Welcome @Joshua_g! Do you happen to know any marketing/sales folks at MonPort? Got a MonPort Laser I can borrow/have to test making specular holograms? Consider liking, subscribing and smashing that notification bell. Cheers!
Noticed they’re based in Seattle near me, and have been wondering whether laser based specular holograms will be significantly better than CNC’d ones…
It’s spam. New user, copy pasting the text in all the topics with a laser. Happened a few days back as well but got flagged by me immediately.
Little behind on this thread as I’ve just joined the forum.
I’m a big Co2 laser guy. Have 2 in the basement and have had one in my middle school classroom for about 7yrs now.
If you really want to learn how to use a co2 check out sarbar multimedia on YouTube. He’s awesome and has loads of mods done to cheap Chinese lasers, most of which I’ve done myself.
Alternate option to building would be importing direct from a Chinese manufacturer. I did that at my last school and got an amazing machine at a fraction of the cost of buying in the US.
One thing I did pick up from skimming the threads is looking at cheaper eBay tubes. I would recommend avoiding this, especially if you want cutting performance. Those tube will probably be B grade tubes that would work fine for engraving but won’t give the beam intensity that is needed for cutting.
Cloudray is a reputable company that I have worked with for years to buy lens and tubes etc… from.
I recently started at a new school and purchased a machine from them that is a great machine.
If you have any question on operation hit me up but I certainly haven’t built a machine, just don’t lots of mods to a few.
I bought a C02 laser from China some 22 years ago. It has a 900x600mm work table.
It has been a good machine all these years but now requires a rebuild as the software is way out of date and not compatible with the latest Windows.
I am thinking about stripping out the electronics and refitting with my own and just using the hardware that is still good.
The only problem that I can see is how to connect the high voltage power supply for the laser tube as I have no wiring information of that.
I have a chiller that came with it that still works fine. The tubes are available on ebay cheaper than I was buying from China. It was a 60 watt tube but would be easy to put a larger tube in by opening a hole in the side of the machine for the longer tube.
If you increase to a higher watt tube, you also need to increase the power supply.
I will keep that in mind, thanks.
Ok moving this back here from the Update LR4 thread…
@vicious1 said this earlier and its been on my mind off and on ever sense!
https://forum.v1e.com/t/update-or-new-version/40835/5076?u=jonathjon
I could see putting the tube along the back of the beam like where the dust collection hose goes. That would put the first mirror at a fixed short distance from the tube. The next mirror would also be a fixed short distance from the tube on the front of the beam. Last mirror at the “core” would be the only variable distance mirror.
But every time I think about that, I worry about the surface on the EMT not being smooth enough. Sure you could sand it down and might be able to make it ride good enough. But I also thought about this…
Aluminum front strut, drilled and tapped for 2 of these…
Now I am sure you are thinking, “why MGN15 instead of 12???” Well on that link 12 was more expensive 
Thats the only reason. But that mounted to a 1/4" aluminum strut should be pretty solid I would think. The only thing hanging from it would be the mirror pointing down and an X stepper motor. Wouldnt need the Core that is on the LR3/4 now. Could just make up something a lot smaller/lighter to hook it on the rail.
This would be doable in a 2’ x 4’ configuration by going landscape. Which I know is not ideal. But I can easily cut the struts on my full sheet LR so that wont mess it up at all. Keeping it down to a 2’ x 4’ range would also make enclosing it a lot simpler too.
Ryan is this sorta what you were thinking???
what if you made it like a giant pencil with the exit of the laser tube pointing down? It would be a nightmare to move and not tip, but how cool would that look? A laser pencil on top of a table…
My concern with laser is 1- my eyes. 2 - flammable things, 3 - fumes. Other than that, I dig cutting acrylic with a laser. Having spent hours watching the family epilog raster and vector cut, I think you could have the x axis of the lowrider run fast enough. truth be told, the core could be drastically reduced in size for a laser mirror if that is all it will be doing. Since it won’t have the forces from a router cutting mill on some material, it will just need to be light and fast. The more I think about this as I type, the more it seems like linear bearings and 20/20 strut would be ideal. You could go whatever way you want with it. though. The epilog system I have the laser is in the back below the cut deck. There is a periscope (z) mirror setup with 2 mirrors to get it to the moveable cutting deck. Then there is a Y mirror, then an x mirror and finally a focusing lens before the beam goes into the air nozzle where it is accompanied by compressed air as it goes out to the sample.
You could make one of these system with printed parts. Just make sure the adjustable mirrors are robust and will move far enough to align the beam to .
This thought crossed my mind for 1/2 a second. But that would be so unstable that high in the air. And you couldn’t never move it fast enough.
