DIY 600x420mm ENCLOSED laser cutter part 0 - project overview and design
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- čas přidán 1. 08. 2024
- Get sheet metal parts laser cut and bent at www.pcbway.com/ It's time to finally start a new project! For about a year and a half I've been designing my first laser cutter - for safety, despite only being powered a simple 5W laser diode, it'll be a fully enclosed machine with air assist and fume extraction. As opposed to my unipolar 3D printer project I'm not trying to prove a point here, so the linear motion system will be made with POM W-style roller bearings running on 20x20mm square aluminum tubing for the linear rails, driven by cheaply manufactured 48 step/revolution bipolar stepper motors via M6 stainless steel threaded rod as lead screws. If I were to redesign this machine these days, I would probably go for the standard Nema 17 stepper in a direct belt drive arrangement, but since it took me this long to just get the design to the point it's at now, I won't change anything as fundamental as this anymore. With lead screws the machine will be slow, which is annoying for the homing sequence, but for cutting outlines of parts like I intend to do, I'll have to go sub-10mm/s anyway with a laser module as weak as what I'm using.
If you want to help support the channel directly to help make bigger projects like this possible, consider checking out my patreon: www.patreon.com/user?u=81848920
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Sorry if I seem a bit preoccupied in this video, my mom is going through a pretty rough divorce from my severely narcissistic dad right now, so I hope you guys understand if my video schedule gets a little unpredictable and I have a few rather forced sponsorships over the next months! I'll try my best to stick with one video a month, but I also have more to do around the house while we try to get our lives back together.
But let me know what you think of this laser cutter!
Very sorry to hear about the divorce. That is never easy to go through. Hope everything works out for you and your mother.
Hi Ben! Your mom and you'll go through that problem I wish. Regarding the project, this cutter is minimalistic i.e. sturdy and functional, but that doesn't mean it will be easy as you stressed it. I can't wait the next episodes. Take care Ben.
good luck
@@ewasteredux Thanks! ❤️ So far the divorce wasn't worse than the time it concludes. It's about six years overdue (or two decades if you ask me;) but now that dad's finished moving out things are slowly starting to look up again. Just lots to figure out for my mom, sisters and I... (I realize my initial comment made it look like I'm an only child)
@@zafindraberahonaJCA thank you! :) yeah it'll be interesting what problems I encounter given I've chosen a much more traditional path here.. Will do!
By the way I currently have no internet at home, so it might take me a while to respond to comments :/
things to anticipate (from my experience with building my own DIY 3d printer)
the threaded rods placed horizontally will bend under their own weight and the nut will bind and get stuck ,if the rod is slightly bent ,get a thicker rod ,also find a biggest pitch you can find ,becoz if the pitch is small and the rods and the gantry are not perfectly aligned then they will most definitely bind
also use PLENTY of lubrication (once they bind ,its almost impossible to fix)
also when i bought my laser i got the same green glasses you got its designed to give you a millisecond of protection so that if you find yourself looking at the laser then you have a few miliseconds to close your eyes ,its not real protection.
also when you run you laser the first time , after a few minutes disconnect it and check the lens,
mine came pre installed with a plastic lens that charred real fast (im guessing for shipping only) ,so i replaced it with the glass lens that was in the box with the laser and that was fine .
if your concerned about safety ,just disconnect the lazer itself from power ,becoz ,untill you learn the cad software (i started the lazer at full power a few times by accident while still learning lightburn) ,just leave the room when you run the lazer until you build the enclosure
also lightburn is a good software but a very bad company , if you update lightburn your license is gone and you will have to buy it again, 70$ down the drain
also the first and most critical measurement is the focal point of your laser ,that will determine the hight of your gantry ,dont make my mistake and end up having to prop-up the workpiece , you must allow for your laser head to go all the way down to the bottom of the workpiece .
sorry for the long comment
Thanks for the advice!
I hadn't thought about how much the lead screws would sag under their own weight, but you're right... Lead screws are definitely the weak spot here.
I knew there was a catch with these "safety goggles"! One millisecond until it burns through is ridiculous, I'll definitely leave the room for testing until the machine is fully enclosed.
My module came with the glass lens already installed (at least there was no additional one in the box).. As for the focal point, I based the gantry off what the manual said where the focal point should be - though how I'm supposed to fine-tune focus without burning my eyes out I haven't figured out yet.
