WIP - CNC Laser Cutter

[bobhaha]

This is a project I'm going to be doing in my free time over the winter holidays. I've been wanting to do this for a while now... but there was always an obstacle preventing me from starting. Anyway... I finally have a window of opportunity to start this project... so that's what I'm gonna do.

A few weeks ago I got my CO2 laser, turns out to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-80W of power... More testing needs to be done on it to figure out the true power. I bought the tube and PSU off ebay, from a guy who lives ~30 mins away from me. He thinks it's only 40W but judging by the length, observed power and power consumption... it doesn't look like a 40W laser to me.

If anyone was following things' laser cutter thread... you would know that he recently redesigned his laser cutter.... Well guess who got all the parts he didn't need?

Meeeee! :wave:

 

[bobhaha]

Today was a pretty eventful day... I bought the steel needed to make the frame of the laser cutter as well as ordered the linear rails and bearing.

I drew up a pretty make-shift plan of what I was going to make...

That's the top and bottom of the frame...

I then marked and cut all the steel needed for the frame...

Here is roughly what its going to look like....

I'm still deciding how tall I want the frame to be.... I have it at 500mm at the moment... Should I cut it down?

I'm thinking maybe 300mm would be a better height... But I guess I'll work that out once my rails and stuff get here...

At the moment I need to clean up all the steel end that I cut... This may take a while :/

 

[jimdt7]

Wish you good luck my friend :beer:

Jim

 

[Things]

Argh, pains me seeing all my stuff gone lol

Damn eBay payments still haven't done anything, still waiting ...

Been looking at possible CO2 water tubing though, since the polyurethane stuff bunnings sells is a bit stiff and kinda risky on the glass barbs.

Was looking at this stuff: PrimoChill PrimoFlex Pro LRT Tubing Clear 3/8ID 5/8OD [PFLEXP-58] - $9.00 : PC Case Gear

Seems ultra flexible in the vids I've watched, and pretty un-kinkable too. Just need to find something a bit cheaper for air assist tube, as that stuff gets pretty expensive when you need a few metres of it.

 

[bobhaha]

You can make the polyurethane stuff softer by heating it with a lighter. But don't over heat them cause you'll get gaps... just heat it enough to slip over the glass tube and you should be sweet... At least, that's what I did.

 

[Things]

Might be OK once it's permanently installed in the machine, though was kinda worried that when it solidifies again, any movements to it and you'd snap the barbs right off the laser lol.

 

[bobhaha]

It solidifies harder than the tube was originally... but is still somewhat flexible. It really shouldn't be moving very much anyway...

 

[lasersbee]

Good luck building your CNC cutter...
What's the expected completion time or is this a long
term project..

Jerry

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

 

[bobhaha]

I'm hoping for completion by the end of this month... but if I don't wanna compromise quality/accuracy for time...

But I don't expect many issues with the hardware... I'm kinda dreading the software setup.

 

[bobhaha]

New update... Made the basic frame up today...

A guy that works with me offered to weld the frame up for me so that's awesome!

I still need to add a few more pieces... but so far so good.

-Adrian

 

[ryansoh3]

That's awesome! Lucky you.

Good luck in your project!

We all are eagerly anticipating on how it will turn out.

Cheers!

 

[bobhaha]

I've been away for a week... so now that I'm back I can work on this more...

I got the quick release fitting with air flow regulator in from ebay... $4 bargain!

I also noticed that the edges that were welded, started to oxidize... So its time to clean up those welds and give it a good spray of engine enamel for protection.

Got it all nice and smooooth :wave:

Apparently my dog approves

I bought some endcaps as well and put them in. They looks good and I can use them as stands while I push it around, to avoid scraping the paint off the metal again.

I ended up canceling my order for the linear rails.... as I can get them $500 cheaper, including shipping from taiwan to my doorstep. So that's the next step.

-Adrian

 

[sinner]

That looks promising, good luck to you and hope everything works out for you, I'm definitely going to contact both of you guys for suggestions when i start mine, I have had plans for a 60-80W cnc laser cutting system for almost 3-4 months but "Obstacles" as they say !! Wish you good luck , Great work there!!

 

[Meatball]

Hey, why are the rails costing so much? I would think they would be a fairly simple and straight-forward couple of components to fabricate.

:thinking:

 

[bobhaha]

Long story short...

I ordered a set of linear rails from a company locally. But they messed up my order. They now want me to pay for the rails. I was gonna just go ahead with it to help them out, cause it was partially my fault.

I did a bit of research anyway... and these guys locally are selling the rails at $285 per meter (that's with discount), where as for the same rails shipped to Australia the company in Taiwan wants $57 per meter. So I told the guys here locally to get lost... they're trying to make me feel bad for them, but truth is they're making a 450% profit off the thing.

I put my order in for the rails from Taiwan today... Should be here in 5-7 days! YAY!