60W Chinese Laser Cutter/Engraver Scam
I am writing this post as a warning to anyone wanting to buy a 60W Chinese laser off of Ebay, Amazon or anywhere else. I purchased one a few months ago and have recently discovered that it is definitely not a 60W laser.
If you have bought this supposed 60W Chinese Laser, there is a very good chance that you did not get what you paid for.
Below are the details of what I have found.
The Laser I Thought I Bought
This laser was advertised as “60W CO2 Laser Engraver Top Line Laser Engraving Machine-comes w/ USB Interface”. The item specs listed by the seller show “Laser Power: 60 W”. Reading this, what would you think the power of the machine would be? If you are like me, you would say 60W!
The Laser That I Actually Got
After some problems with the laser, I dug into it to troubleshoot the laser no longer firing. This is where I confirmed that I did not get a 60W Chinese laser, I did not get a 50W Chinese laser…I got a 40W Chinese laser!
My Findings
Undersized Laser Power Supply Installed
The first thing that I looked at was the power supply. I removed it and tried to find a model number on it but only found adhesive residue for a label that had been removed…suspicious. I started looking online for a laser power supply that looked the same as the one that was installed on my machine. I found the exact model on Amazon listed as MYJG-50. This power supply is rated for a 35W to 50W laser tube. The proper power supply for a 60W Laser would be a MYJG-60 or equivalent which is physically larger than the one installed.
I decided to dig even further and took the power supply apart. To my further surprise, I found that the High Voltage Flyback Transformer inside the power supply is a HS-05-40JS8, which is rated for a 40W laser power supply.
Not only was the power supply they installed underrated for what it was supposed to be, but the internals of the power supply were underrated for what it said it was. Double whammy!
Undersized Laser Tube
So now that I know my power supply is undersized, I move on to the laser tube. By all logic, a 60W laser should have a 60W laser tube installed. Well, apparently this is not Chinese Laser manufacturers logic also.
The laser tube that was installed only had one marking on it (SY161010A-405060WF) and I was unable to get it to cross reference on any searches that I did. If anyone has anymore info or verification, please leave a comment below. Now I must dig further.
I measured from tip to tip of the laser tube and found it to be 990mm, the diameter of the tube is 50mm. I searched for these dimensions for a laser tube and all that I could find was a 50W tube that was sometimes listed as a 40-50W laser tube.
A proper 60W laser tube is around 1200mm long and typically 55mm in diameter. The inside dimensions of the laser is not even big enough to contain a tube of this length. There is a removable panel on the right side that you can take off and add an extension box if you need to use a longer tube. The 60W laser should have this extension box installed and the longer 60W tube used.
The 60W Chinese Laser Seller’s Response
Now that I had all the facts and was quite irritated at the fraud that had been perpetrated upon me, it was time to contact the seller and notify them that I know what’s up.
If money wasn’t involved, their response would be comical. To sum it up, they told me that the power supply does not matter in determining the power of the laser and that it is all decided by the gas proportion and the mirrors. See their actual responses below. I will update as the responses continue.
You can see in their first response that they are hoping I am gullible and will fall for their con.
They thought I should watch a grainy video showing absolutely no specs of what the equipment was rated for and no details of what power settings they were running at.
Above is my response to them regarding the video they wanted me to see.
The Next Step
I know that the seller has absolutely no intention of correcting this so now I will go about upgrading the laser to the specs that I originally paid for. I will do everything I can to make anyone shopping for a 60W Chinese laser aware of this scam.
If you have a similar story or anything else to add, I would love to hear it in the comments.
