Hey G'day people,

I bought myself a small laser engraver, not big just a 10watt (allegedly) 1000mm x 1000mm frame. Love it I like some of the things you can do with it. Unfortunately if I want to cut anything other than paper or cardboard not going to happen.

The thought is to either upgrade the engraver I purchased or use my existing CNC platform and built onto it.

Soooo, trolling youtube and master google started reading up on C02 lasers, had a good look at some diy builds, I thought maybe I have a crack at it.

I have the axbb-e and ucsb breakout board, working fine once I worked out what was what with the help of people from this forum, couldn't be happier.

Reading the manual the axbb-e can run a laser diode which is what my laser engraver has. Can the axbbe-e be used with a C02 laser?

Has anyone here built a C02 laser and used existing cnc to run it?

I'm looking at say 40 to 60w enough to cut 3mm plywood or 5mm plexi glass unless someone says you must have 100w.

As far as software I see that uccnc has a plugin to run a laser for etching, not much more than that.

I have done some research and come across lightburn https://lightburnsoftware.com/ which is specifically designed for laser cutters/engravers. Left a msg with devs to see if it maybe could run the axbb-e controller.

I'm thinking this can't be that hard, laser plus a few mirrors, cooling, air pump plexi glass enclosure plus the existing hardware that I have.

Am I over simplifying?

Any advice direction or even a don't do it you'll burn the house down would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Steve

Perhaps I could upgrade the diode to a 15/20w and it might be able to cut 3mm ply? As I understand it, the laser diodes are not true eg 10w 20w I believe its a peak power output not constant.
As I by the by my initial investment so far is only $250 the guy who had it decided it was cheaper in the long run to get his boxes pre cut and shipped for his microphone business.

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