Topic: Building a laser cutter

[Steve]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Laser-cutter-start-slicing-stuff-for-under-50-dol/

Thoughts? I'm looking to build (or buy) an affordable laser cutter to create stencils for my airbrushing and I came across this. Has anyone built anything like this before? You guys are much handier than I am with a lot of things, computer designed machines being high on that list.

[JaWiB]

Sounds like a fun project. I know couple guys in the physics department here who have been building a 3D printer, but they've machined all the parts themselves and I think they ended up buying some stepper motors to get good enough precision rather than using the ones they scavenged from surplus equipment

[Steve]

I'm thinking about taking it on. I know I can grab a few scanners from freecycle. My issue is all I have is my linux laptop with usb ports. If I can get it connected by USB I think I could get it going.

[Steve]

didn't realize he has to program the coordinates of every stencil to cut them, he can't just hit print. That won't really work for me as much as I'll be using it. It also only works on black, I need it on mylar.

Maybe I can just find a cheap one that just hooks into the pc and cuts what i print.

[Rob]

I've done a bit of research into CNC in the past (was going to build a CNC router, but never got round to it). http://www.linuxcnc.org/ is a great resource, but there are 2 things that they are clear on. USB and CNC aren't a great mix, and laptops and CNC aren't a great mix. Maybe get an old beater PC with a parallel port?

[Steve]

I've done a bit of research into CNC in the past (was going to build a CNC router, but never got round to it). http://www.linuxcnc.org/ is a great resource, but there are 2 things that they are clear on. USB and CNC aren't a great mix, and laptops and CNC aren't a great mix. Maybe get an old beater PC with a parallel port?

I'm even more interested in this discussion now that I know someone was looking into making a cnc router. I have wanted to do something like that for engraving for years. I could probably get a old tower fairly easily, so that is a viable option. Thanks for the link I'm going to take a look at it right now

[Rob]

Some other links for you...

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/index.php

http://www.mycncuk.com/

[Steve]

Thanks rob, hopefully i can find some time tonight to give them a good look.

[Steve]

Rob,

My focus has shifted largely to the router, simply because the router will be lucrative and I can just buy a $200 stencil cutter. I'm thinking about going with this guide, any thoughts? Still reading through it.

http://www.cncroutersource.com/homemade-cnc-router.html

These seem to be mostly for wood though. I need it for engraving on metal.

[Rob]

First question is what size do you need to engrave? I wanted mine for cutting guitar bodies, so it had to be pretty big. If you're engraving small objects then you can go much smaller.

What type of metal? Just engraving or cutting too?


If you only want small, then this looks really interesting.

http://microcarve.com/mcMV1.html

[kermi3]

You're making guitars Rob?

[Rob]

You're making guitars Rob?

No, but I want to.

This is what I'd love to achieve...

[KnuckleBuckett]

Pretty serious project.  Nice though.

[Steve]

First question is what size do you need to engrave? I wanted mine for cutting guitar bodies, so it had to be pretty big. If you're engraving small objects then you can go much smaller.

What type of metal? Just engraving or cutting too?


If you only want small, then this looks really interesting.

http://microcarve.com/mcMV1.html

I'm lucky in this regard, because I can go small. I need a 12x12 machine with a working area not quite that large. I want to engrave some things on my various pistol slides, and I also want to cut a few ports in the one slide. Honestly not sure what they metal is that Glock uses, it's fairly hard though.

I'm not sure what tolerance I will need to be within, but I do know my better design idea would probably be a mobile bed.

[Rob]

Colour me stupid if you want, but aren't Glocks made out of plastic (with the exception of a few parts)?

edit>> Checked it out. Seems the slide is made of steel, and I guess it's case hardened. That's going to be interesting to engrave, but the machine I linked to earlier should be more than accurate enough.

edit2>>

The metal parts of Glocks are coated with Tennifer, which is a diamond hard coating that seals out moisture and corrosion.

You're going to struggle with a tool to engrave that, let alone cut it I reckon.

edit3>> Tenifer isn't a coating. It's a process.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?145809-Engraving-Glock-9mm-Slides