Building a laser?

Electronics
#1

I’d like to work on building a desktop laser cutter or Shapeoko type mini mill for my campus. I have a lead on a reasonably priced linear motor and it seems like the basis for building this kinda machine…especially since it has a 9 pin connection.

But I admit that I don’t know much about it and all the inscrutable/tutorials have people bastardizing old printers instead of buying a new motor. I just don’t have enough knowledge to pick through these and see if what i’m about to buy is what their tutorials have me looking through goodwill for. Anyone out there that can advise?

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#2

This Instructable, https://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Laser-Engraver-Wood-Design/, uses all new parts and does not appear to re-purpose old equipment. One of the comments includes a bunch of Amazon links for the bill of materials.

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#3

I’m going to be merging the two related threads at this time, and leaving the open thread in the Electronics category as per discussion with OP.

#4

You mean like a single axis engraver or something?

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#5

Like the smaller ones DMS has

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#6

We built the lasersaur ourselves. Many people have built CNC lasers at home but they don’t usually end up saving money on it.

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#7

Got ya. I was thinking even if I can make a Shapeko type rig for the Dremel that’d be cool but it’s not a huge deal. I’ll pass on the motor and stick with my CAness lol. Thanks

#8

What I would like to have is a tracing cutter, for the lack of a better name.

Place the stock to be cut on the bed and tell the machine to take a picture. Then I go to the computer to indicate where to cut on that picture, then hit Start.

#9

There’s a few cheap Chinese options for CNC mill/laser cutters of course at your own risk:

https://www.amazon.com/Engraver-Machine-Milling-Carving-Arduino/dp/B01LZ2K0Z2/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1492116232&sr=8-15&keywords=cnc+mill

Pearce is right though you wouldn’t really be saving money or get as good result building your own. The best option is something like a instructables xcarve (shapeoko)

#10

So a lot of smaller makerspaces that I have been to buy the small Chinese laser cutter like you mention but upgrade it with a smoothieboard http://smoothieware.org/smoothieboard. I can’t speak to it personally but there are a lot of people that use and like that set up.

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#11

Yes! I met a guy at the midwest reprap festival that had a smoothieware board that was a drop in replacement for a specific chinese laser cutter. It makes the electronics so much better.

#12

The picture would be used to align the cut job with the stock? I like that - way easier than hitting “frame” about a zillion times like I always wind up doing on the Thunder.

#13

My application is to laminate a topo map onto cardstock, cut it up along the contours and make a 3D model of the area by stacking and gluing. Printing, then cutting or cutting, then then printing is difficult with a conventional cutter.

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