'll be fine? I want the cheapest, best. Budget should be around $400, but how comes the mods cost as much as the product?
can you do grayscale or do you have to switch out to board for that to use lightburn?
Yeah, to get true grayscale you’d need a different board since the stock one can’t control laser power. I’ve actually been looking to get a gerbil mini for that reason. It is possible to emulate grayscale via dithering with the stock board though, which has given me pretty decent results.
Is there a way to engrave on the leather and metals like copper or silver 3mm?
Yes, leather you can engrave with this laser. I personally have not tried it before, but the process for engraving will be similar to wood. Power and speed settings may differ though. Metals would need to be coated or painted to be engraved, but actually etching into bare metal won’t work with a co2 laser as it’s not powerful enough.
great video im going to get the one with the estop which comes with digital % readout.and digital temp readout and light power switch....i do agree the actual amp meter is needed and the % readout is useless but .an analog meter is cheap to maybe $5..on ebay the estop and temp gauge is more important to me ..one question i have is that it seems there are not many k40 on ebay anymore..are they being discontinued? or issues? or covid 19 related? .. and does k40 whisperer work on the k40 that come with coreldraw?
Thanks! I haven’t checked k40s on eBay for some time but I’d assume if there’s any shortage it’s a short term issue due to the pandemic. Yes, k40 whisperer should work with virtually any k40 laser. And for your question regarding the red k40 vs the blue one, generally it’s just a cosmetic difference and they use the same parts. If the control panel looks the same then it’s likely they are. Hope that clears things up!
Hmmm, how does it compare to your Glowforge? Does it cut leather?
Haven’t used one personally but I’ve researched them a good bit. Glowforge is going to be a more refined user experience. Useable out of the box, larger cutting bed etc. but much more expensive. As far as cutting capabilities they’re going to be about equal as their tubes are close to the same wattage. There will be more tinkering and learning involved with the k40 but with the cost savings I’d say it’s worth it for most users. Yep, you can cut/engrave leather, just be wary of the dye used as some can be more harmful to breathe than others
@@JMKDIY I thought I watched a Little King Goods video with a Glow Forge in it. I swear your voice sounds exactly the same.
Do you notice anything bad with the digital controls? Are there power and ppi settings for this cutter?
Haven’t had any issues with the digital power controls, they work well and are easy to adjust. All power settings are done through the front panel of the laser. I use k40 whisperer for my control software and don’t have any options for ppi adjustments. That would come down to the steps of your motors which are fairly fine. So if you’re doing some photo engraving or something intricate you should be able to get fairly good results.
Any body used this kit. Please how performance.
Newbie question, does anyone using k40 whisperer have difficulty adding a multiple items that need to be cut to one file? I had 24 wooden coins I was trying to cut, the software lost its cookies when I tried to load it. I cut that number to 6 and it was fine. I thought at first maybe my PC’s specs were not up to the task but nothing was maxed out and other apps that were running were not struggling. I was wondering if this is normal or maybe I have a bad install? i did not the cut time for the 6 at my current setting was an hour, so I was thinking that 24 might have been too much... I’m open to thoughts and suggestions.
That’s strange. You should be able to place all of your cuts into an Inkscape svg file, and open it in k40 whisperer. What is your software workflow like? Sounds like a file issue maybe
JMKDIY Thanks for the response! IDK what you mean the workflow? I use Inkscape to create the art then save it. I open K40 Whispper press the open design file, select the art created in Inkscape and then a blue circle happens for a really long time and I just kill the software. Also at the top of the K40 Whispper software it says (Not Responding). The file with less coins on them does the exact same thing except within 1 minute it actually loads the art file.
I hope this is what you were asking.
Yes, this is what I was wondering. In that case what you may need to do is leave the software to process the file with more coins. I sometimes render really intricate designs and it can take up to ten or twenty minutes to be ready to laser cut, in that time it may not respond due to the processing it’s doing. So you can either do less coins or try and wait it out to see, but it should eventually load the file with enough time
JMKDIY Thank you, I had no clue it could take that long, think it could use a more informative UI disclosing the delay, maybe a progress bar.
Omtech is awesome to deal with super fast Shipping
Nice
some info on why you might actually want the older analog control board. ua-cam.com/video/Gc_1jDVRKEQ/v-deo.html
Too late! On eBay, this laser is already over $1000 US. :(
I’m seeing them for the 350-400 range. Are you searching “40w laser”? That usually yields the most results
@@JMKDIY Yes, but seems that market for USA and EU (I am in Croatia) is not the same. Shipping may cost a lot. Found something on AliExpress, but still collecting money. I hope that they will not rise prices as well.
not helpful for other than a newbie- move on