Build Thread Cheap laser cutter modifications.


Page 1 of 5 1234 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 97

Thread: Cheap laser cutter modifications.

  1. #1
    Registered
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    50
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Cool Cheap laser cutter modifications.

    I've just bought a cheap Chinese laser cutter and I have lots of modifications in progress and lots planned so I thought I'd get it documented.

    There will be lots of pictures and I'm happy to (try and) answer any questions you have.
    For those who don't want to read the whole thread (although I'd recommend you do), all pictures will be on my Google+ here with captions: http://plus.google.com/photos/114914...30806001?hl=en
    (There will also be extra pictures on there)

    First off I want to thank the writers/owners of the following (in no particular order):

    Laser Cutting
    Upgrading a Laser Cutter from China (Part Two)…
    CO2 laser cutter
    My cheap Chinese laser experience
    madbodger: Laser cutter, part I

    All have been very helpful in convincing me to take the plunge and go ahead and buy one of these cheap machines so cheers guys!


    Ok so the story:
    I've wanted a laser cutter for years but never actually got round to buying one then last week I decided it was time.
    I looked on eBay and found various machines sold by various different sellers all looking very similar, some with different software etc. These ranged from about £800 to well over £1500 all for basically the same machine.
    I then (completely by accident) clicked on page 16 or something and found a few for around £450 including postage. I was dubious but with the sellers having 99.#% ratings with a few thousand items sold I thought I was pretty safe with that.

    Right, web browser's gone borked so I'll start with pics and mod info in next post.

    Similar Threads:
    Last edited by mowcius; 10-18-2011 at 05:54 AM.


  2. #2
    Registered
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    50
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    So I purchased this laser cutter, after a day and a half of no dispatch notification I was getting ready to send the ebay seller a message that evening and then while I was out of the office I got an email saying that a very large box had arrived for me!
    Forget 2 day dispatch - 2 day postage! I had presumed it'd be a few weeks waiting for it to come from China but the eBay seller had obviously already imported them into the UK and then sold them on from there.


    It arrived in a box completely covered in tape, with lots of foam, a secondary box, lots of bubblewrap and the laser cutter inside all of that.
    It all seemed a bit excessive but nothing was broken and I'd take excess packaging and everything in one piece over broken parts any day.


    The tube all in one piece! Although I've seen 60 and 80W tubes before, this was larger than I expected for a 40W tube.

    The rear of the unit with power, fuse holder, separate grounding connection (for two pin plugged countries presumably as it links straight to the IEC ground pin), extraction hole and water cooling inlet and outlet with silicone hose (6mm ID I think).

    The fan's ridiculous - hole's far too small for it.
    But I was prepared for this and had ordered 2x 120 SickleFlow Coolermaster fans off ebay (they were cheap and push quite a bit of air for the noise).

    The laser cutter control panel complete with some direct translation english.
    "The non-professionals are forbidden to adjust route of light"
    Professionals can bend it with their mind...


    So that's as it came, so far no issues - delivery was fast and nothing was broken. Better than I expected.



  3. #3
    Registered
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    50
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    As soon as I had ordered the laser cutter I had also ordered a number of other things I knew I would want for mods so I'm reasonably kitted out for doing things when I have the time rather than waiting for things to be delivered.
    I'd recommend this way of working - have a list of things to do and order parts for a few weeks ahead. It can obviously backfire sometimes but stock's always good to have.

    So the first mod I knew I was going to do was replace the naff amber coloured window with a nice clear one.
    For anyone who thinks that makes it dangerous, it doesn't. Then orange colour only stops the glare, it's the acrylic that stops the IR. All laser cutters such as Universal or Epilog ones have clear acrylic windows.


    The acrylic had also become mottled as if the plastic wrapping had reacted with it in some way so it wasn't even a nice clear orange window.

    Window removed and it's already looking better!

