If you’ve been following this blog for a while you know I mess around with laser engravers/cutters and my two machines are both from a company called Wecreat, the Vision Pro and the Lumos. Wecreat recently came out with some very significant new galvo style lasers under the Lumos model name, the Lumos Flex and the Lumos Ultra. The Ultra is way outside my price range, about $3,500. But considering it’s a UV and MOPA laser all included in one package, that’s an extremely good price.
It was the Flex I was interested in. It’s a significant upgrade from my mine. I had a 3W infrared laser and a 10W blue diode laser in mine. The Flex looked like it was exactly the same as mine but with a new laser head that replaces the IR laser with a 15W fiber laser and upgrades the blue laser to 15W.
The blue laser upgrade is significant, but it’s not so much more powerful that I’d really be tempted by that. It was the fiber laser that made things interesting. Fiber lasers generally produce enough energy to cut metal. And they’re capable of doing some very interesting tricks like 3D embossing. They’re pretty slick stuff. And yes, I wanted one but fiber lasers have always been way outside of a price I was comfortable with. Wecreat wants about $2,000 for the thing and I’d already dropped way too much money this year on laser equipment.
But then I was reading the fine print at the end of the hype/advertising for the Flex and noticed a brief mention of the fact that my original Lumos could be upgraded to the Flex by simply replacing the laser head module, and for half the cost of the complete Flex. Now I was interested again.
I sent an email to the company and said “Hey, how can I get one of these upgrade modules?” And they wrote back and said “send us some money and give us about 2 weeks to build one and we’ll get it to you in about 3 weeks.”
And well here we are, 3 weeks later and it is now in my hot little hands. It took all of about 3 minutes to replace the old laser head with the new one, download a new version of their Makeit software, and away we go.
I haven’t had much of a chance to do more than fiddle with it a bit because I’ve been busy with the old unit making a batch of humorous drinks coasters that need to get finished up. But I’m going to have time to put it through its paces this weekend and I’ll let you know how it goes. The bit of fiddling I’ve had a chance to do indicates that it has a heck of a lot of potential. I entertained myself for some time cutting holes in thin sheet metal and engraving things on various bits of metal I had laying around before I had to get back to work. Long enough to see this thing is going to be a hoot to play with.
It’s going to take some time to figure out the exact setting I’ll need in order to get it to do what I want. But once I figure that out this thing is going to be very useful indeed.
Roses
Every year we think this dopey rose bush in the front yard by the sidewalk has finally died, and every year it surprises us and somehow manages to come back. This year I was sure it was dead. When MrsGF pulled on one of the branches something like 3/4 ths of the rootball came out, completely rotted away. I was sure it was dead. Only no, it isn’t, somehow.
I have no idea how this thing manages to survive. Amazing plant. Just saw the first flower of the season and it’s absolutely loaded with buds.
Cats and Backpacks
MrsGF got me a new backpack to carry stuff when I’m out on the bike, but the cat seems to have fallen in love with it. If I put it anywhere where she can get at it, she’s immediately sitting on it. Cats are weird.
grouchyfarmer 
Roses are a lot tougher than they look. What you’re describing is actually pretty common with old landscape roses.
Even when most of the root ball has rotted away, a rose can survive if just a small portion of living crown tissue and a few functioning roots remain. That surviving tissue stores carbohydrates and dormant buds underground. As long as enough living vascular tissue is still moving water and sugars, the plant can rebuild itself.
A few reasons it keeps “coming back”:
The swollen base where the stems meet the roots acts like a reserve battery. Even after major root loss, it may still contain enough stored energy to push out new growth.
Severe stress can trigger latent buds underground or near the base to sprout. A rose that looks dead above ground may still be alive below.
What looks like “the whole root system” may only be the decayed outer or older roots. A few deeper healthy roots can keep the plant alive.
Many older shrub roses and rootstock roses were bred or selected partly because they tolerate neglect, drought, pruning, winter kill, and root damage.
Sometimes the original top rose dies, but the rootstock underneath stays alive and sends up vigorous new canes.
You can tell whether it’s truly alive by checking for:
What’s remarkable is not that it’s growing beautifully — it’s that the plant only needs a surprisingly small amount of living tissue to restart itself. Plants are very different from animals that way. A rose can lose most of its structure and still rebuild from a tiny surviving section. —-AND — THAT CAT IS REALLY CUTE….I LOVE THAT CAT!
LikeLike
That’s Marvelous Mercy the Wonder Cat. We absolutely love her. She was adopted out of the local shelter about a year or two ago. She’s a “senior” kitty, about 13 years old now, but she sure doesn’t act like it. She sleek, sassy, athletic and absolutely delightful.
LikeLike