Thermometers

This is to monitor your water, and make sure it is the correct temperature, you can use a digital thermometer.

Some of the Thermometers on the market have a built-in max temperature alarm, so if the temperature passes above the max recommended temperature of 71 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius), then it will sound an alarm.

This is just an added safeguard to ensure your laser tube is kept at optimal running temperature.

You can purchase ones from thermoworks  or a DIGITEN Digital Thermometer from Amazon for around $17 bucks. Both these Thermometers have built-in high-low alarms to set minimum and maximum temperatures as required.

Water Pump

Most 40w lasers already come with a standard water pump which is basically a pump that would normally be used for an aquarium setup.

It’s fine for most uses although the motor can be fairly noisy at times, so if you are working indoors or in the spare room, you may want to upgrade your water pump to a more efficient model.

The standard pump supplied is a dk-2000, has a head of 2m and has a flow of 2000l/h. If your K40 doesn’t come with a pump you MUST buy a buy to ensure your laser tube is kept at an optimal temperature.

Make sure you purchase a water pump with the attached brass connector, so you can properly connect your inlet/outlet pipes.

If you need to purchase a third party water pump , the outer tubing diameter is around 8mm If you whilst the internal is around 6mm. this should be sufficient

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Cooling upgrades

It’s essential to keep your K40 at the optimum temperature when under operation and to keep your tube in good working order and increase the life expectancy.

TIP: increasing the amount of water in your reservoir will increase the time in which the laser has a chance to heat the water. I recommended at least 10-20 liter reservoir for normal use situations.  

If you are in an area where the ambient temperature is always above 71 degrees Fahrenheit, then it is advised to either create a system to cool your water.

You can do this by adding ice to your cooling reservoir, or you can use a water chiller. 

If you are using this for a commercial operation or using it for long spans of time at high intensity, then I recommend adding this to your list of K40 laser upgrades to make sure you get the most out of your Laser engraver.

Optics and mirrors

First of all the optics on the K40 are the cheapest the manufacturer could put on the k40 to keep down costs.

Upgrading the mirrors will increase your cutting ability and also reduce the amount of power you need to use to do the same job you would have with the standard K40 mirrors.  Upgrading the lens will also increase the output of your K40 laser cutter.

If you aren’t running air assist, then smoke residue may reduce the quality of your cut, so don’t mistake this for needing to upgrade your lens as well.

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Single Line fonts

What are Single Line Fonts?

Single line fonts are a special type of font that is compatible with K40 machine as well as other CNC machines that support vector engrave. Instead of moving across a block of text (like a printer) It draws the text like you would when drawing the text with a pencil or pen

These fonts can save you up to 90% in the time it takes to engrave a block of text on the K40

 

 

 

Air assist

Why use air assist? Air assist aims a short beam of air directly onto your work for a few reasons. One to blow away any debris that has been left from your laser cut( ash and burnt wood) and also intense smoke that accumulates during the cut, which leaves smokey residue on your newly engraved work. It’s essential if you are creating intricate work that is too delicate to sand one finished your engrave. Air assist for your K40 can be purchased here