Hi Ben, I've been watching this post twice with pleasure.Your laser is a rather huge compared to my 5yo outdated 2W eleksmaker laser engraver (can only cut paper/fabrics/thin plastic sheet) and its 400x450mm size. For my fabric projects it's really efficient without burning them. Then a larger/longer 600x420mm laser would make me happier ;) for sure. 5W laser diode would be welcome as well.
Those HDF panels are precious. You're lucky to get them for free. I use them in my CNC projects. my 500W spindle cuts them "comme dans du beurre" French say. It's a brilliant idea to stick 2 of them together (like plywood) in order to strengthen them mechanically. Before composite material (resin + fiber), plywood was an usual material boat manufacturers used.
I wish that you and your mother overcome the current painful episode of your life. It's hard to focus on anything when you're through such an ordeal. Can't wait your next post yet. Bon courage Ben!
Hi Phil! Thank you, you're right, it's hard to get into the right mindset for creative tasks like making videos with distractive circumstances like these. This month has been particularly sluggish, so the next video will take a few days longer than usual (though it won't be shorter! ;)
Sometimes there's just times where I don't feel extroverted enough to be dancing around in front of a camera, pulling faces - no idea if other creators experience this too, but the best I can describe it is a youtuber's equivalent of the writer's block.
That aside though, if it's any good I'm probably going to make this laser cutter open source so people can replicate it with decent stepper motors of their choice - whether I'll actually stick with the lead screw setup myself will be determined by how much of a pain the PrintoSaur conversion ends up turning into :D I now have some much treasured NEMA 17's I could install if necessary. It'll still be a Sketchup model as I don't plan on redesigning the whole thing in FreeCAD, but as long as the incredibly outdated Sketchup 8 I'm using is still available online, that shouldn't be too much of an issue...
As for the HDF panels, you can probably figure out from the pictures which of the large supermarket chains I get them from - you certainly have one nearby ;p (haha, sending out my subscribers to take free waste from supermarkets around the world might bite me in the butt later if HR catches on and ends up prohibiting it 😬😂)
Anyway, a happy Easter to you :)
@@ChronicMechatronicHappy Easter to you too and your mom :) Sometimes I wonder if I'm not a hoarder, not a severe one but a hoarder. My father used to stock everything he thought could be useful a day or another. In a poor country context, that definitely makes sense. In more advanced countries, I think it's still relevant to use/recycle good materials like those HDF. I've got mine from my old furniture. Auchan has a lot of those HDF panels that come with their water jars e.g. Cristaline in Alsace... I have no room to store them... sigh...
Can't wait your next post my friend.😉
This is such a coincidence. Your videos gave me the confidence to design my first machine and it was a laser engraver!
Great!
Great to see you upload! I really like your videos. Though, I do hope things will get better for you
Thank you! ❤️
If you run out of space on the floor, start sticking things to the ceiling. I built a ceiling-mounted enclosure for my 3D printer a few years ago and it's been great.
That's a great idea! I should've made a wall mounted vertical one with vacuum table for holding workpieces :D
@@ChronicMechatronic lol, and the vacuum table doubles as the fume extraction!
@@dekutree64 right! I hadn't even thought of that! 😂
I understand what you mean behind safety. No one wants to go blind due to a mistake. I have watched several reviews of the open frame cutters and the seemingly best way to handle safety is to fully enclose it and use a cheap camera to view the results. Some have even just put the whole thing under a large cardboard box with a light, web camera and clothes dryer exhaust fan to remove the fumes. Seems to be one of the cheapest and yet effective ways to handle the safety problem. Maybe this will work out for you during testing while the machine is not completely built but needs some preliminary testing?
Yeah I was pondering whether to make the lid see-through with some of the expensive special orange "safety plexiglass" or to save the money and just use more HDF. Now reading your guys' comments (someone said those safety goggles are designed to last exactly one millisecond), I think I'll most definitely go for more HDF. I like the idea of a camera displaying what happens inside the machine on a monitor, but I'm not sure there's enough headroom inside to get the entire work area into the field of view... Like I said, not planned through very far, even though I've been at it for so long :p
@@ChronicMechatronic I fitted a laser onto my 3d printer, it already had an enclosure with a window on the front, to block all the light I used a tambour panel with a handle and a guide that gives me the ability to slide it to watch it with glasses or after the cut is done and I powered the laser off, it's easy, it's pretty cool and it doesn't significantly change the space taken by the printer because it bends and does not stick out when open.