    New 6mm clear piece in place - A3 is the perfect size (just a guess when I ordered it - that's approx 594x420mm for those not in the UK)

    As the old mounts were dubious and rusty (and I wanted to add 2 more for stiffness), I cut and ground off the old mounts with my trusty £15 Woolworths mini drill.

    I then marked up, drilled through the steel (with 3mm) and the acrylic (with 3.5mm), cleaned up and attached the plastic on.
    As I marked up to the hole in the metal, it's not completely square so the acrylic only goes on one way round.

    Much better!

    I'm probably going to replace the screws with button head ones so they're lower profile but I like it with them visible (even if it does stop me putting acrylic sheets on top of the machine)

    The underside's a bit of a mess from my marking out, and where I ground off the mounts needs painting as it's all steel but the lid is much stiffer now and I'm happy with it for the time being.


    I then removed the bed with the rubbish spring loaded bit (designed for holding things for engraving) and had a look at how much larger I think I can get the cutting area. The bed is stated as 300x200 in the specs but you can get slightly more than that as standard (although the engraving area they expect you to use most of the time is tiny - about 180x100 is the largest you can fit in it)
    With some minor cutting, filing and slight modifications I think I should be able to get about 340 x 250 but I had a brainwave last night that if I move the laser lens and secondary mirror to behind the X axis track (and a few other mods) then I should be able to get all the space I can see (about 360x300). If I can get 300x300 then that's only half the bed size of a typical universal laser cutter (600x300) and I can produce useful sized parts with a bed that size.
    The white thing is for extraction (from the engraving area) and I'm going to have to take the whole XY assembly out to remove and modify it.

    After looking at the bed size I moved onto lighting - lots of laser cutters don't have any but it makes it so much easier to see what you're doing when setting things up.
    A few weeks back I'd saved some self adhesive LED tape ends from the scrap - these are 12V with an LED every 20mm or so and give off a decent amount of light.

    With one strip at the front...

    and one strip at the back...

    the lighting was much improved.
    Because they're not a single point light source they're also perfect for this application as when you stick your hand or an object in, there are hardly any visible shadows so you can still see everything.

    I did run them off the laser cutter logic board's 24V supply in series but then decided as it's probably a feeble excuse for a power supply and I'll have a fan or two (plus some other electronic stuff) to power off it as well I'd give it a dedicated power supply (which is currently a 12V brick connected externally through one of the many holes in the case)


    A final image for today - the laser cutter in the dark with the LEDs on.

    Lots more mods and pictures to come!



  4. #4
    Registered
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    50
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    Just a quick update today - I received my air compressor for air assist.

    It's not too loud and pushes a half decent amount of air through (20L/min up to around 95PSI max)

    I also had a further look at the home sensors - looks like it's going to be really easy to modify them - just modify the bit of metal that passes through the photo-interrupter gate.



    My aluminium honeycomb for the new bed should be arriving in a day or two (unexpanded so it'll be fun trying to evenly expand that I bet) but my cable chain is likely to turn up beginning of next week (a little annoying as I'm ready for it now but I can't do anything about that).



  5. #5
    Registered
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    50
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    So yesterday I removed the tertiary mirror and lens attachment...

    And found that my lens was damaged - I've requested a new one and we'll see how that goes.

    Turning the mount round 180deg should give me almost the full bed size to work with, the laser won't currently be quite at the back because the mount hits the metal section which houses the laser tube at the back of the machine (but I'm working on that)

    After removing the whole X/Y I can see how much space I have to work with.
    The ribbon cable is for the X&Y home sensors as well as the X axis stepper motor.

    Bit easier to see everything now its out of the chassis.

    I've got a bit of cutting and modifying to do to this and hopefully my alu honeycomb will come soon and I can start working on my new bed and figuring out how I'm going to make it height adjustable (if anyone has any suggestions then please speak up)



  6. #6
    Member Tweakie's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Posts
    707
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    Mowcius,

    What make and model is your new air compressor please ??

    Tweakie.

