Low cost laser Engraver

[sidi_steve]

Hi Scott,

I suppose the best answer is that it is limited to flat surfaces. Likely, that is the only answer.

But I have been giving the cylinder engraving idea some thought.

Now the rest of what I am going to say is just putting out an idea, but one I am not about to embark on right now nor is this any kind of recommendation.

-----The following is just an idea! Be careful! High Voltage! Laser beams! Yeah yeah--


Basically, this thing consists of 2 motors and a laser. The two motors control X and Y. Well, if you were to engrave on a cylinder, all you would need is 2 motors, right? This will depend on the orientation, but one motor could control the rotation of a cylinder around the Y axis while the other controls Y. If you were to find another stepper motor that was wired the same as the existing X motor, then you could simply unplug the existing X and plug in this other motor and you could use that for your rotation.

One of the motors is attached to the board via thin ribbon cable (which also carried the limit/home lines) but the other motor has 4 wires and is plugged in to the board via a connector. It would be easy enough to pull that connector and plug in a different motor.

Making something to actually rotate your cylinder would be easy enough. This would be nearly the same as the 4th axis for an XYZ cnc machine and plans for a 4th axis are just a google away.

Since you would have no planar X control while the rotary device was plugged in, you would have to manually position the X position. (You may even have to manually move the X position into and then away from the home position during the init phase so that the home switch gets toggled)

The next challenge would come when trying to design the image you want to engrave. The engraver can only be run with their software, which of course is expecting you to engrave upon an XY plane. But, if you plan ahead and can calculate the circumference of your cylinder, then you could design something that would fit nicely on a cylinder.

I can't remember the focal length of the focusing lens, but it is fixed and it is designed to move about in XY planar fashion of the engraving surface. Let's say for this discussion that the fixed distance the lens is above the surface is 3". As long as the surface of the cylinder is that same 3" distance away from the laser head, then it should engrave well.

So, could you do it? Yeah, I think it could be done. Is this a supported "off the shelf" feature? Nope. And of course, your results could be either glorious or disastrous, depending on your skill (and luck) with electronics and the rest of it. Like I said, it's just food for thought.

[scott wiggins]

It seems that a rotary table is what is needed and probably wouldn't be feasible given the space constraints in the case. See to be quite a limiting factor though.

Given your current machine and the limitations that you have would you be able to recommend any others?

I know that I would like more power though for a deeper etching in some materiels.

Please describe the problems again with glass. Was it tempered? Did you pulse it to control heat, can you even do that?
Thanks,
Scott

[sidi_steve]

Hi Scott,

I haven't spent too much time trying to engrave, so I may not know all the options. But it certainly doesn't appear that there are any choices for pulse settings.

The glass was whatever came from a broken flatbed scanner I had. I don't really know any of its properties, but it was an HP3200c scanner. So, the piece of glass was already broken, but appeared to have no cracks in the area I was trying to engrave. The heat from the engraving process probably caused a pre-existing crack to expand and further break the glass.

I am probably not the right guy to ask about which engraver would be right for you.

I am sorry that I can't be more help. Good luck

Steve

[sidi_steve]

Hey Gang -

I guess I have to eat a few of my words and take back what I said. Here goes.

If you have been keeping up with my postings on the subject, I bought my Ink Express IE 300 mini laser engraver with the primary goal of cutting vector based files. I like gears, so the plan is to cut plastic gears using .PLT files.

My initial attempts to do this were less than successful and I wrongly assumed that it would not be possible to cut vectors properly from within their software.

Now, I will say that it would be easier and offer more control if one could cut directly from DOS using PLT files, but you can't and that is a sore point.

But, getting back to what you CAN do from within their software...

At first, I made a mistake. It appeared that the only image files it could accept were BMP and JPG. There is an image converter portion of their software. It will convert .PLT into BMP, but the results are not great. Not the way to go for precision.

But, I recently discovered that in the image import part of the software, it will import .PLT directly, without conversion. It is a little funny, because there is a dialogue box that says image.BMP even though you are looking at image.PLT on your screen. So, I wrongly assumed that it was doing a conversion. The fact is, that it is making a BMP, but that is only for viewing. So, even though it looks like a low-res pixelated (aliased) version of your vector file, it will actually cut as a vector.

But no so quick. You go to the output screen and click on "outline" (which is their vector mode) and then "output". At this point, it will only cut out part of your file. And thats all you get. The user is totally reliant on how their software interprets your .PLT

I knew my .PLT file was good, as I also have an HP compatible plotter and I could completely and accurately plot my .PLT files on the plotter. And when I open them in the laser engraver software, you can SEE the whole thing, but it wouldn't cut the whole thing. It would typically get hung up on the edges.

