I just looked that up. And it’s a Lego thing!?! Building cozily… I like it.
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Looks great! Which endmill did you use for the letters? I am always going for the 60% tip, but an even endmill might be better for larger letters.
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I was planning to use a 45deg vbit for the smallest letters at the bottom. But, the v carving made the letters difficult to read, because of all the stripes showing in the water proofed wood.
I ended up using the 1.6mm (1/16") from drillman on ebay. They hold surprisingly well, as long as you are careful!! Can’t recommend them enough: 1/16" CARBIDE END MILL (.0625") 2 FLUTE KYOCERA 1600.0625.250 GENERAL PURPOSE | eBay
The long version is also great, but much more prone to breaking…
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Took me a while to try out the vinyl cutting! Not as precise as the pen, I think I should use one more zip-tie for the mount. Great fun to figure out more tools! (Next on the list is the laser, but it honestly scares me…)
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Awwww
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The key is ultra light pressure. As little as absolutely possible.
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I have a lot of respect for that laser… honestly I think I need to make a red tinted cover for my laser, in addition to the eye protection, just to keep the welders flash chances down.
On the one hand, I don’t want to be in the same room as the laser when it’s operating, and on the other, leaving it unattended is terrifying.
And that’s the 5.5W… I’d still love to build one with a 40 or 60W CO2 beam, but that would absolutely need a protective enclosure.
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Makes sense! I used a little extra pressure in case uneven z height, but when you mention it it’s obvious that it’ll make the tip skew! Thanks 
Yeah… I think I’ll wait a little before going at it. I had a lot of hubris when I ordered, I got a 40w neje. Should have gone for something far less…
There are a lot of people that think any laser needs an enclosure. There is something to be said for that opinion. But I am not sure what the quantity of dangers really are. It is hard to measure.
It’s a good idea.
I’ve worked with small and big, professional lasers at university, and I’d say that the mightier the laser the better it is to have an enclosure. The enclosure makes it easier to contain toxic fumes and evacuate them, which is a big deal when you start cutting stuff. It could also potentially contain fires - given that the risk is rather low -, and you could pump in CO2 to suffocate it, before it destroys the enclosure and spreads to your shop.
Honestly, the putrid, burnt stench that lasers give off, can’t even be fully contained with an enclosure, but it’s way better than running the laser open like a cabriolet (convertible). The burnt smell will creep into everything. It will impregnate each and every material and will be super hard to ge rid of. I used to smell it for days. It truly haunts you.
You are certainly not helping here 
Thanks for insights on heavy laser usage! I think I’ll play around with the vinyl knife for a while 
Haha, you could always use the laser in your backyard, if you have one and the risk to blind your next of kin, neighbours, and pets is mitigated somehow. You should equip them all with protective gear, just to be safe.
I didn’t mean to discourage you. It’s just something that one should be aware of. Most people only talk about protecting your eyes, but the fumes are potentially just as harmful. Many plastics and even leather can give of toxic, cancerous gases when burnt and most wood just smells terrible (not really comparable to burning wood in your stove).
Vinyl cutting is fun! A friend of mine does lots of it for model planes and such.
If you ever want to make, dye-cut stickers, you can now just order a big sheet with many of the same or different screen printed motives, and cut them on your MPCNC.
It’s cheaper that way! You can for instance do a first pass to only cut the vinyl (not the backing paper) and a second one to cut all the way through with a different boundary.
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I have friends who are professional sign makers. They never cut vinyl with the laser. One of the products of combustion is cyanide gas. Yeah, something to be aware of.
All this said, and having had a good idea of the hazards before I started, I still built my laser cutter. Why? Because freakin’ lasers, man!
As with any tool, it’s about taking reasonable precautions. You can kill yourself with a pair of scissors or put an eye out with a pencil being careless enough. Some tools require more caution than others. A laser is no different. Be aware of the danger, and do what you need to to mitigate it, but I’m pretty sure that we’re all here on this forum because we’ve got some faith in our own abilities to manage something that requires some attention to operate safely.
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Speak for yourself… 
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Not at all! You just confirm my anxiety, and that’s both good and bad 
I was just teasing.
I know for sure that when I’ll go for it, I’ll take all the necessary precautions. I might even start a thread to hear opinions and practices on safety and such. In the mean time, I keep it locked up in a safe, so that no-one can blame me for having dangerous equipment laying around. In Norway you’re actually supposed to register all lasers and radiation-stuff. I haven’t come to that point…
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Things have been crazy busy since summer. Still hectic, but when the roof-plates are on (next weekend), we can relax before winter. I haven’t had much time in my private little makerspace, but with winter comes more time. This is a little recap of what we’ve been doing in the weekends the last months:
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Looks like a lot of fun work. lots of smiles.
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I didn’t know makita made excavators.
That looks like a lot of work and very rewarding. You must be very happy just sitting in that new room.
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