There have been a lot of ads popping up lately for laser cleaning machines to remove paint and rust. When I see a $40 price tag, I can't imagine a tool that can do much. To that end, has anyone purchased one of these bargain units or even a better one that you like? I'm talking about home shop tools, not a $15,000 industrial unit. I know this has been talked about a little in the past, but mostly in a derivative way and that was a while ago. I'm hoping for good input either pro or can and how you use yours effectively. Do they really work like in the videos? Warren
I have seen "Industrial" units demo'd. Very impressive. I can't imagine a cheap unit being able to do what they do. If they work at all, it would probably be like picking fly **** out of pepper and take a really long time to strip a part.
If you order one from Amazon, don't they have a return policy if you aren't satisfied? While I have my doubts about a $40 one, I wouldn't mind hearing how some of the $200 ones might do. (No, I already have enough projects )
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Jur***ic Park: "Is it heavy?" "Yes." "Then it's expensive." It's the laser welders that are blowing my mind. They can weld like nothing I've ever seen. Almost no heat-affected zone. But very expensive. $1,000s and $1,000s. Same with the laser cleaners. The good ones. The real ones.
A $40 laser is something people buy without telling anyone and when they find out it's a piece of **** they quietly dispose of it and never mention that they fell for the ruse.
Fast, Good, Cheap. Pick two. Something tells me it's fast or is ONLY cheap. This is another area where the laws are kind of strict, but most of the time there isn't enforcement. A Gray area that isn't a good place for a consumer to play, since there is no backup. I'd suggest not getting any laser if you live near an airport and do dumb things in your backyard. https://www.lasercompliance.com/faq.html
my SIL bought one for his business to remove surface rust on steel plate and other parts to be welded. cost about 10Gs, works well. i saw it in action but havn't used it myself.
Well, Warren, I believe you got your answer. It is "no", no one has tried one. So no one KNOWS jack about them. Ben
Maybe it could be used to "laser point" at the area on the surface to be cleaned, making it easier to do by hand.....
I had a $60 ultrasonic cleaner like that. Made the right zzzzt! noises, but cleaned only my wallet. It was discretely filed in The Round Filing Cabinet and is no longer spoken of. Cheers, Harv
I’ve seen videos of people using them before on YouTube and it looks really neat but I don’t think I’d pay $10K to keep the media out of my hair. If I could have the access to one to play with sweet but otherwise call me “Sandy”
Like that guy who was selling solar-powered clothes dryers on the cheap years ago. People bought them... what did they get? A spool of clothesline... genius I tell ya...
Quite the tool, but shudder to think of the accident risk, I could only hope some safeguards as high tech as the device are incorporated as well.
Removing rust and paint with $40 laser. Turn on laser and point in general direction of cat. When cat is sufficiently curious and aroused, quickly redirect the laser's beam to area where rust and paint removal is desired. Hold laser beam in that general area while cat furiously continues to claw and scratch until all old paint and rust is completely removed from substrate. NOTICE: If using a declawed cat, this process will take considerably more time*. After surface is sufficiently cleaned, treat cat with generous amounts of catnip. (*For a declawed cat you may consider applying 80 grit booties to the cat's front feet. Though you should probably expect some additional resistance when attempting to use this method.)
I demo'd a IPG laser welder /cleaner at the Fabcon show. It really does work like the videos. The standard lap joint welds are as easy as drawing a line. **** welds a little trickier. I found fit up was more critical than TIG. To be fair, I have been TIG welding for 50 years, so even magic will feel awkward to me. The cleaning works, but is slow. It is powerful. Nothing under $1000 will have that power. Just the computer chips to control that level of power cost Hundreds of $$. The unit I used was $28K.
Watched a lazer demo video that produced some quality looking welds & cleaning capabilities, a basic setup was quoted at $20,000, & as stated a bonified shop where time is money, perhaps the way of the future.
If you buy one, you’ll be funding the research and development. If we ALL buy one, we’ll have a perfect product in just a few years!
The auto industry is already fitting & welding body panels using robots & advanced A.I. on a global scale, the ma & pa shops so to speak are as well using programming to draw & cut ch***is components, hand crafting will always be with us just refined a bit..
I don’t know about cheap but at one time a 40” flat panel TV would cost you five grand now they are $325.00 and work better. It’s the same with plasma cutters and welders.
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