I also thought about the possibility of having the tube off of the beam and just at the back of the table. But I think that will be way too complicated to figure out mirror alignment with Z. And I definitely want to run some kind of auto focus
I need to get some time to sit down in cad and try to draw this up. See if it’s even possible with the size of everything. So far everything I am seeing a 100w tube is usually 1450mm long. So the beam will need to be 1500mm minimum I would think to fit everything. And even that might not be enough. I’m not sure if there is a minimum distance you need the first mirrror away from the tube or not
When I think of co2 laser I think of the big glass water cooling jacket thing that runs the whole length of the laser cutter I have access to. I wouldn’t think it would take too well to rapid movements if it was in gantry beam.
I don’t disagree there. But @DougJoseph brought up a good point (I think in the other thread) that most if not all of the rapid movements are done with the X axis not the Y. So for that reason I don’t think it would be too bad. But I could be completely wrong as well. I honestly don’t know lol
What are you cutting? Something(s) small and light enough to make a Bed Stock slinger with fixed laser and cooling? Or, if working with large/heavy stock, then are fixed laser and mirrors the way, with lightweight motion design… Or, ditch CO2 and live with 1064nm diode laser modules (MakerJim enlightened me about), and bet on the tech/pricing continuing to get more powerful/affordable given progress and demand.
What’s laser goal 1000mm/s? Modest sized Bed Stock slingers can be built to go pretty quick, e.g. the 2 min benchy many of us have seen before comes to mind. Maybe optimize 2 X-Y axis counter balance/momentum Bed slinger so that X axis parts are lighter weight and sit atop the Y axis. Laser height is mostly fixed, imagine a heavily bastardized ender 3 that would be otherwise neglected after you built a MP3DP v5.
I definitely don’t want to try to bed stock sling around 2’ x 4’.
Goal for me is cut/engrave 1/4” plywood and acrylic/polycarbonate panels. Maybe some thicker wood but not often. More looking for a much faster process than I get with my 20w diode laser and the ability for acrylics.
I did a quick search for the lasers @MakerJim spoke about but need to look at lot more. From what I did see there was no talk about anything wood with them. And it was all about engraving metals…. Which is cool.
I’d advise starting to think in detail about your use cases.
Getting good engraving on acrylic (or metal) means spot size, frequency, and coatings for metals. An IR diode module might suit you here, but so far these aren’t yet available in the ridiculously high power stacked setups (2-4W optical power is about it). Great for engraving these materials, not so great for deep cutting.
Getting good cutting performance in 1/4" plywood means optical power, focus, and adequate air assist.
Those requirements are somewhat at odds.
A CO2 laser is frankly a better choice if you want to production cut 1/4" or above plywood, especially if you want to cut the less expensive stuff not made with laser glues, or want to cut the really expensive stuff intended for fine woodworking. Even 100W is on the short end of the power range for that.
You also want to keep that laser alive, so you’ll want really good liquid cooling and you’ll want regular maintenance to keep your mirrors and lenses clean and well alingned.
You probably want features intended for production workflow. Like side panels that can be lowered to help you load and unload sheet goods between cuts.
Probably also want a good rotary axis as there’s plenty of work to be had making custom laser engraved cups, mugs, and other round items.
We looked regularly at the big makerspace at DIY options and folks repeatedly tried (and failed) to build thier own that was even fractionally as good as the import cutter that was kept running.
The turnkey machine used linear rails and was a pretty typical industrial motion system. Anything less, and I suspect you’ll spend more of your time working on your machine than driving it. OK if it’s a hobby, but bad if it’s a profession.
You also want to get really serious about fume extraction if you’re doing production work. Wimpy won’t cut it.
@MakerJim makes great points here. Totally agree.
Ok I completely get that just buying a prebuilt would most likely be the best way to go. And I don’t disagree. But I don’t have $3-7k to lay down for a laser.
I understand that I will spend 2-3k building my own most likely. But I can do it in stages and that works better for me.
This to me is just like the conversation of build a MP3DP vs Buy a Bambu. I am a builder. I like messing with stuff and making it myself. I understand that I may end up with something that’s broke more than it’s working. And if that is the case in the end that will be on me.
Maybe a packaging job similar to this…
If I was going to spend that kind of money I would just get this. It’s much closer to the size I want. But it still requires me to buy all at once with money I don’t have…. Y’all all start buying LR4s from me and then maybe I’ll be able to swing it
That’s really close to the size, configuration, and price of the one we had at the big makerspace.
I hope that happens for you!
We have a Kern 2’x2’ that is a slinger type design. They have an option for a 2’x4’ as well that uses the same table as the 2’x2’. I wish we had known that before we ordered the smaller one. It works pretty good, but it does take up a good amount of space with the cooling, vacuum and extraction systems.