    CNC is only limited by our imagination.


  7. #7
    Registered
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    50
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Tweakie View Post
    What make and model is your new air compressor please ??
    It's just a cheapo one off eBay - AC18B but no idea on the make (I don't think it said on the box). £39.99 posted.They're normally used for airbrushing.
    Seems pretty good for the price though.



  8. #8
    Registered
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    50
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    So yesterday my aluminium honeycomb arrived wrapped in bubblewrap in a cardboard tube with a bit of paper packaging.

    Unexpanded it just looks like a 10mm thick aluminium bar (but a bit lighter maybe)

    Looking at the edge you can see some slivers of aluminium.

    I'm sure going to have fun expanding it... not. I think the best plan will be cutting it to the right width first (as expanding half will be easier and it'll be easier to store the other half unexpanded as well) and then using two pieces of wood with lots of nails in on each end and simply pulling it apart and seeing what happens.
    I've got some aluminium U-section ordered which should be with me before the end of the week along with some flat bar as I think the bed will need some extra support in the middle as the honeycomb's only 10mm thick.

    With the X/Y assembly out I gave it a clean and had a look at the rollers (among other things). A few observations/comments:

    The bottom rollers/bearings for the X axis track don't actually touch the Y axis track and the top roller has also been put on bent which might mess up my focusing if the track's not level.

    There's a right mess under the laser carriage but I suppose I couldn't expect them to clean up for the price it was.

    The hole where the extraction vent went through is also rather 'rough and ready' but as I'm probably cutting that out larger anyway it doesn't really matter.

    The stepper motor wires are also shoved next to it which won't help with keeping it cool so I'll be moving them.

    After seeing this article on hackaday about a crosshair aiming system modification on a laser cutter that was what I'd decided to do for my laser cutter as I already had line generators, 1mW red lasers etc but then after reading a comment stating that having it with a beam combiner along the same path as the IR beam made aligning much easier I decided that would be the way to go (it makes sense!).
    Beam combiner was cheap off eBay, ordered today, probably be arriving early next week.
    I am a bit tight for space between the laser tube end and the first mirror (got roughly 15-20mm) but I should be able to fit it in and then after aligning it once to the same path as the IR laser it should make future alignment much easier.
    I'm tempted to try the crosshair idea as well though as it would give something to line square things up to if they're not in the corner of the cutting bed.



  9. #9
    Registered
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    324
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    I'm trying to develop a mount for my CNC router that uses those cross hairs. Check out Cool Gadgets at the Right Price - Worldwide Free Shipping - DealExtreme I think I paid $3 or $4 for a laser line module. I bought a bunch of them. I want to make a cross hair module for my CNC router, drill press, and laser.



  10. #10
    Registered
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    50
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    Well that post looks a little bit like spam but I did say above I already have plenty of laser modules and line generators
    I don't personally use dealextreme much, being in the UK I normally find I can get things cheaper delivered here from alternative sources than I can get from DX.

    Assuming it's not a spam post I would be interested on how you get on with your laser crosshair marker.



  11. #11
    Registered
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    324
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    No it's not spam... I'm slightly offended by that actually... I was going over your thread on my phone, I missed the part about you having plenty of laser modules. I would like to know of some alternative sources for cheap junk Dealextreme annoys me sometimes because you order something and a week later you'll receive an email saying it's out of stock. I waited 2 months on a camera once before I canceled the order. They don't keep track of their current stock well.



  12. #12
    Registered
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    324
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    And as far as the build, it's a wannabe project. I have too many bigger projects under way to deal with that one right now. But someday when I have nothing to do I'll build it lol.



  13. #13
    Registered
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    50
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    Sorry for any offence, it was just the lack of formatting (explained by the phone), automatic link (also explained by the phone), mentioning something that had already been covered (also explained by the phone) and that this is one of the most spam frequented forums I use.
    (Your post count would suggest not spam but I hadn't noticed that)
    Spammers are getting sneaky and you never can be too careful.

