A band to size up. A chain with a broken link. A claw to retip with the stone still in. A pendant that wants a date inside. A sheet blank waiting to be cut.
The M3 is built for that tray. A jewelry laser welder for repair shops, goldsmiths, studios and sample rooms: QCW welding, MOPA marking and cutting, one air cooled cabinet.
Three sets of work
Three sets of work cross this jewelry laser workstation in a day. The four days that follow are different mixes of the same three.
QCW source · 120–1200 W
Pending photo · sizing seam at 10XGold, silver, platinum, titanium, copper, aluminium and steel each start from a preset. Spot, pulse width and frequency are trimmed once the first shot is read under the microscope.
Repair work in detailMOPA source · 70 × 70 mm field
Pending photo · date inside a bandA curved inner surface has to turn under the beam, so band work runs on the rotary device. Artwork arrives as PLT, DXF, AI, BMP, JPG, PNG, TIF, CAD, CDR or DWG.
Engraving and markingMOPA source · cutting fixture
Pending photo · name necklace off the sheetThe cutting fixture holds thin sheet flat and fume extraction takes the smoke off the bench. That list is what has been put through it, and the list stops there.
Thin-sheet cuttingThe three sets never arrive in separate weeks. They arrive mixed, in whatever order the door opens. That is the whole reason for putting them in one cabinet.
Day 01 · welding-led
One operator, nobody to hand anything to. Work arrives from two directions: trade repairs sent in by shops with no bench of their own, and pieces made under the goldsmith’s own name. This is the jewelry laser welder for goldsmiths who do both.
QCW weldingMOPA marking
GOLD, STEEL, TITANIUM and SILVER sit on the material dial. The trade work that came in overnight is mostly the first of those, so one touch loads the preset and the bench is working.
QCW · GOLD presetA karat band is held and focused under the binocular microscope. The seam is built with the spot toward the fine end and the pulse short, one pedal press at a time, until the band polishes round with no step.
Spot fine · pulse shortSilver carries heat out of the joint faster: a preset change and a trim, not a different machine. Platinum, copper and aluminium start from the nearest position and are corrected on the first shot.
Preset changed · trimmed by eyeA bezel closed. A jump ring run. A finding attached to a piece soldered everywhere else. The assembly joints of new work ride in between the repairs without a change of set-up.
QCW · same headPieces going out under the maker’s name are signed inside the band. That is the rotary device and the marking interface, so every band that wants engraving has been waiting for this block.
MOPA · rotary deviceWelding led, marking closed the day, and the head changed exactly once. The dial is left on whatever the first job tomorrow will want.
Dial set for tomorrowWelding-led, one head change, a short block of marking at the end. How each alloy family behaves at the weld, and how the presets are trimmed for it, is on the precious metals page.
Day 02 · promise-led
The constraint is the front of the shop, not the bench. Work is taken in over the counter with a promise attached, and the promise is what the customer is buying. The M3 is the jewelry laser welder repair shops use to keep that promise inside the building.
QCW weldingMOPA markingQCW welding
A chain parted at the clasp. A ring to size. A claw that dropped its stone back into the setting. Earring posts snapped level with the back. A locket hinge that no longer closes.
Taken in · promisedEach piece is held, focused and welded where the microscope was focused. The pedal does the firing, so both hands stay on the work and the job never goes out to a trade bench.
QCW · pedal firedThe 10 inch 1280 P touch screen carries the microscope view in colour from the 8 megapixel camera, at a size somebody across the counter can see. The repair happens in front of its owner.
Screen facing the counterStone species, treatment, setting structure and the distance from weld to stone decide whether a piece is worked as it stands or the stone comes out first. Nothing fires before that call.
Assess · then fireBlank tags and pendants take names and dates for the personalization sold across the same counter. That is a change to the MOPA head, in the gaps between repairs.
MOPA · flat in fieldMarking is gathered into one block and the head changes once. When a customer is collecting soon, the promise beats the efficient routing, and the head changes again. The counter makes that trade knowingly.
One change, or more
Promise-led, welding through the day, marking gathered where the promises allow. Assessment, holding, the first pulse and stone-set work are covered in full on the repair page.
Day 03 · making-led
The direction of the day is reversed. Making leads, and welding sits at the end. For a small business selling names, dates and charms, this desktop jewelry laser welder starts the morning as a cutter.
MOPA cutting + markingQCW welding
Customer files are read for whether they can be cut at all: connected strokes, islands still attached to something, and a hanging hole placed where the finished piece will balance.
MOPA · file openA fine stroke lifts at the moment the outline breaks through, and a lifted stroke is a lost blank. Red light walks the outline on the actual sheet, extraction runs, and pieces come off the bed to be edge-checked.
Fixture · extraction onInitials, dates and small logos go on flat within the field at 0.01 mm marking accuracy. The file that cut the outline places the mark on it. Stainless steel and brass take colour; anodized aluminium marks black.
MOPA · 70 × 70 mmThe head changes once, from MOPA to QCW: the opposite trip to the goldsmith’s. Everything cut and marked today is already waiting in a tray for it.
MOPA → QCWJump rings closed on cut charms, a bail attached, a clasp fitted, a chain welded closed on a wrist for a permanent piece. The piece never has to go anywhere to be joined.
QCW · pedal firedWhat is left on the bench is sellable stock. The welding source is the reason a studio that came for cutting stays.
Stock on the benchMaking-led, one head change in the opposite direction, finished stock at the end. Artwork, holding and breakthrough are on the cutting page; chains welded on the wrist are their own page.
