yep agreed, ezcad2 is a pita and its EOL’d but what works, works! glad its going for you.
Well, I’ve purchased a OmTech 50w enclosed laser. Should be here in about a week. There is Lightroom support, which I will def be using over EzCad. I’ll report back once it arrives and once I start playing with it.
I think it will be powerful enough to cut stainless stencils (with bad edge quality on the apertures). I will stick with OSHStencil and others for production stencils, but when I need to stencil just a few boards – or when I want to experiment with different apertures to improve reflow yield, could be handy to have in house.
Like Matt, I’ll be using it for enclosure engraving for upcoming products (USB Hub, cameras, etc).
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i cut stencils on my 60w mopa, took me a while to tune it in without warping the metal
I just received my 50W Cloudray Fiber laser
it has an enclosure, but as expected no interlock. I will probably make some automation changes to it anyway so adding an interlock would be trivial.
Thankfully my jurisdiction allows me to “fabricate machinery for internal use” and only certify it when it has to be operated by an employee. So until my little shop grows i can work with it.
update:
got the machine working with Lightburn, setup was a bit tricky. getting the license is totally worth it in my opinion.
There is a software interlock present on the machine meaning the software can be configured to not allow activation of the laser while the door is open.
Also the warning light is configurable. its marked as class 2 laser product (presumably because of the presence of the interlock), but it is not a HW interlock like one would hope for,maybe I add that on top.
I bought it over amazon in hopes that I have a middleman in case something goes wrong:
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0B93SR8VJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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The OmTech 50w version of that laser seems very similar but the windows are a bit bigger. Still need to get the interlock switch configured correctly, but the laser works very well in lightburn.
This rear panel for the USB Hub takes less than 30 seconds to engrave.
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Try using Monport lasers there lasers is known for producing high quality output and make things easier.