[blackbeard52]

"How do you turn the laser off between burn moves?"

Couldnt you install a relay to disconnect the power to the laser and control it with Mach,turbocnc or others? Much the same way as you would say turn off coolant, therefore eliminate the Z movement and speed up the process?

Bob

[murats123]

do you use cd laser diode or dvd laser diode?

[blackbeard52]

either will work but I think you have to use a CD burner or dvd burner diode.

Bob

[abasir]

Hi All,

All you want to know about the DIY laser burner is here http://www.laserpointerforums.com
The forum is very active. Check out the Experiments & Modifications section.

Regards,

[Fr3d-]

Couldnt you install a relay to disconnect the power to the laser and control it with Mach,turbocnc or others? Much the same way as you would say turn off coolant, therefore eliminate the Z movement and speed up the process?

Bob

Yes. I did it manualy just to see... now I will do a complete board to do everything. To turn on/off the laser, I will use the 'Z' Direction Signal.

tnks.


[i used an CD Burner Diode (infrared) - VERY DANGEROUS. USE SAFETY GLASSES ]

[pipertom]

That's a pretty cool Laser!
Definitely on my list of things to do!

Thanks for the video

[nicanor76]

Did you ever find out what mW your diode has? I want to make sure mine will be the same or more powerful, but since your's from a CD my DVD diode would be more powerful. Also what material are you cutting, and have you tried it on wood yet?

[nicanor76]

I just got my red laser, rated about 200mW (with focusable lens). I can't etch any metal at all, but can burn/etch the paint off metal. It can etch into vinyl, leather, plastic, wood, etc fine. Are the videos you posted etching metal, bare metal, what kind of metal?

CD diodes are rated about 50-80mW. If your lower powered diode can etch metal but my 2.5-4 times more powerful laser can't, what else are you doing to your setup.

[KTP]

You are going to need many WATTS of laser power to etch metal. Most of the lasers designed to engraver metal are q-switched, producing short pulses of several killowatts of power. Their average power is a lot lower, but still much more than 200 mW. You can't q-switch a regular diode laser btw, because you can't get inside the ultra small cavity to install a device to spoil the quality factor. There are some special paints that somehow etch the metal below them when exposed to laser light, but I think these are mostly used with CO2 lasers.

[invitation]

the standard equation for power in general, not just diodes. That does not mean, however, that all of that power is going into the material being lased. In fact, that laser diode is only a few percent efficient, so you probably only have 5-10% of your power being turned into light. I can't see what kind of optics you have set up, but obviously it's enough to focus the spot small enough to burn (it's all about power density, not just power.

You're probably in the 800-900nm range as far as the wavelength goes, right in the area of YAG lasers.

[One of Many]

That Invitation letter link looks mighty suspicious with a copy and pasted post.

I wouldn't click on that link!

DC

[avengine]

very interesting,
I like your video very much, actually I have the same idea like what you did and try to make use of my xy table that I have and modify it to use them for laser cutting.

I have a old camtech routermaster52 table 52x102" with the cmc controller, and I try to upgrade this to a laser cutting machine. right now is a good router.
I plan to use mach3+gecko drive either G251 or G201, +cnc4pc.com C1G breakout+power supply and laser.

this is some picture of my machine.
http://picasaweb.google.ca/output123...eat=directlink

I also has another old and non use machine that is the sample maker
http://picasaweb.google.ca/output123...eat=directlink
this machine the motor is not powerful enough, the ultrasonic from what I see is not as powerful as the laser to cut the material and no load to cut the material. therefore it is my first choice either to convert or just add a laser head on it, how difficult to make this happen. and what power of laser do I need?

I want to know base on your experience, which one is a better machine to modify, my goal is to use laser for cutting, paper card, formboard, gatorborad, sintra, coroplast, styrene, acrylic, mostly 1/4" or less. what brand should I buy?
on the cnc software do I need to get some special plug in to control the laser power? where did you buy your laser? is the company easy to deal with and honest. what kind of cooling do you use. I really want to learn from your experience.

thanks and any suggestion welcome.
my email is [email protected]

[zax15uk]

Using any laser on an open frame cnc machine is dangerous (not that a regular router isn't just as dangerous of course). Correct eye protection for the laser wavelength is obvioiusly essential.

A diode laser would be easier to install, but typically provides less power for the same cost. If you do go with a diode, an IR would be the best option.

The alternative would be a CO2 laser. It would offer the best performance for cutting and engraving. You should use a flying optics system where the tube is static and 2 or 3 mirrors deflect the beam to the lens and work surface.

I would suggest the camtech, it doesn't look like the conversion would be that difficult.

Zax.

[cor]

very interesting i wil ad one to on mine machine
but look what this man made from a burner
http://www.cooperman.talktalk.net/files/18.htm

nelis