DIY Laser cutter/engraver site ??

[mexico.redsail]

Hello, my friend at www.ams-laser.com is willing to setup a DIY site for a laser cutter/engraver, if there is enough interest in it, please reply with your vote, it will be a user donation suported site (not mandatory to acsess) and to start there will be ONE full set of instuctions to build a machine on the cheap. ( less than 3,000 for a 24" by 36"). Her page is in spanish but the diy page will be in english so cast your opinion here or e-mail her at info@ams-laser.com

Thanks

[CNCadmin]

Here is one- http://www.cnczone.com/forums/index.php#other_machines

[cwiliam]

I'm in

[mexico.redsail]

Check out the pictures, this is one my friend is just begining to assemble.

[CNCadmin]

Nice machine but IMO its way to lightweight, I used 3030 for my table and cross members. My table is heavy but still not heavy enough. Have you built a laser table before?

[mexico.redsail]

Thanks, actualy that machine is built by my friends at www.ams-laser.com
and they have built around a dozen machines, since laser cutting makes no force on the workpice there is no need to build a heavy machine, they even built a custom one with suction cups to place it directly over a big sheet of glass to do engraving.

[CNCadmin]

If you want accuracy you should do, vibration from just the gantry move will cause a deviation in the focus of the beam, have you ever seen a table used for laser experiments? The weight is not for cutting force it's to keep the beam in focus, and defection or movement will through the beam off axis. The tables weigh a ton, I've built 3 laser tables and I should say for a small laser your right my laser is 72" x 50" cutting area and I still like it to be a bit heaver.

[mexico.redsail]

This machine she´s building is for a friend of mine, i will test the machine on engraving and see how it does, BTW, there are 2 solid linear rails and bearing for the x axis, and all mirror mounts are massive aluminum i really dont see much posibility for vibration, (unless we where to shoot holograms with it)

Thanks

[CNCadmin]

You would be surprised, I can verify ALL beam movement and I can tell you that unless everything is solid, the bean will not be true in all positions of the table.

[mexico.redsail]

Hello, is it ok with the admin if we start the DIY laser tread here at the forum ?

[MonoNeuron]

Hi all,
My laser table is relatively flimsy by comparison to all the other ones out there and I don't seem to have any problems with alignment. I cut at anywhere between 3 inches/sec down to 0.1 inches/sec and my rapids are 14 inches/sec.
No problems yet.
Like Mexico_Redsail said, I'm not doing Holograms so there isn't much need for micron alignment. Mine will stay in about 0.002" which is heaps close enough for me with a beam variation of 0.007 to 0.014 depending on the warping of the material I am cutting.
There are too many variables and not enough magnets to keep my sheet material really flat.
One thing I have noticed with my 35watt machine is that if I suspend my thick (2mm) material above the table allowing the beam to pass right through I get a lot of charring due to air getting to the rear side because of the slow cutting, so I place my material on a flat steel surface and try to hold it flat with magnets and there is no charring on the rear side.
Richard.