About the glasses, apparently I've gathered that even tho the laser class description says otherwise many people have no problem keeping an open frame laser around (also around pets that won't be protected), also many people use the bad glasses that come with kits and they often do not block the right light or not block it at all or not block it enough but they are still quite able to see, still I do not want nor advise to cheap out there, it is absolutely foolish to do so, the 30$ glasses you've shown seem pretty similar to mine which are pretty good go for it, while you're at it if you do get the good glasses you can try and shine the laser in the cheap ones and see if they actually block it (and thus probably assorb quite a bit of e energy and get ruined) or if it passes trough
awesome!! I look forward to seeing more!
You should either have a dust collector or wear face covering while cutting MDF. The stuff can really get nasty. The $29 laser goggles that you showed are the ones I have and they are great.
Can't wait on the new project...
Sketchup is the best. I've designed and built a 9 axis cnc machine and literally designed it in sketchup cause it was faster than anything else I could have done it in. Eventually ported the parts that had to be machined into fusion, but sketchup is the only place where I have the full machine assembly. I wish trimble wasn't so set on ruining it.
Yes! I wish someone would come up with CAD software that combines features of more professional software like Fusion360 with the ease of use of Sketchup. I have started using FreeCAD for designing new parts, in fact, some of the parts for this very laser cutter I've ported over to FreeCAD to make them 3D printable, but having an assembly of several parts in FreeCAD is just a nightmare. It just seems such a waste of time to be more professional, dozens of steps for what literally takes 3 seconds in Sketchup.
I also made a mockup of the new project I teased here in Sketchup just to see what it would roughly look like because it's so much easier
Very very nice project for me as I cannot afford a commercial laser machine.
I really like your Vids!
I love this Hobby And I will follow your great work with big Interest. I'll make a Patreon to support Your work. Thank you!
you can salvage decent stepper motor with micro stepping support from broken or old printer.
some ppl sell it online
you can alsoo salvage the linear rail abd bearing
Yup I found that! I don't have access to printers that old but I ended up buying a bunch of steppers for cheap from someone who gets them from ewaste 😅 That's the one I showed at 5:53!
Good work I love see your videos .
Really looking forward to this series! I have bought an “open air” laser, and am looking to build an enclosure for it. I’m interested in how you have thought about the enclosure for yours. Wish you a happy, enjoyfull building process!
Thanks! The gantry on this machine is fully integrated into the enclosure, I kind of took those big enclosed CO2 lasers for inspiration
When you finish this project would offer to us a video about troubles about stepper motors like vibrate, buzzering, over heating that kind stuff. Thanks pls activate the super thanks🎉🎉
Where does your accent come from?, I can't pin it down, I assumed you were in the states, but you said 'quid' so no I think you are in the UK.
No worries if you aren't comfortable sharing!
Great vids, great explainer and approach to things.
Great work, a Will start develop my little laser engrave, i got for free in china, a little laser, I Will try to make something nice
Cool cool!
An enclosed laser cutter...very awesome!
Do you plan on sealing the HDF wood to prevent moisture warpage? I think the wood glue thinned in water and just painted over the surface seals it
Keep em coming!!!
The outside I'll paint yellow, for the inside I don't think I'll bother. There would be so many tiny corners and crevices it's near impossible to cover it all - plus wherever I screw two painted parts together they'll tend to stick together and working with painted surfaces is a PITA in terms of maintaining accuracy. I've built a few things with this HDF so far and haven't noticed it warping. It'll expand and contract with humidity for sure, but that theoretically shouldn't be enough to be an issue.
What I really do need to paint, is any exposed edges. Those get banged up real quick otherwise since this HDF is more like extremely dense cardboard than MDF, I assume they use less binder.
Dont use threaded rods for a laser cutter. Just use gt2 belt. It is just as cheap as regular threaded rods ( lot cheaper than achme threads) and a lot more forgiving for some mechanical misalignment. Speed wil also be better.
