Lasercutter anyone?

[Nikolai Warner]

From my pal Ainsley:

Hey Collexion Geniuses,

I have a furniture-fabrication project and am wondering if any of you guys know of a lasercutter I could access in town? 

I'm a UK College of Design alum but I don't think they're cool with non-fee-payers using their equipment. Especially to cut smelly plexi/acrylic which is what I want to do.

Tips?

Your fan,

Ainsley

[Warren Myers]

I'd love to have access to one, too - they're a bit pricey for my budget :)

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[Cory Stargel]

Very much want access to this as well.  So need one at the space ;-)

[Nikolai Warner]

To those with experience with this, what would it take to add a laser cutting part to our cnc? 

NICK! WARNER!
web: http://nwarner.com
voice: 347-7GNARLY (347-746-2759)

[Michael Culp]

I have a small 40 watt 8x10 now and have a 32x36 under construction.  Just need funds for an 80watt or better laser tube and power supply.  About $1000. 

Will probably have it running sometime in November. I'm swamped with other projects right now. 

Michael 

Sent from my iPhone

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[Warren Myers]

1 kilodollars is a lot closer to affordable than the VersaLaser (they start ~$10k, iirc)

[Thomas D'Andrea Jr.]

At 10k it's cheaper to train Ainsley as a ninja and have her "acquire" one for us.

[Michael Culp]

It would take a laser tube and powersupply. Mirrors. A focus crystal and a $450+ controller package to print to it like a printer.  It can be done with mach3 for cutting only. 

We're actually working this up as an add on kit. Hopefully releasing it at the Wood Show in Baltimore Jan 5.  I said I had too many projects going on at once 8). 

We'll also be releasing the first issue of the quarterly ezine "CNC Chatter" at the show.  And doing another Insite cnc build in two days and probably giving the machine away in a drawing.  We're still working this out with the promoters of the show. 

Keep watching Facebook.com/cncjamboree for news as we officially release things. 

Michael

Sent from my iPhone

[Dave]

--- On Wed, 10/10/12, Michael Culp <mkc...@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Michael Culp <mkc...@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Lasercutter anyone?
> To: "coll...@googlegroups.com" <coll...@googlegroups.com>
> Date: Wednesday, October 10, 2012, 3:43 PM
>
> It would take a laser tube and powersupply. Mirrors. A focus crystal
> and a $450+ controller package to print to it like a printer.  It
> can be done with mach3 for cutting only. 
>
> We're actually working this up as an add on kit. Hopefully releasing
> it at the Wood Show in Baltimore Jan 5.  I said I had too many
> projects going on at once 8). 
>
> We'll also be releasing the first issue of the quarterly ezine
> "CNC Chatter" at the show.  And doing another Insite cnc build in
> two days and probably giving the machine away in a drawing.  We're
> still working this out with the promoters of the show. 
>
> Keep watching Facebook.com/cncjamboree for news as we officially
> release things. 

Before designing a laser cutter, some serious consideration needs to
be given to safety. Even a 40 Watt laser can sear a retina, and,
once seared, the vision will never come back. Do you really want me
to show you the pictures of my retina that illustrate what a 150
millisecond pulse (which is a lot faster than you can blink!) from
a 20 Watt Argon laser will do [1]?

[1] Fortunately, it was wielded by a VERY talented retinal surgeon,
being used to repair a torn/detached retina.

My point is, even a brief reflection can permanently damage a person's
eyes. Thus, in the interests of safety, an enclosure MUST be provided
which will block all laser light, and which is equipped with an
interlock to shut down the laser if it is opened.

> Michael

Dave

[Warren Myers]

Yes - laser safety is vital.

I've heard anecdotes that even laser pointers (in the milliwatt range) can cause permanent damage :|

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[Paul Eberhart]

I've been compulsively reading about fabrication technology again,
DIYing laser cutters is mechanically between 3D printers and mills in
complexity - No side load, but the head is bigger and more complex.
This means it has been getting affordable recently at roughly the same
rate as the other two, with the minor exception that the heads aren't
quite as cheap as a router or extruder. The differentiating part for
laser cutters is the obvious big effing laser, and associated power
supply/cooling/mounting hardware - you can do woodburning with O(2W)
diode lasers, but cutting generally requires a CO2 tube (or a really,
really expensive solid-state pumped laser) in the 40-200W range. This
place: http://www.lightobject.com/CNC-CO2-Laser-C11.aspx seems to have
pretty reasonable prices for the Power supply/Tube/Chiller needed,
they tend to be ~$1000 for a midrange set.

Then again, I've been having great luck ordering parts for projects
from dudes on ebay with unpronuncable names and suspect grammar that
ship from outside shenzhen lately, so maybe there is a way around that
now.

Also, as mentioned, screw up and touch an extruder, get a burn, screw
up and touch a spindle, get cut, screw up and look at a high-output
laser, permanent vision loss. The necessary precautions are a bit
more stringent.

