Hy there. I’m currently building my LR4. Currently I’m in the stage of wire work.
I was thinking about keeping a laser permanently attached next to the router to seamlessly switch between both tasks, or even combining them.
Is there a mod for that.
Any recommendation for a laser and mount.
Some engraving and a little bit of cutting.
I’m getting my BTT SKR Pro v1.2 tomorrow.
I haven’t settled on the software side of things jet.
I work as a mechanical design engineer with Autodesk inventor, AutoCAD and fusion 360 on a daily basis.
Any recommendation regarding laser and software workflow?
Personally planning to use Kinematic mod when temporarily attaching laser module primarily used for slower cuts. Removing when not used to minimize dust/damage.
If doing laser engraving and wanting to do faster XY speeds, then, am not sure the LR4 motion bogged down by a mounted router will be able to keep up with accelerations/speeds needed to fully utilize how fast the latest multi diode laser modules can engrave.
Curious to learn from others who’ve actually done this already, and figured out what’s working for their usage scenarios?
That defeats the purpose of the kinematic mount - to be able to remove and replace the laser (or another tool) in exactly the same position each time.
If your laser comes with a dovetail mount you can use that - this also makes it easily removable and puts it in the location relative to the center of your router each time.
That’s the approach I’ve taken and I was able to leave the dovetail block on without losing any X travel. I wouldn’t want to leave the laser attached with the router running. I don’t expect vibration and dust would do it much good.
I use the kinematic mount system and it takes me about 30 seconds to attach/detach the laser. (I keep the wiring and an air assist line wired through to the core and just velcro them when not needed… I also wired in a USB-C jack so I can plug the computer into the side of my table for the wired connection.)
At < 30s attach time, I don’t want to expose my laser to the vibrations of the router constantly. I was a bit worried before Doug released his kinematic mount about removing the router each time, because that would add many minutes to switching tools.
On my to-do list is to automate the tool offset so I can cut parts then laser mark them all in one go (with a tool change pause to attach the laser.) I’m thinking if I cut a bunch of an item (like maybe coasters) I could then have the laser go through and apply my logo/mark semi-automatically before I remove them from the fixture/jig.
The one drawback to the kinematic mount is that I lose a bit of x-range (on the x min side). The majority of the tool offset from the center of the endmill location is in the x-direction. So I can’t reach things at x-min and I need to carefully stop at x-max so I don’t have a collision (on my machine (LR3) this means about 700mm x travel out of about 780). For me, this is worth it to maximize the life of my laser. (Although if I’d have let it get rattled to pieces I might have already upgraded to one of those high power compound diode units )
Here’s a the v block mount I’m using. I only realised after it was on that the depth stop lever on the laser fouled the back but since I never used it I just took it off.
Thanks for sharing.
I think of maybe making a removable cover for the laser.
Just to protect it when not in use.
And what are you using from the software side? Im running the BTT SKR Pro V1.2. Maybe there is a way to run a single g-code for milling and laser work.
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