Small parts, somebody else’s property, no spare behind them. The M3 is a desktop laser workstation built for precision metal repair of that kind: a QCW fiber welding source from 120 W to 1200 W, a spot set by motor from 0.1 to 2.0 mm, pulse width from 0.2 to 15 ms, and a foot pedal firing so both hands stay on the part.
Every weld is placed under magnification. A 10X binocular microscope and a 20X lens at the eyepiece; the same joint on a 10 inch screen through a Sony 8 megapixel camera.
Four benches, one question
Four kinds of bench ask for the same thing: a weld beside a finished face, on a part with no replacement. Each bench named by what actually sits on it.
Steel · titanium · gold filled
The joint sits beside a brushed or polished face the owner will hold up to the light.
Steel · titanium · coated
The frame goes back straight, and it goes back the same colour.
Technician’s metalwork only
The fit verified on the model is still the fit when the technician seats it again.
Whatever needs magnification
They come over because yours is the room with a lens and a laser on it.
Every one of those parts is judged on its own before anything fires, held by hand, and worked under magnification. That is the shape of bench the M3 is built around.
The material dial
On a goldsmith’s bench GOLD and SILVER get pressed all day. On a watch, eyewear or laboratory bench it is the other two.
4
material positionsSteel
The metal of watch bracelets, cases, clasp blades and spring bars, of the families most eyewear fronts are built from, and of the wire and framework work crossing a laboratory bench.
Titanium
The other everyday position. Every titanium part starts from TITANIUM, and the first shot is trimmed against what the microscope shows. Like steel, it keeps heat close to where the shot lands, which is what a joint beside a finished surface needs.
Gold · Silver
Gold filled and plated cases, solid gold frame parts, precious alloy framework work, and the gold findings that arrive attached to something else.
Seven weldable metals, four dial positions. Platinum, copper and aluminium run from the nearest position and are trimmed on the first shot: an operating routine, not a preset.
A material position puts the machine within reach of the metal family in front of it. It does not know the individual part; the first shot settles that. The two step routine behind every preset is laid out on the precious metals page and runs the same way from STEEL and TITANIUM.
No hidden face
Every job on this machine starts with one shot below where the settings are expected to finish, placed somewhere that will never be seen. These benches do not have that somewhere.
On a ring
Schematic · inside the shankA ring has a face nobody looks at. The first shot lands there, gets read, and the visible joint is welded on settings already proven on the piece itself.
On a link, a barrel, a clasp arm
Schematic · every face is finishedEvery face of the part is a finished face, and the part belongs to a customer. There is nowhere on it to spend a shot that might be wrong.
The trial shot does not go on the piece. It goes on an offcut of the same alloy, in the same holding.
Same alloy, roughly the same section. Those two things decide how much of the shot goes into the joint and how fast the heat leaves it. A spare link out of the same bracelet answers for that bracelet. A sprue from the same cast answers for that framework.
How a trial shot is read, and which correction each reading calls for, is set out on the repair page and does not change here.
That is also why the sample asked for on this page is an offcut rather than a customer’s watch. What happens at your bench before a part is touched is what happens at ours before an answer goes out.
The operator’s side: binocular eyepieces above the work position, screen folded up behind.
Holding
Almost nothing on these benches can be clamped. Jaws firm enough to hold a link, a frame or a framework would also mark it.
Firing is on a foot pedal, and that is what frees both hands in the first place.
The 10X binocular microscope and the 20X lens sit at a fixed working distance. Once the joint is in focus, the part is turned there between shots rather than found again each time.
The screen is the second pair of eyes. The Sony 8 megapixel full colour camera puts the same view on the 10 inch screen:
Everything that decides where the weld lands happens before the pedal goes down.
Second source · MOPA
The second source in the cabinet does identification work here, not decoration: service marks and serial numbers on case backs, component identification, reference marks for repair records, tags, plates and small blanks.
Marks across a 70 × 70 mm field at 0.01 mm accuracy, with galvo speed up to 7000 mm/s.
Stainless steel and brass take colour under this source. Anodized aluminium marks black: a different result, quoted as a different job.
A part welded on the QCW side and then marked is re-set on the marking side, located by red light walking the outline on the part itself.
Footprint
None of these three rooms has spare floor space.
30kg
Takes a corner of a worktop and is lifted by one person, so it can be put away or moved between rooms. Air cooled: no chiller on the floor beside it, no water to top up, no water circuit to service.
Tell us the mains supply and the plug pattern in the room it is going into. That goes on the configuration sheet with everything else.
The edges, stated plainly
These are the five your work will meet. Each one comes with how it is answered.
The dial reads GOLD, STEEL, TITANIUM and SILVER. Alloys outside those four families have no position of their own, and none is claimed for them.
Run from the nearest position, trimmed on the first shot against what the microscope shows. An operating routine, described as one.
The TITANIUM position covers titanium as a material family. No breakdown by grade is published, and none goes on a page ahead of the factory.
Start from TITANIUM. Trim the first shot by the microscope reading, on an offcut of the actual part.
Lenses, rims and plastics on a frame. Crystals, dials, movements and gaskets in a watch. Resin and acrylic on a framework.
What comes off before a weld, how far, and what goes back afterwards is decided at your bench with the part in front of you.
That table does not exist on the factory side, and saying so beats inventing one.
An offcut of your own alloy, welded here and posted back with the settings.
Held by hand, fired by pedal. Work that repeats the same joint on the same part all shift belongs to a different kind of equipment.
Said before a quote, not after delivery. The edge is set out on the suitability page.
Not published, and what stands in
| Not published for watch, eyewear or dental alloys | What stands in for it |
|---|---|
| Alloy parameter tables | The settings written beside your own welded offcut |
| Maximum weldable section | An offcut at the section you actually need joined |
| Minimum part, thinnest weldable wall | The smallest scrap part of that type you can spare |
The sample asked for is an offcut, not a customer’s watch.
Send an OffcutThe sample
On most benches the obvious sample is the job itself. Here the watch, the frame or the framework belongs to a customer, is often the only one there is, and is not yours to put in the post.
What counts as an offcut
Four lines to send with it
What the part is, and what the joint has to do once it is back in service.
The alloy, or the trade name it is bought under, if known.
How close the joint is to a finished face, a coating or a non-metal part.
Whether the part has to come back in alignment, or in a verified fit.
Your own metal with the weld in it, for your own loupe, file and polishing wheel. The machine settings are written down beside it, with a line on how the material behaved under the beam. If the result is not what your work needs, that answer arrives before a machine is on your bench.
Start with the metal
For precision metal repair equipment on a watch, eyewear or laboratory bench, the shortest way to an answer is an offcut of the alloy worked every week, in the post, with four lines about the joint.