Not FastLED related, at least not directly, but this arrived today … and was promptly inspected by the cat … #timetocutstuff
Nice! Have you seen the glowforge yet? http://glowforge.com — which one did you get? (Considering a laser cutter, not sure I want to throw down $2000-2500 for a glowforge, even though that’s a 50% off price for right now)
Yeah, I signed up for their announcement, but considering this one was less than $400 NEW compared to the price of the Glowforge, and since at the time I had no idea when the Glowforge was getting released, I decided to get this one instead … it’s one of the thousands you find listed on eBay. And immediately two days later I saw Glowforge released …
Hmmm - $400 for a little firestarter, or $2500… might be an easy choice… (In an ideal world, I’d love to have a glowforge and an othermill - but I’m not sure I have $4k to throw down on fab hardware right now)
Exactly. I decided $400 is worth it to me to fiddle with, and start learning to cut stuff. If it turns out to be worthless, at least I didn’t burn $2k … But, seeing how many folks are successful with them, and for a cutting area that’s slightly under 12"x8", I figured, why not.
Very cool! Seems like a reasonable price to dive in and try it out.
I just saw the Glowforge yesterday. I thought some of the nifty auto alignment stuff it does sounded pretty great.
It’s it fun how nearly any box can become an instant cat trap. They work amazingly well in just minutes!
My buddy got the “$400 eBay laser cutter” as its known. It’s a 40w co2 laser. Needs a cooling bath. The software will take some messing with, but in the end, its a very functional tool.
He cut and burned about 60 1/8 prices of wood for wedding invites. It was cheaper to buy it then to pay someone to do them!
Yeah, I’m just starting on the software part. I’m not very keen on it all being Chinese and not to mention the provided key generator and other hacked keys with the software. But, till I can find a different solution, this’ll have to do.
You get to generate your own software key? Ha, nice.
So what do you do, use an online translation service or a friend that speaks Chinese to figure out how to run it?
Highly doubt that Corel would validate the generated key. 
The installation video clearly shows how NOT to run the registration … Yeah, this is one thing I will be changing. Someone suggested going with the open source LaOS kit, which is a combination of both hardware replacement, new software, as well as added safety features … which this thing lacks.
So the first set back is that the illegal software it comes with, will not install under Windows10 … anyone surprised? Where it’s sitting, I have nothing but my laptop to drive it, and it’s running Windows10. Till I figure out a solution, I’ll have to move the table over to where my desktop is which is still running Windows7. sigh What’d you expect for $366 anyway …
Longest allowable USB cable is Not. Long. Enough.
Hah i have the same machine …
I’m part of the k40 laser group as well. Its not a bad machine once you get over it’s issues.
One thing I’d like to share. This machine has ZERO tolerance for running without coolant flow or if there are any air bubbles in the tube. YOU WILL crack the tube in short order if you try to run it without proper cooling.
@Jon_Bruno , I’m I required to have CorelDRAW and CorelLASER installed if I only care to use the LaserDRW program to drive the thing? Concidering that CorelDRAW by itself is constantly crashing anyway, it’s worthless to me. Personally, I’d rather use Illustrator to create my designs and load them into LaserDRW for cutting/engraving.
Better yet, I would much rather get rid of all the Chinese crap and pirated software that comes with the thing to be honest. Though I think the only way would be too replace its electronics for something else.
@Daniel_Garcia Check out the X-Carve for a mill. I got the 1000mm one… Great product for the price. Can upgrade the drill (Dewalt) and mill aluminum with it.