Did I mention that we just took possession of our new laser cutter? After a 4 -5 week wait for the new Redsail X700 laser from China finally rocked up. And to be honest, first impressions have been pretty good. You can still tell the unit has come from China, but the build quality is definitely better than some of our past purchases. The Redsail X700 is marketed on eBay by “Lasercheap” and at first, I was a bit wary of ordering from them. However, a mate of ours managed to do the hard yards first and got one in for us to have a look at before ordering ours. It took the guesswork out of it. I’m hoping this post will also help you make an informed decision when purchasing a laser from China.

  • Cut area 500×700
  • 100W ReCi Laser
  • DSP controller
  • USB/Ethernet Interface
  • Exhaust Fan, Air/Water Pump
  • Reflect Optics
  • Red Dot

Software and Firmware

For those of you that are not sure where to start, the biggest point is to ensure you have the correct software up and running. Our machine arrived with the TL-403CB?DSP controller. As of 24/5/16, we have tested up to Firmware V.L007.075 and AutoLaser v2.2.2 We had to do a bit of”googling” to find out the manufacturer of the DSP and finally found the software here:?http://www.topwisdom.com.cn/en/down.asp – I cannot guarantee this will work for everyone, best to check your DSP controller first. (You can find the model number in the side access panel of the machine)

Update 13/2/17 – I fried the Laser

I got to work on a small piece that I had drawn up. Just a simple mount for an LCD screen out of perspex. The problem is that I had to do multiple pieces of the LCD mount and ended up needing 18 of the same cut. As it turns out the ambient temp of the workshop and the small reservoir of water I was using for cooling was in no way sufficient for the repetitive cuts I was doing.

The end state is that we literally cooked the laser. The laser was now shorting inside the tube…Lesson learnt…the hard way.

So, we had a spare 125W tube lying around that clearly was never going to fit lengthways, however, it was the same dia. Seems legit? What do you think? Any problems? apart from someone tripping on the protrusion.

I’ve also sorted a proper cooling solution using some oldish MRI cooling units that I sourced. In the past, I had just been using these to cool the spindle on the CNC router.