Building A Laser Engraver

[Gene-Yo]

I see a lot of talk about building a laser on CNCZONE but curious if anyone out there has actually done this?

I'm deciding to sell my laser kit that I assembled consisting of a 25 watt co2 laser, honey comb table, 3 axis CNC driver kit with steppers, power supply with ttl inputs and several cog wheels and matching belts. I'll probably just list everything on ebay and take my beating on the price.

I came to the conclusion it's too dangerous to build your own laser engraver. I've searched in vain for months to find someone that has actually started and completed a flying optics type design on CNC Zone and so far nada. Something tells me there is a reasons I'm not finding anyone...

Anyone??

[KTP]

The moderator of this forum has built at least one complete engraver.

I don't think the problem is that it is really dangerous, rather that there is a lot more that goes into making a easy to use, reliable, fast laser engraver than people think.

I have started and stopped and started again building an engraver, but it is very hard to produce a one-off and feel like you are saving anything (money-wise). Also, when you are done, will your engraver be as easy to use, fast, portable, reliable as the better made comercial models? Will it have much value if you decide to sell it? (People might be a little more hesitant to shell out $$$ for a joe-blow homebuilt 60 watt engraver versus an epilog or universal model).

I probably could just sell off the lasers, motors, linear rails, etc. and add a few bucks and buy a lightly used epilog...

[Alex101]

Hello everybody!
How you estimate prospect of creation self-made laser engraver. I see a lot of hobby cnc routers but can’t find laser engravers. My machine will be based on soviet pen plotter A3 format. I find it new at box. Electronic will be replaced to microctep controller based on Toshiba microcircuit.
Laser tube will be 20W 500mm length. What did you think about it?

[MonoNeuron]

Hi Gene,
I have built one.
the link is here for a video of it in action.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi4dKAseDCg

It's not dangerous if you observe all the precautions when first starting it up and aligning the laser beam path. After that you only need to check alignment every week or so as they do go out of alignment a little bit.
Rich.

[Switcher]

Very cool video!

.

[largohome]

Rich, you did a superb job! I have built a engraver also, I use flying optics like you but more interested in raster than vector, I have a 48 x 96 60 watt that I use all the time in my business but needed something to pick things up from 700 IPM to 2500 IPM. I am wondering what software you are using on the machine you made? I found out that Mach 3 will not support raster, I will have to buy a spot with wincnc to get the other machine working on raster, it does vector very well with wincnc. I am experimenting with a 60 watt yag diode laser now, I think it could do some awesome fine vector cutting on thin metal.
Check out my site.

www.thelaseretcher.com
Jack

[MonoNeuron]

Hi Jack.
I'm using Linkmotion from Solustan Inc which works very well but is a bit slow in rastering. It also ties up the whole computer until the job is finished. It can be found cheaply on Ebay from time to time and while mine cost $599 on special($1300 usually) it can be had for under $100 secondhand. It uses a dongle which I don't like very much, also.
I like the hardware and software package from www.testra.com as they used to supply all of Universal Laser tables for the past 10 years and the whole package cost about the same as the Linkmotion software and seems to go really fast while rastering.
Linkmotion will go very fast but overshoots the raster a proportionate amount depending on the speed you travel so, if I have a 4x4 picture and raster at, say, 3 ipm then it will only move the 4 inch amount. If I raster at 20 ipm then it tends to overshoot the end by about double the size or about 8 inches. It's no big deal but you need the room or the laser head hits the side of your ways. Ok, it is a big deal if you want speed.
They, Solustan, also have a very good after sales service which I have to say is impeccable and at no time, if I had problems setting thing up, was I waiting for no longer than 2 days (over a weekend).
Rich.

[MonoNeuron]

I'll have to make a video detailing just what happens while raster engraving at different speeds with Linkmotion. It's interesting. I think Solustan have an upgrade of their Linkmotion software but I believe it's very expensive.
Rich.

[largohome]

Rich do you mean 20 Inch per minute or 20 Inch per second? 20 IPM is real slow. With a machine like yours I would expect to see 4000+ IPM.

When I raster on my 4x8' table, I run the machine at 700 IPM but it also has an acceleration and declaration of 3 inches at the end of each line. The big table has the laser connected to the x axis and moves all the time, this is what is limiting the speed and more than likely the laser life. I will check into that software, is it smart raster? (only rasters where the laser will fire and skips all the lines it doesn't)

[MonoNeuron]

The mononeuron kicked in. Yes it is 20 inches per second. Change all of the above to inches per second and you'll get it right. (And so will I for once)
Yep, it's smart raster. It will only fire on the dots so, say you have a tree 12 inches in dia, it rasters all the top canopy then only rasters the trunk which is say 2 inches in dia. This saves a heap of time but the overall job still takes ages on my 30 watt machine.
I am saving up for an 80-100 watt Synrad so that will be a heap better.
Rich

[largohome]

You built the most professional machine I have seen. It looks factory, I will take pictures of my machine today and post, its built from T-slot and is beefy, I decided to use the focus lens as the as the height adjustment rather than motorized focus adjustment. I do tombstones that weigh 300-400 lbs. I also used lead screws for the Y axis as most of what I do is raster, the X axis is syncroness belt like yours. I purchased one of those 60 NGYad diode lasers which I might so some experimenting with as at that lower frequency it has a different reaction on stone, it will actually vaporize marble. Where are you located?

[lamicron]

Rich, is the linkmoption like the chinese software ( lasercut 5.0), that you import your PLT or DFX file direct to the software and then cut it? Or do you need two softwares like sheetcam and mach?