    As for places to buy cheap junk, I have used VirtualVillage in the past and although things often took a long time to arrive (weeks) they seem to have been ok if you're not in a rush for them. I normally just seem to be sticking to eBay these days though.

    Yeah it'll be a nice small project for a rainy day making a mount.
    Before I started these laser cutter modifications I had far too many little projects and I needed a big one to keep me interested and focused on the goal (laser cutting some cool stuff!)



  14. #14
    Registered Rodney Gold's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    South Africa
    Posts
    329
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    Wow , that roller mechanism really looks rough... In fact the whole machine looks like that.
    I was at a few laser factorys in China and all of em gave me the same advice - dont buy those cheap machines as they arent good , and I saw for myself , compared to their bigger models , they are junk. Prices were $399-499 ex shipping etc. I was tempted to buy a few at that price but was soon put off after seeing em in operation..lousy mechanicals , very limited in adjustment and horrible software...
    Not sure why you want to do the beam combining thing , it only really helps with alignment for "gross" positioning when adjusting mirrors etc , otherwise it's useless and actually saps laser power by something like 15-25%.
    Anyway , it's interesting to see what you doing and it will be good for others if your mods make the thing work better for very little extra money.



  15. #15
    Registered
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    50
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Rodney Gold View Post
    Wow , that roller mechanism really looks rough... In fact the whole machine looks like that.
    Yeah it all requires a bit of work but I'm happy to do that.
    I was at a few laser factorys in China and all of em gave me the same advice - dont buy those cheap machines as they arent good , and I saw for myself , compared to their bigger models , they are junk. Prices were $399-499 ex shipping etc. I was tempted to buy a few at that price but was soon put off after seeing em in operation..lousy mechanicals , very limited in adjustment and horrible software...
    Yeah I can understand that, the software is pretty horrible, limited in adjustment but mechanicals seem ok (if not particularly well finished). It's workable with anyway.
    Not sure why you want to do the beam combining thing , it only really helps with alignment for "gross" positioning when adjusting mirrors etc , otherwise it's useless and actually saps laser power by something like 15-25%.
    Ahh, I didn't know it could take away so much beam power - somehow I think I might try it for positioning and remove it afterwards then.
    Anyway , it's interesting to see what you doing and it will be good for others if your mods make the thing work better for very little extra money.
    Well there's going to be quite a lot of work involved in modding it and it's not going to be too small an amount of money but I'm hoping to keep it all under 1k total for everything I do. That's a similar kinda price to home made laser cutters but considerably cheaper than most reasonable laser cutters you can buy off the shelf.
    I would like to go with a more expensive one in future but at the moment I don't have quite that much cash to splash and I can improve this one over time as I get more money.



  16. #16
    Registered
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    50
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    Sorry for the lack of updates for the last couple of days, things have been progressing but I've been waiting for packages and trying to figure how I'm going to do some of the modifications.

    Ok so first thing, fan guards came for my 120mm fans (only planning on using one so far)


    The LEDs weren't part of the original plan but they do make it look awesome.


    I then removed all of the electronics (apart from the tube power supply which is kinda attached and I don't want to fiddle around with a wire that carries 22000V until I've found some silicone). Removing all of the wire tidy plastic also means I can get a good understanding of what all the wires are doing and where they all go.

    I still had some LED strip left over so I attached some in the electronics compartment which will be controlled by a lid switch so it'll only turn on when required.

    I took a closer look at the control board and you can see my G+ photo album for close-ups of the different chips and connections - I'm going to look into the 'ExpandPort' more as I think it may be a Z axis stepper connection and rotational attachment connection (whether that'd actually prove useful on the rubbish software is another matter).

    And the laser power board with the slightly odd add-on PCB.

    I then drilled out the control board mount, moved the control board across about 40mm and also mounted the 24V supply next to it - seemed stupid having it on the base of the unit, and I might want the space in future if I decide to make this laser cutter all in one and stick a mini-itx board (or similar) inside the electronics compartment.