Day 04 · procedure-led
In a small factory this bench serves nobody standing in front of it. It serves a production line on one side and a design desk on the other, and both halves run on written parameters.
QCW weldingMOPA marking + cutting
Aftersales work is the same joint on the same model, seen again and again. The job is to weld the second piece the way the first one was welded.
Job sheet openThe preset is loaded by material. The spot is set electrically rather than by feel. Pulse width and frequency are the ones on the job sheet, so the repair holds for whoever is on the bench that shift.
QCW · recorded valuesSerial numbers, batch identification and the shop’s own reference are marked where they will not show on the finished surface, including what polishing took away.
MOPA · identificationA model that exists only as a file gets its outline cut from sheet, marked and joined. The design desk has something to hold rather than something to look at.
Cut · mark · joinThe next version is cut from the same sheet stock on the same bench, and the change is in the hand the same working day.
Same stock · same benchProcedure-led: written parameters on both halves of the day. The complete parameter list for both sources is on the specifications page, and the people who build the machine are on the about page.
One job, four routings
A single karat band, to be sized up with a date engraved inside it. The machine does the same two operations every time. What changes between benches is the route the job takes to reach them.
| The job | Goldsmith’s bench | Repair counter | Studio | Sample room |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First operation | Sized under the microscope | Sized, quoted with a date on it | Marked inside first, while the file is open | Sized with the recorded parameters |
| Then | Waits with the other bands for the marking block | Engraved straight after if collection is soon, otherwise joins the block | Sized afterwards on the welding side | Identification that was polished away is re-marked |
| Head changes | Once, late in the day | Mid-job when the promise demands it | Once, in the opposite direction | As the procedure lists them |
| Decided by | The bench | The promise made at the counter | The order: engraving is the sale | A written procedure, then recorded |
Four benches, one machine, four routings. The routing that reads like your own shop is the day to read again.
Changing heads
The M3 carries two heads in one cabinet under one screen. The QCW welding head works through the binocular microscope and the camera. The MOPA head is a galvo head running at 7000 mm per second across the 70 × 70 mm field. They do not share a datum, and that single fact shapes all four days.
Stored once, recalled on demand, identical on the hundredth piece.
Every trip ends with the red light confirming where the beam lands.
Gather the marking into one block and the set-up is paid once.
A head change costs a set-up. Scatter marking through the day and it is paid every time. The goldsmith’s day and the studio’s day both pay it once, from opposite ends. The repair counter is the bench that cannot always gather, and it knows why.
The return: a piece never leaves the bench. Sizing, inside engraving and the tag that goes with it are done by one person in one place, and work that used to come back on a subcontractor’s schedule comes back on yours.
Both sources, full parametersEvery working day
No chiller to fill, plumb or bleed: the M3 is air cooled. No computer to boot: the 10 inch capacitive touch screen runs Android and both interfaces live on it.
The only part a day consumes is the protective lens. Operating and maintenance videos sit on the same screen, which is where a second operator learns. Shutting down is switching off.
Training and support
Footprint
With a compact goldsmith laser welder this size, the question stops being whether there is room for a laser. It becomes where on the bench it goes.
300 × 340 × 320mm
30kg · lifted by one person
It takes a corner of the working surface and leaves the rest of the bench as a bench. One person lifts it, which matters in a workshop that gets rearranged.
Often the only space is behind the counter itself, in sight of customers. A machine that stands on the counter surface and runs from an ordinary single phase socket is a different proposition from a floor-standing unit with a chiller beside it.
It shares a table with the sheet stock, the fixture and the extraction. The constraint is clear working room around the field, not the footprint of the machine.
Next to the design desk one month and next to the line the next, without an installation. Air cooled, no chiller, one plug.
A phone beside it for scale. Renders cannot prove a footprint; this photograph can. The same cabinet holds the QCW source, the MOPA source, the microscope, the camera and the screen.
Compared with other compact benchesThe edges, stated plainly
The four days are benches where work arrives one piece at a time and each piece is judged before it is fired on. That is the shape of day this machine is built around, and it has edges.
| The edge | Why it is there | What gets said |
|---|---|---|
| Single-piece rhythm | Held by hand, fired by pedal, the joint read at magnification between shots. The same joint run continuously through a shift belongs to fixtured, automated equipment. | If that is the volume, the answer is a line machine, said before the quote. |
| Spot 0.1–2.0 mm | The welding spot is set electrically inside that range. Finer spots exist on other equipment. | Work whose whole difficulty sits below the range is named as below the range. |
| Field 70 × 70 mm | A piece larger than the field is not one set-up. Cutting is thin sheet: name necklaces, tags, letter pieces, small metal graphics, sheet outlines. | Past that list the answer is a trial on your own material, not an estimate. |
| Limits by metal are not published | Maximum weldable section, minimum piece and sheet thickness do not hold still across the alloys a bench actually works in. | Your piece is run and sent back with what it took, written down. |
| No shared datum | Two sources in one cabinet cost a re-hold on every trip between them. The changing heads section spells that cost out. | Gather the marking, pay the set-up once. |
A week that is a tray of pieces judged one at a time meets none of these edges.Pending photo · sample back, settings writtenPending photo · the field, actual size Ask about an edge case
Configuration
The four days do not ask for the same machine. The differences sit in the accessories, not in the cabinet.
What a week gets mapped onto
Four benches, one machine, four routings.
Find Out Which Day Is YoursKeep reading
Send a week
List what crossed your bench in one week. The reply names which of the four days your week looks like, the configuration that day asks for, and what it does not need.