I laser engrave LOTS of cutting boards on my CNC with a diode laser. It’s reliable and flexible but really slow for a number of reasons. I can see that the R1 could really speed up the engraving but can’t figure out if my major use case will work on the new machine.
The maple cutting boards measure 405mm long, 330mm wide and 38mm tall. I only need to engrave the lower 2/3rds of the board surface, so the cutting area falls within the specifications for the R1. Question is whether it’s possible fit a board like that in the R1 for engraving? I’m hoping use of the riser base would let me get the board under the laser head, with the ‘top’ of the board sticking out the back of the R1 riser base. But from what I can tell with conveyor in place the opening height is only 20mm. Does the height of the opening increase without the conveyor in place, as I don’t need a conveyor, just an adequate opening area.
The specs say “maximum standalone material size of 710 × 380 mm” so I think it would fit inside the machine without the riser or conveyor if you remove the slats to get additional height. The one question I’d have is if the brackets that hold the slats would be in the way.
Maybe too early to ask this yet, but there are R1s in the wild now.
Construction trade wood sheets here are sold in subdivisions of 2440x1220mm, which means the 1/4 sheets I typically buy are 1220mm x 610mm. It’s about the largest piece I can carry by myself without swearing.
Does this fit inside the R1? The length obviously does via the conveyor, but the machine’s stated width of 600mm concerns me.
Does that 600mm mean that’s how far across the laser can move, or the size of the sheet that fits in the machine, or what else?
EDIT MY purpose for getting a laser cutter would be to cut 18mm MDF for furniture.
That’s it. I’m hoping someone who has one can do the assessment. Of course it would be best coming from Bambu Labs, but solid information from a user would be great. Something this big wouldn’t be fun to return.