    From the bottom of the machine casing to the laser lens holder is 135mm, as I measured the focusing distance of the lens to be ~52-55mm to that holder, my new bed needs to be able to get up to 83mm off the base of the unit. I might be lucky with that height and my ideas for height adjusting on the Z axis but I'll measure up properly at some point and see.


    I did a card template to fit two panel mount IEC plugs for plugging in laser cutter related peripherals (extraction fan, cooling pump etc)... These will have separate switches on the front panel and will have the possibility of being controlled automatically on/off by relays (solid state or otherwise) in future.

    ...before marking it out on the machine chassis.
    I also marked out the new fan hole which is going to be a pain to cut out.


    Expanding my honeycomb sheet was easier than I thought - 35mm went to 1450mm. I started pulling it out with my hands then when it was a reasonable size I put it on the floor (flat vinyl floor - large flat table or similar would also have done fine) then expanded the rest by pushing it out with my hands flat. It took a while and looked like it was all going badly to start with but keep at it and it's not hard.

    It provides some odd effects when viewing things through it.

    My aluminium arrived yesterday - in a very long tube (4m long) so I got to work making up my bed out of u-section.

    The section is 12.7mm inside so my 10mm honeycomb fits with a bit of a gap for some (slightly cut down at the ends) support bars across the bottom.

    Neat right?
    It needs a bit of cleaning up, attaching together properly and I need to sort out how I'm actually going to mount it.
    With this bed I get a usable area of ~320x275mm which should all be accessible by the laser. I'm obviously a tantalisingly small 25mm off the 300x300 I'd have liked to get but without major hacking to the case and the XY assembly (even more if I still wanted air assist) it became obvious I wasn't going to make that happen. The bed would also have to have been designed with angle rather than U section which would have made mounting the honeycomb trickier etc etc.

    So with the much larger bed size, the machine's now actually starting to look half decent!



  17. #17
    Registered
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    317
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    Looks great! Sorry if I missed it but where did you get that honeycomb block at?



  18. #18
    Registered
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    50
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    Thanks, well I'm in the UK and got it from easycomposites.co.uk but I doubt that would be particularly helpful for you. I did see mention of somewhere in the USA which did smaller sheets, I think it was in the buildlog forums.

    If there's anyone in the UK looking for some 300 wide by up to 1450 long then I've got some to sell as you can only buy it in large sheets so I have about 8 times more than I need. Shipping it to other countries wouldn't be worth it though and it'd probably end up damaged.

    EDIT: Buildlog forums not building forums... Stupid iPhone correction.

    Last edited by mowcius; 10-23-2011 at 08:20 AM.


  19. #19
    Registered Rodney Gold's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    South Africa
    Posts
    329
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    The honeycomb is used extensively for guys making lightweight composite type pieces , most places selling epoxies , resins , kevlar sheeting have it in stock or know where to get it. Try there first.
    You get a steel version as well , great if you want to use magnets to hold thin stuff like veneer, paper , thin lams etc.
    Its looking good !!!
    Just shows that you can make the machine like it SHOULD be for a bit more money and time. Problem with most chinese mnfgrs of this type model is that they are paranoid over price and think price is the only determination of whether to buy their product.



  20. #20
    Registered
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    uk
    Posts
    146
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Default

    I might be interested in some honeycomb from you. I have honeycomb at the moment but am not sure if its aluminium or not, It might be steel...but anyway, when I cut paper I get a lot of little back reflections from the honeycomb, so I would be interested in how yours performs with paper before I buy any.

    rabbit / ls3040


Page 1 of 5 1234 ... LastLast

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  


About CNCzone.com

    We are the largest and most active discussion forum for manufacturing industry. The site is 100% free to join and use, so join today!

Follow us on


Our Brands

Cheap laser cutter modifications.

Cheap laser cutter modifications.