Paul Selegue Eberhart (PAPPP) - http://www.pappp.net/
Messages from this account may be in regard to PAPP...@gmail.com,
pse...@uky.edu or pse...@engr.uky.edu.

[michael culp]

You can cut black paper with a blue ray writers laser.  I agree with Dave it does not take much to do a lot of damage. The 10.6 um wavelength a C02 laser runs at 1/4" acrylic will stop reflections (else how would it cut acrylic)

This article is awesome: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/laserco2.htm

[Dave]

--- On Wed, 10/10/12, Warren Myers <volci...@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Warren Myers <volci...@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Lasercutter anyone?
> To: coll...@googlegroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, October 10, 2012, 4:10 PM

> Yes - laser safety is vital.
> I've heard anecdotes that even laser pointers (in the milliwatt
> range) can cause permanent damage :|

It would be difficult, since the blink response would kick in quickly
enough to prevent most damage, at least from a 5 milliWatt laser
pointer (But, note that not all laser pointers necessarily comply
with the 5 milliWatt limit; some may be over the limit by a substantial
amount. And, that's not counting those fools who build their own
out of the laser diode in a DVD burner, which is an incredibly stupid
thing to do!). But, I'm not going to say that it'd be totally
impossible to damage an eye by shining a laser pointer into it.

The thing to realize is that we're talking about three to four
orders of magnitude more power for a laser cutter than for a laser
pointer. And, since the divergence of the beam of a laser is very
close to zero, that means that it remains dangerous for tens, if not
hundreds, of miles.

What makes lasers especially dangerous is that they're monochromatic
light, which the lens of the eye can focus perfectly onto the retina
(unlike white light, which tends to have a bit of chromatic dispersion
from the lens, resulting in an imperfect focus). Thus, it only takes
a tiny bit of power density at the pupil to be focused into a point on
the retina with a very high power density.

Dave

[Derek Eggers]

Ainsley, If you can't find a laser cutter is it something you can cut on the Collexion CNC machine?

-Derek

On Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 2:45 PM, Nikolai Warner <nickw...@gmail.com> wrote:

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Derek Eggers

[Mike Dillion]

There is a largish Epilog at Woodcraft of Lexington
(http://www.woodcraft.com/stores/store.aspx?id=582). I don't think
it's very cheap to get time on it though.

Disclaimer: I've been saying this for years but still haven't set foot
in the store or heard from any one that's used it.

That said, call them and ask!

[Dave]

--- On Sun, 10/21/12, Mike Dillion <mike.d...@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Mike Dillion <mike.d...@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Lasercutter anyone?
> To: coll...@googlegroups.com

> Cc: "Ainsley Wagoner" <ainsley...@gmail.com>
> Date: Sunday, October 21, 2012, 8:22 PM
>
> There is a largish Epilog at Woodcraft of Lexington
> (http://www.woodcraft.com/stores/store.aspx?id=582).
> I don't think it's very cheap to get time on it though.

One way to find out. :-)

> Disclaimer: I've been saying this for years but still
> haven't set foot in the store or heard from any one
> that's used it.

Oh, if you're into wood, you *really* need to go there! I bought
a piece of Bocote wood from them to use as a base for my telegraph
key. It's a beautiful, dark, hard, dense wood that looks simply
great.

They have an incredible selection of wood. It's not necessarily
as cheap as the Pine that you can get from Lowes/Home Depot, but
it's a much fancier selection. :-)

Plus, they offer classes in how to do various things. Yeah, I've
been meaning to sign up for a few years now, and just haven't
taken the time.

> That said, call them and ask!

Definitely. The sales/instructional people were all quite
nice the times I've been in there.

Dave

[Dave]

Hit send too quickly.

Dave

--- On Sun, 10/21/12, Dave <wa4...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Dave <wa4...@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: Lasercutter anyone?
> To: coll...@googlegroups.com
> Date: Sunday, October 21, 2012, 9:20 PM
> --- On Sun, 10/21/12, Mike Dillion
> <mike.d...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > From: Mike Dillion <mike.d...@gmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: Lasercutter anyone?
> > To: coll...@googlegroups.com
> > Cc: "Ainsley Wagoner" <ainsley...@gmail.com>
> > Date: Sunday, October 21, 2012, 8:22 PM
> >
> > There is a largish Epilog at Woodcraft of Lexington
> > (http://www.woodcraft.com/stores/store.aspx?id=582).
> > I don't think it's very cheap to get time on it
> though.
>
> One way to find out.  :-)
>
> > Disclaimer: I've been saying this for years but still
> > haven't set foot in the store or heard from any one
> > that's used it.
>
> Oh, if you're into wood, you *really* need to go there!  I bought
> a piece of Bocote wood from them to use as a base for my telegraph
> key.  It's a beautiful, dark, hard, dense wood that looks simply
> great. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bocote#Wood