I actually have belt, but with those stepper motors I need the higher speed reduction to get enough resolution. Like I said, I would get proper motors and use belts these days, but that means totally different motor placement, and since it's a fully integrated design this means redesigning half the machine since I won't do some botch job just sticking the motors anywhere... I'll reconsider it once I've fixed my 3D printer and actually get an idea of how much of a pain in the ass lead screws actually are.
@@ChronicMechatronic a leadscrew is ok. But a regular threaded rod has a lot of resistance. There is barely any resistance in your linear motion system and a laser requires no force at all. The problem is that you lose a lot of time on non cutting movements. Designing for belts is quite simple as it requires a lot less parts.
Hi, I made myself a laser cutter/engraver. When you play with the controls, it actually moves around really good. But when I send a file, it just makes a hole on the material because it turns the laser on but does not move around. I've been stumped for about 7 months. Any and all help is welcomed and appreciated! Thabk you in advance!
Also where are you from? I have a lot of this stuf lying around. I might be able to send you some.
In your design i see that you put your X-axis-motor in the middle of the two threaded rods. Why don't you make one threaded rod direct drive, and the other with a toothed belt as a slave. Now you have to make something weird to make the toothed belt go round the motor axle.
I love that you build with a small budget, this will encourage young makers.
I wish you well in this difficult time
Thank you :)
I put the X-axis motor in the middle because I couldn't get the right size timing belt. The next standard size up is over 300mm too long which is why I had to include several additional pulleys to zig-zag the belt around in order to waste enough of it. Having to separately wrap the belt around the motor pulley helps doing that.
Normally I would do it as you suggest, one screw driven directly the other one as a slave, but for that to be simple I'd have to link the screws on the opposite side of the stepper, in which case I'd worry about the slave screw slightly lagging behind due to torsional flex in the master screw as well as belt stretching. Probably negligible inaccuracies IRL, but well, that's what I like to think about :p
one thing your gonna have to think about with it all enclosed like that, is how are you going to square up the x and y axes? I had to go through a bunch of trial and errors before i found that if i put the left y axis 20mm ahead of the other side of the y axis then it started cutting square. But i guess with a 5watt laser you wouldn't be cutting things out, but even with engraving because the circles would be coming out like ovals. Something to think about.
I don't really understand what you mean, to square up X and Y I simply adjust the timing belt on one of the lead screw pulleys until it cuts at a right angle?
Tramming the laser head won't be needed with 5W laser, while it should be able to cut through thinner plywood according to the advertisement, that's not enough for squareness of the edge to become an issue. Especially since the beam converges somewhere in the middle of that material anyway.
@@ChronicMechatronic I meant that the x axis has to sit perpendicular on the y axis. The rigidity of the frame will come into play if you plan on using a homing sequence to keep things squared up. But I guess it won't be a huge problem unless your cutting out box joints.
@@bellwetherhacienda-fs6yy oh I see! That won't be an issue because I have a lead screw on either side, I just need to set it straight initially and it'll stay straight thanks to the screws being belt-linked :)
@@ChronicMechatronic why are you using lead screws? I mean it’s just a laser head that makes no physical contact with the work piece. Nothing wrong with using belts I’d think
@@bellwetherhacienda-fs6yy nothing's wrong with belts, but with low-res 48 steps/revolution steppers I need the high speed reduction to get sufficient resolution, just like on my 3D printer. Most of this laser cutter was designed not long after my 3D printer series started, when I hadn't yet realized just how much better 200 step/rev motors are. Like I said, these days I'd try to get cheap NEMA 14s or 17s and just use belts, it's just that I don't want to redesign the entire machine. And since speed and wear resistance shouldn't be *as* critical for laser cutting as for 3D printing, I'll just finish it the way I started.
4:25 four wheels are redundant. Three is enough.
I need your help , I had a broken soldering iron , when I wanted to fix it , I rewired it and when I connected each end of the coil to the cobber wires that goes into the wall and after I did plug it into the wall , it blew up , how should I connect them ?
It was mains powered before you fixed it? If so, I reckon there must've been an accidental short, pretty much all old fashioned "dumb" soldering irons are mains straight into the heater coil like you described.
yes , I bought two soldering iron , one has a coil and one got a ceramic heating element , I used them on the same power strip and both did short and break down , I did rewire the coiled one and and it blew up , yep its the same type as you described , I tried to make a 5volt one but I failed @@ChronicMechatronic