if you’re just looking at cutting gasket paper and engraving, you could get by with the leo69’s tutorial with the 2.5w diode laser tutorial for 100 bucks… his project is heavily documented here… the 100w co2 laser is a completely different animal and can be used to cut a lot thicker materials…
haha, just a little more then paper 
Koen,
Got asked to help out with cutting glass, would this be over kill for cutting non tempered glass? Looks like you have the laser part for about 1k if I did the guessing correct.
I somehow completely missed this project. Very awesome project.
You guys sound pretty demanding. Dude built A LASER and was kind enough to share with us what he’s done.
Sheesh.
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If there are any questions I’m happy to answer them.
It has been a while but i’m busy to discover the functions off the re-arm bord. It is an 32-bits. Got the motors working and they are going FAST! this is something i need for engraving. For now the arduino mega with the ramps 1.4 is not fast enough.
The re-armp is a smoothieware.
Does anyone has the know-how about this board? Someone wanna help with it?
I put this in your other post, but I feel I need to keep the relevant information clear.
Most nema 17’s are limited to 60rpms before there power drops off dramatically, to go fast you need larger pulleys at the expense of power. I have the Ramps Firmware Limited at 190mm/s. I can not imagine needing to go faster than that but if you do you can change the firmware or the pulleys or both.
Any updates? How is the machine holding up? Also, any thoughts on how it would compare to a Blacktooth?
Yes there are a lot of changes and updates
First off all thanks for still following this threat.
What we changed:
- moved the lamp inside the working space with official spacers
- created a workspace with pin heads for the object to laser, we experienced little reflection from the raster below the object.
- we needed to adjust and align everything again and broke the first lens it got dirty, dirt means that the laser will burn it so it got too hot.
- but there are also positive news, engraving is getting better and better the images will show little pieces from the work because of the copyright. It is work for clients and they are very happy with it. Also trying led lighting with the plexi engraving should give nice results it sill need some little tweaking the start and endpoint is going further into the plexi you see a little pinch.
-Also trying to figure out the re-arm board. almost there, got some pulse motors are already working. This board is so much faster, and that speed is needed for the engraving. Also received a Mach3, going to build a in height movable work space but this is for later, first finishing this.
@Mike , I don’t know that project looks also very interesting, will read it and let you know what i think.
What spikes are these? Self-made? I’m looking for something better than my honeycomb table.
But be careful using those without proper enclosure, in case your (focused) beam hits the edge and deflects. I have burned the shirt I was wearing once with a non-focused beam by a 50w tube (I repeat: before it hit the lense).
Awesome build… I am going to be adding a 75-80 watt co2 to my machine in the new year.
As for setting it up with with Arduino and Ramps 1.4 did you use the same procedure by remapping the 5 v pins to fan control like the tutorial for the diode lasers? That is currently how I have my 6 watt diode set up and was kinda hoping a co2 would be almost a drop in is far as firmware is concerned.
What have you experiences with the new Re Arm board been since we last hear from you? I am thinking that is going to be a must for me as I do a lot of engraving of glass/mirrors etc
Thanks
First of all thanks im still proud with the work and the setup I made.
My friends are making awesome stuff with it.
But in the meanwhile I’m not really happy. The re-arm is still a pain in the *ss …
Cant figure out why the output pins doesn’t give signal. Maybe we can have a look together? Got the part working for the motors and it is FAST !!
so many faster than the ramps 1.4
if you are using that setup connect it like this:
And also didn’t had a lot of time to do other stuff than working … but vacation is in sight
What firmware are you running on it and what function did you map to those pins to control the output signal?
Why don’t you just drop down the microstepping to gain speed instead of going through the hassle of using another card?
For a laser cutter you don’t need much torque, so you could go for 1/8 step without losing any accuracy, that would allow you to go quite a bit faster. You can even try 1/4 or lower.
And if it is still not enough, just put bigger pulleys.
I’ve set my MPCNC to 1/8 steps for 3D printings to make a few tests and it was pretty fast, I was only limited by my extruder motor’s torque. But you don’t have an extruder…so no problem!
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We made a little improvement:
Going to switch from the arduino mega to the MKS-SBASE board. Almost got everything working (demo situation)
And we also found someone that made some improvements on the frame
I know it isn’t really the printed version anymore but love to share the results:
Any thoughts?
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Hi,
Did you ever post the lens holder (Z-axis replacement)?
I would be interested in trying this setup.
Thx be4hand, awesome stuff.
Here you go, you have to open it and delete the frame parts
3d-laserhead-for-v1engineering.zip (300 KB)
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That looks like a lot of fun.
This looks cool, your machine is really good