100W Co2 laser MPCNC

I want to share my project with all of you.
There are still a lot of improvements to make but the first results are there.

First printing all the parts (I have changed several but this was my start)

Building it up:

Connecting everything:

The laser came :slight_smile:


My kitchen was not big enough for the laser setup :smiley:

Testing it with a laserpointer if the mirrors are in the right position.

First dry run Laserpointer (movie)

Mirrors looking good.

Testing the tube:

Put the laser in position and tested the laser with the mirrors.

Testing the laserpoint with lens (movie)

Testing the laser on wood (movie) first computer run and to high power, haha!

Getting better with the program, laser power using InkScape

But img2gcode is not going well for now.

Doing some calibrations.

Testing the laser power.

If you look closely you see it is not a clear line. The end of the laserhead is still a bit moving. I decided to make a new laserhead mount. I will remove the Z-axis with this fixed block. In the near future I’m going to make a Z-axis moveable table.

I will update this post when I got more information.

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Awesome :slight_smile:

How are you mounting the tube ? I cant see it on the pictures.
And…could it be possible to skip the mirrors and alignment…and just mount the whole tube vertical on the MPCNC ? (i have no idea how co2 lasers work)

How much did the lasertube cost ? and does it should it last before needing replacement ?

Would love to build this myself too

@catohagen
CO2 laser tubes are fragile, and full of water. Not something you want moving around.

I was just thinking since Glowforge and similar $3-4-5000 lasercutters carry the lasertubes on the moving gantry, if maybe having it mounted vertical would work too, but what you are saying does makes sense.

Very nice build, I particularly like your enclosure.

This is something I plan to do with my MPCNC so I will follow your thread closely and I really hope you will keep us updated!

Given my (little) experience with the MPCNC, I think that one of the first things you should do is to make the chassis stiffer. It can be done quite easily with a few wood blocks, nothing very complicated. It is particularly clear that the whole machine wobbles when I zoom on the pictures of the tests you posted.

Rigidify your chassis, and lower the X-Y jerk setting and the accelerations for your first tests (if not already done). These are easy improvements that will, in my opinion, solve most of your problems.

Could you post some pics of your mirrors system, I would be very interested to see?

Did you mount the tube? Do you have any more pics of the mirror setup? I want to try a Co2 laser as well. Do you get that laser from ebay? Thanks Renz

@Dui, ni shuo de dui ,

First of all thnx! And yes I know that the MPCNC isn’t that stable but it was also the laserhead that got a bit wobbly. The end was fully stretched.
I build a new laserheadblock and going to replace it Wednesday with this:



And I while I was un-mounting the Z-axes I found out that it also was a bit lose. I’ve fasten some of the bearings and that solved the problem.

I will make some more pictures from the mirros and will draw a little picture.
I’ve also made a electronic wire diagram for the laserpower supply and the Arduino. The powersupply for the laser don’t allow you to give it 12V. So you can’t use the M106 and M107 but you need to use the 5v output so I took the M42 P4 setting.

The difference

The demo setting for the powersupply was:

And the with the arduino:

@Renegadez , I did buy the laser tube and powersupply with mirrors and the lens on ebay. But I bought a Reci Laser because I did some reading and it should be the best… not really that sure but I had to give it a try :slight_smile:

*Edit: I don’t know why my pictures are getting rotated, sorry for that…

Here is a new update.

I mounted the mirrors at the back at the laser, on the moving arm and made a new laserhead holder.












Then I did some aligning. Remove the mirrors and place the back plate back in the holder. Cover the mirror hole with a piece of tape. Shortly fire the laser and look if it aim straight.

Mirror aligning
Head aligning

Then I did some test runs with 8 MM plexiglas

WARNING! Cutting plexiglass will produce chlorine gas when combined with the natural moisture in the air creates a form of hydrochloric acid. Be WARNED!

I have mounted ventilation to the outside!
Test run 4

Tried a name

More test runs:
Test run 15


Nice and clear!

Also tried engraving, it is not great but a start.




Also on wood, still not great but had to give it a try :slight_smile:

Soon more!

3 Likes

Impressive! Experiencing laser envy.

That’s very cool!

Man I want a laser like that! I second the laser envy.

If I have time this weekend I will do some more runs and testing stuff.
But engraving isn’t easy, I still need to do a lot of tweaking.

But there is a beginning. Soon I will share the laserhead mount need to make a few adjustments, print and test it again.
Only takes 42 hours to print and a role fillament (800 grams) :slight_smile: The new design is a bit smaller maybe 600 grams and 32 hours printing.

Holy shit! Are you printing it solid??!!?

No I’m printing it with 60% filling …

For prints of this size I would use a bigger nozzle, not only for time, but for strength too, a 0.6mm nozzle will output 4x amount of plastic compared to a 0.4mm nozzle, translated it means a 0.6mm nozzle with 0.36 layerheight would print the 32hr print in 8 hrs, with a small reduction of detail but a much stronger part.

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This is sick! I am super jealous. Keep up the great work man.
Neil

Incredible!

Is this a 1064nm laser? Was that aluminum you cut? I’m curious how thick of aluminum and steel you could cut cleanly with this. I’ve been doing a little research on DIY CNC laser cutters but there doesn’t appear to be much out there besides engraving

@mikalcarbine ,
I didn’t bought this laser for cutting aluminum or steel. If you want to do that you need a different lens and a different place. My build is in a wooden box, you can imagine what will happen :slight_smile:

It is a 102w Co2 Reci laser.

Roawrrrrr

Clear plexiglass cutting!

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