DIY laser "cutter"

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Apr 25, 2019
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Disclaimer, i am not an expert on this, i have gathered some knowledge during my research, and i can try to ansswer any doubt, but let it be clear that i am not an expert on the subject

I've decided to try and do a diode laser cutter, that would actually cut to a certain extent, second disclaimer, this is not a CO2 laser, this is a diode laser, expectations need to be set accordingly, this will never be the fastest , most powerfull, or fail proof machine.

So i started by buying and assembling a CNC frame, this one came already with a controler, and it doesn't have the laser module, wich is what i wanted, since i'm building my own laser module.
link: https://www.banggood.com/EleksMaker...p-1027611.html?rmmds=myorder&cur_warehouse=CN
IMG_20210422_131033.jpgIMG_20210422_133250.jpgIMG_20210422_141114.jpgIMG_20210422_214613.jpg

Now for the laser itself, starting with the diode, i bought the nubm08
link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/262893062600
The diode comes with a casing that nees to be removed, this is done with 2 pliers, and a "snapping" movement
Diode with casing
IMG_20210511_212258.jpg

and the diode without the casing
IMG_20210511_213102.jpg
Those filaments are quite fragile, do not touch them, don't let anything touch them

The following step is to press fit the diode on a jacket, i've chosen a copper jacket, i believe it is better than brass for termal conductivity, there are sizes to the jackets, you have to pay attention that it has to fit the dimentions of the diode in this case TO5 9mm, and the diameter of the jacket has to fit the heatsink
this is the jacket i have purchased

The diode is press fitted on one part of the jacket i used a small vise, here's a picture of the diode before beeing press fitted, and a picture after beeing press fitted and with 2 wires soddered already
IMG_20210511_213152.jpgIMG_20210511_222249.jpg

The second piece of the jacket
IMG_20210511_231652.jpg

Then i apply thermal paste to the jacket and place it on the heat sink
this is the heatsink i purchased: https://www.banggood.com/72x32x32mm...p-1446026.html?rmmds=myorder&cur_warehouse=CN

IMG_20210511_232755.jpgIMG_20210511_232919.jpg

The jacked comes with an acrylic lens, that cannot be used, this diode will destroy any acrylic lens, the lens to be used is a G2 lens, it's the gold thing on the last picture above this
link https://www.ebay.com/itm/141870941996

Laser diodes are power hungry and absolutly need a driver controling the current, so this is the one i picked
link:https://www.ebay.com/itm/142857574974
IMG_20210512_004456.jpg

The diode wires are soddered to the driver on the LED + and - spots, and the fan is soddered to FAN+ and - soddered, i've used a 4cm server fan, powerfull and noisy

And here it is a picture of everything soddered together
IMG_20210524_233758.jpg

We now have a CNC frame with a controller, and a laser module with a driver, but they don't talk the same language, so we need a translator
link:https://www.banggood.com/EleksMaker...p-1245920.html?rmmds=myorder&cur_warehouse=CN
IMG_20210531_143101.jpg

to make the cables to connect everything you might need the crimper plier and the xh2.54 terminals

Apparently i didn't take picture of the cables finished and connected, but for future reference, it's a 3 pin cable that connects on the cncn controller on the laser terminal on one end and on the input terminal of the "translator" board and then 2x 2pin cables that connect on the translator board and on the led driver

With everything connected i made a little table for the cnc
IMG_20210601_155826.jpg

And a nail board for the piece that is beeing cut to rest on, this imporves the quality of the cut and reduces burn marks on the back

IMG_20210602_143458.jpg

I painted the nails with matt black spray to have less reflections of the laser light, designed and 3d printed a support that would bring together the 3cm heatsink and the 4cm led driver and server fan

IMG_20210603_014712.jpgIMG_20210603_030937.jpgIMG_20210603_031013.jpg

last but not least, this is also very important, i bent some brass tubbing, connected it to the compressor line to have air assist while cutting
IMG_20210603_124337.jpg

And it was time to fire it up, never forget the protection glasses, the goal for me was alway to cut 5mm plywood, so i went for it
IMG_20210603_035455.jpg

It needs a few passes, slow, but it does cut 5mm plywood as i set out to achieve, and i'm happy with the results

Final note, i'm using a DC 12v 8 amps power suply, the one that comes with the cnc is not good enough


Further considerations
As i said from the start, it's not the fastest most powerfull machine, but it does cut 5mm plywood, it is clearly on the limit of what it can do
To improve it, there's one resistor on the LED driver that can be changed, and it would make make the diode work with 4.5 amps, instead of 3 as it is now
There is no doubt that this will dramatically increase what the laser can do and how fast it does it

My issue is the heat, i don't know how much more heat will be created, and i don't know if my set up is good enough to handle it, considering that the heatsink is solid instead of having internal fins, and the fan is quite offset to the front due to restrictions of space

I think one day i'll get another driver to test it, without changing this one, so that i can always revert to it if needed, but for now, this is what i got

The machine also works as an engraver, but that was not the focus, if you only need an engraver, there's plenty selling that will do the job

Hope you enjoyed
 

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Wow Shelk! This is fantastic! Results are very convincing. How do you force the laser to cut what you want. Is it a manual drive or it is a CNC digital drive. If CNC what CAD program you can use? Congratulations anyways!
 
there's several different softwares, one that omes with the cnc from eleksmaker, laserweb, lasergbrl

but i'm using light burn, it's 30 days free then a 40 doillar 1 time payment, but the software is much better than anything else IMO
 
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