Mini CNC laser etcher

Big thanks to DTR-LPF (ebay user on here) for answering all my questions and the great support!

This project ran about $200 total and took me a few Sundays to finish. Its made from 2 computer CD roms and a 700mw 405nm laser. The 3 axis CNC controller was from ebay and included control software.

Total cost breakdown:
$140 700mw laser
$45 3 axis CNC controller
$15 power supply
$8 (2) CD roms
$4 laser driver circuit
Total: $212.00

This rig will cut through ABS pretty easily and with proper control can etch most materials quite well! Total work area is about 1.5 inches square so it's not huge but does pretty good all things considered.
I made this more for proof of concept before I make a larger 24" x 26" 40 watt C02 laser CNC.


So check it out and tell me what you think
Intro:
PB150005 - YouTube

Working:
PB150004 - YouTube


Mods if this is in wrong section please move as needed!

Hey you are welcome. Looks like it worked out well for you. That is a really compact unit. The 405 diodes are some real burners. I would suggest some heatsinking for the diode though. It could overheats if run just in the module. Anyway great work. Enjoy.:beer:


Also here are your video's embedded.

DUDE! That is SO damn cool. It makes it possible for anyone to own an etcher on a budget. Well done sir. Coolest thing ive seen thus year by far.

lucky said:

Big thanks to DTR-LPF (ebay user on here) for answering all my questions and the great support!

This project ran about $200 total and took me a few Sundays to finish. Its made from 2 computer CD roms and a 700mw 405nm laser. The 3 axis CNC controller was from ebay and included control software.

Total cost breakdown:
$140 700mw laser
$45 3 axis CNC controller
$15 power supply
$8 (2) CD roms
$4 laser driver circuit
Total: $212.00

This rig will cut through ABS pretty easily and with proper control can etch most materials quite well! Total work area is about 1.5 inches square so it's not huge but does pretty good all things considered.
I made this more for proof of concept before I make a larger 24" x 26" 40 watt C02 laser CNC.


So check it out and tell me what you think
Intro:
PB150005 - YouTube

Working:
PB150004 - YouTube


Mods if this is in wrong section please move as needed!

Click to expand...

That is so neat....amazingly :gj:

I like the scavenging of the Drives to make the
structural shell and using the Drive motors as the
X/Y axis motion control...

BTW since this is your 1st Post.....

to the Forum....
Don't forget to read the FAQs...the Stickies
and the Forum Rules..
http://laserpointerforums.com/tou.htm

If you plan on buying anything on the Forum....
PLEASE read this first...

6 Steps To Prevent You From Getting Scammed

and PLEASE don't forget to read to this....

39 Reasons NOT to Buy From Wicked Lasers

If you do get a Laser or already have one be sure
to get appropriate Laser Safety Goggles/Glasses...

Get Some Safety Goggles Now!

Don't forget to put your location in your Sig so that
we know where you are from.

Enjoy your stay...


Jerry

You can contact us at any time on our Website: J.BAUER Electronics

This is really cool for a first post here lucky! I have a lot of old CDROM drives and have imagined doing something like this or to use the mechanisms to move optics into a beam..
Yet 1.5" working area does not seem very fun, hooking 8 drives together for a six inch area would be so much better, what is the resolution with that Mach3? would this be hard to do?

Or maybe modify 2 of them so they have a longer travel?

Cool, I've been trying to build one for a while but never really got it into working shape. I'm curious about the resolution too.

I love the ingenious creation! Can take items you can basically get for nothing, and turn them into something actually useful and productive.

Now we just need some giant CD drives so yo can have a bigger work area. I probably would have gone for a similar approach (But maybe using flatbed scanner platforms) if I didn't need so much cutting space. Building a machine capable of cutting 1200x900mm has come back to bite me in the ass after just recently moving!

Well that turned out well!

Excellent work.

Things said:

I love the ingenious creation! Can take items you can basically get for nothing, and turn them into something actually useful and productive.

Now we just need some giant CD drives so yo can have a bigger work area. I probably would have gone for a similar approach (But maybe using flatbed scanner platforms) if I didn't need so much cutting space. Building a machine capable of cutting 1200x900mm has come back to bite me in the ass after just recently moving!

Click to expand...

You'd probably want to build a traditional CNC type machine if you need something that size. Something like those Zen Toolworks CNC machine (not exactly that but designed somewhat like it) or a Mendelmax.

I'm impressed, I must build one for me too. What's the working current of the drives motors?

That's just amazing. great work!

Yep Nice Job. What controler did you use? I used an arduino on mine but I still have yet to get it working properly and my s06j died at 400ma last time i tried to get it going. Anyway's great job gives me incentive to get mine going. I thaught it would be great for cutting stensils for solder pasting boards.

Thanks guys for the kind words!

To answer a few questions:
I have a rather large fan blowing in the laser and thus far it hasn't gotten past room temp, however a heat sink has been fashioned and I'm fitting it shortly.

Resolution is quite good and is at least down to 0.003 inch if not better, I only have digital vernier caliper to measure so I'm not 100% sure on it's accuracy. The Mach3 software suggests resolution is controllable to 0.0007 inch which makes some sense since the CD rom drives have to have pretty high resolution to burn a disc.

I'm using Mach3 software on my latptop to control the Toshiba CNC driver. That's all that is required to run the setup. The Z directional pin on the driver board is used to switch a TIP 125 power transistor that controls the laser on/off.

As for driver current, the power supply is set to 10v which is about as low as the CNC rig can go but the CD steppers are only rated to 5v so they get a touch warm at 10v but have been doing pretty well so far. Currrent consumption is pretty low from what i can tell but haven't measured it directly.

Safety goggles came in last week so I make sure to wear them when I'm working with the laser

For now I'm using this rig to laser mark some products that I make for my small business "ARD Tuning"

If there's any questions I missed let me know!

Lucky, why don't you add a few silicon diodes in series with your steppers? Each of them will drop you voltage by 0.7V independently of the circuit resistence.

EDIT:

I didn't believe when i found an old PC at my girlfriend's ville today, it had 3 cd burner drives, a working PSU and two great heatsinks. I'm using all them for this project.

If you put together a kit with 2 cd drivers that are known to work, a controller, a power supply, and the necessary hardware, as a just add laser and driver kit, I would pay $125.

Jacob32123 said:

If you put together a kit with 2 cd drivers that are known to work, a controller, a power supply, and the necessary hardware, as a just add laser and driver kit, I would pay $125.

Click to expand...

The controllers alone are $60