I spent DAYS working on this, but then realized that their software wasn't really trying to calculate some edges. Hard to explain, but for any single image, the software my fail to edge detect where the edge is close to (or falls on) the outer edge of the image.

So, in the case of a .PLT file, it was simple enough to introduce some bogus lines that were outside the area that I really wanted to cut. This worked, but not always.

I finally stumbled onto a solution where the bogus lines sort of defined the corners of an image larger than I was really trying to cut. And by doing short bogus lines, then when the software is scanning for edges, it finds the edges I want. Hard to explain, but it works! I am finally cutting gears, using their software. For what it's worth, it sometimes finds the bogus lines and cuts them too, but sometimes it doesn't find the bogus lines.

Yeah, a long and complicated tale. I had to tell ya that it CAN be done!

I hope the pics help!

The first represents a PLT that successfully plots on HP plotter.
The second shows a possible result of that PLT with engraver
The third represents a PLT file that successfully cuts out a gear with engraver!

It's those lines outside the cutting area that let the software see the edges of the image.

It really can be done!

[sidi_steve]

And here is an example of a 45tooth gear cut out on the engraver. The gear came out very nice. Notice how only one of the bogus got cut.

[diarmaid]

That is nice steve. What software do you use for drawing your gears?

[sidi_steve]

Thanks Diarmaid -

I really do like gears...and with the aim of making gears of different tooth count that can mesh together, I cobbled together a little excel application. At first, it was for g-code only, so I could make wooden gears with cnc. But recently made a PLT version.
You can download here, if ya like:

http://www.geocities.com/sidi_steve/NewPix/picView.html
GearCreate8

To get the g-code to compile, macros must be enabled. But to get PLT, you can enter the dimensions on the GearDataEntry worksheet and the results are on the LaserPLT worksheet.

Steve

[miljnor]

After I bought it, I got a quote for less from: http://www.hxlaser.com/en/products/chapter.htm And supposedly, the software at HX does support vector AND raster images...

this machine you posted I just got a email back from and they said they now sell from a U.S. Merchant. But unfortunately he needs his nut and the machine is almost double the price. I don't know if you can get them direct anymore.

http://www.electronicutopia.com/ This is the US sales now

[diarmaid]

miljnor

Maybe you should have a look at this site: http://www.hflaser.com/jgdkj.html

Im thinking about the 3040A machine. It is more expensive than the IE300 (Less expensive than that crazy new price!) but it comes with a larger cutting area for the extra cash so its justified, and the distributors are in Canada.

Unfortunately there have been no replies to my post about it so I dont have a clue if its any good.

[hkxy]

www.hxlaser
www.hflaser



These laser machines all are in the Chinese Jinan,I understand them extremely,Because we are the colleague,Or is the friend,
I sell such machine in US and Europe,But they need the customs to authenticate,
3,040 prices estimates are between 1000-3000 US dollar,And he is the RISC machine,Was inferior to DSP is good
Hoped I may help you,About this machine

[smparkinson]

Hi Sidi Steve. I ordered an ie300 last week by wire transfer to their bank, and they got the funds and shipped within a week. The transfer cost $45., but I felt better doing it this way. Anyway, they said it had been shipped via FedEx and I should get it in 3-5 days. Assuming Customs doesn't delay delivery, I should have it in a couple of days. I hope it arrives in good condition, and that all I will have to do to get it up and running is djust the mirrors and lens.
Anyway, I just read your story about cutting vectors, and I have to say that your hard earned info and techniques to cut vectors is pure gold. You have earned my heartfelt thanks! When I get it up and running I'll post my experiences and results. I hope I will also be able to provide some useful info for any other users out there. Again, THANK YOU! I wouldn't have figured out your techniques by myself in a year of trying. I'll keep you posted.

[sidi_steve]

Hi smparkinson -

Well congrats on the order and I hope it arrives safe, sound and soon.

One thing you can do while you are waiting is to go to a hardware store and buy a clean 5 gallon bucket. Then go to a grocery store and get at least three gallons of purified water.
Also, if you find a sale on poster board or any other card stock kinda papery stuff, then you'll have lots of stuff to practice your cuts on. Me, I went dumpster diving behind an art supply store and got lots of stuff about the weight of manilla folder, but white and red.

Anyway, always good to practice on something cheap.

Also, Might be a good idea to have a fire extinguisher nearby. Some of my experiments had the laser setting too high, and this caused the paper to burn. Hasn't been a problem yet, in that it hasn't caused the whole paper to ignite yet. I have seen flame and I have been able to blow it out.

If you have questions, lemme know. And please do keep me posted.

Steve