DIY Laser Cutter Project

[532 with Envy]

Re: My holiday project - DIY Laser Cutter

Good luck with the move.
This is a great project and i'v loved seeing it in it's various stages. Looking forward to more.:beer:

 

[Things]

Re: My holiday project - DIY Laser Cutter

OK well, to give myself a kick up the ass to get this done, I've just splurged on a DSP: 2012 Commercial DSP CO2 Laser Engraving/ Cutter Controller. Support CorelDraw & AutoCad

This should make the control side a hell of a lot easier. In fact I'm already loving the software.

It seems the word has already spread locally too, I have a few people coming to me asking if I can do stuff for them. That's an even bigger kick up the ass to get this done!!

But, I have all the parts now, just a matter of assembling it all.

 

[Things]

Re: My holiday project - DIY Laser Cutter

Well, might as well get this project well and truly back on the road. Purchased myself some much beefier stepper motors today. No more skipping steps for this cutter!

269 Oz-in Nema 23 Stepper Motor (Single Shaft) - $49.50 : AusXmods

Dad and I are both on the same wavelength with this, and we both agree that we'd might as well do it properly the first time, instead of making do, then having to rebuild the whole thing later because we aren't happy with it.

The X axis will now be powered from a single stepper motor with dual output shafts to ensure both sides are travelling exactly the same.

 

[Things]

Re: My holiday project - DIY Laser Cutter

I have been contemplating the design of my Y axis, and it occurred to me that even with the bigger steppers, it's weight, and thus inertia are going to be too much!

I have decided I may opt for a more typical laser cutter setup, and use a piece of box section as the Y axis. The carriage will be a larger piece of box section, that will ride along pieces of angle iron welded to the smaller box section.

 

[Things]

Re: My holiday project - DIY Laser Cutter

This is a bit more like it!!

Laser cutter and the rest of my stuff is on it's way from the old house today

 

[Things]

Re: My holiday project - DIY Laser Cutter

Got mah baby this morning!

No more parallel ports, woo!

 

[532 with Envy]

Re: My holiday project - DIY Laser Cutter

Now this is starting to look like a for real professional set-up!

Congratulation on your progress! Perhaps some day when I have the room and equipment i'll undertake this kind of build and have your thread for help, although yours has turned into Quite and Investment.

There's nothing like knowing that it was your labor, creativity, and learning that made it all work though.:beer:

 

[Things]

Re: My holiday project - DIY Laser Cutter

Hehehe exactly. I wasn't intending on spending nearly as much as I have, though I figure I might as well do it right the first time around instead of finishing it, finding one of my cheap components is crap and having to rebuild it all again.

The amount of money I have spent on it so far could have bought me a complete machine from China .. and not the tiny little eBay machines, a decent sized machine.

But at least I can say that I built this from scratch, it also means if anything goes wrong, I'll know it inside out and troubleshooting will be a breeze.

Cheers,
Dan

 

[Things]

Re: My holiday project - DIY Laser Cutter

Been moving along on this a bit, have reached a final design now:

Dan

 

[532 with Envy]

Re: My holiday project - DIY Laser Cutter

High tech computer drawings! WOW!!!

This project has come pretty far from some angle aluminum on your kitchen floor.

 

[sinner]

Re: My holiday project - DIY Laser Cutter

This is super pro DIY not the ordinary one, huge fan of this thread for quite some time ! :beer:

 

[Things]

Re: My holiday project - DIY Laser Cutter

This project has come pretty far from some angle aluminum on your kitchen floor.

The price of it has gone just as far too!

But oh well, we intend to do local hobby work with it in the end and make some money back.

Dan

 

[Kizdawg]

Re: My holiday project - DIY Laser Cutter

Yep this is all I have with my arduino and some stepper drivers some DVD stepper motors and rails and some good old black walnut... !

I like the fact that with lasers there is alot less wear and tear on the motors and rails. This was my first project.. this is why I got into lasers.

 

[Things]

Re: My holiday project - DIY Laser Cutter

Yeah, design requirements are a lot less strict for lasers.

 

[Things]

Re: My holiday project - DIY Laser Cutter

Got some 100x100 alu today.

Kinda strayed from my design, but I believe this is better. It looks a lot more professional, and VERY beefy now! Could probably mount a dremel on this no issues if i wanted to turn it into a CNC mill

The tiny stepper is probably just going to be used as an idler pulley, as it's easy to mount

The whole assembly will be upside down, so you won't see any of the parts mounted to that alu.

Dan

 

[Kizdawg]

Re: My holiday project - DIY Laser Cutter

Awesome! that looks great! I have a couple old 20" printers I was going to build a biger one on Did you buy the rails etc or did you salvage them outa something?