Constructing a CO2 laser cutter

posted Sep 10th 2010 6:44am by
filed under: cnc hacks, tool hacks

angler

[Owen] contacted us to show us his site dedicated to his CO2 laser cutter build. He spent about 2 years and roughly $15,000 putting it together, so this is not small build. The laser and optics alone were $9,000. This site isn’t necessarily meant to be a template to build your own, but he shares so much information that we would certainly suggest you read it before digging into a build. He does have some downloadables, like the tool paths and the emc2 configuration files as well as a copy of the entire website. Great job [Owen].

tagged: ,


25 Responses to Constructing a CO2 laser cutter

  • Billy says:
    September 10, 2010 at 7:02 am

    forgive me for being an annoyance, but its CO2 (charlie-oscar-two) not C02 (charlie-zero-two)

    Reply Report comment
  • osgeld says:
    September 10, 2010 at 7:07 am

    meh whats oxygen good for anyway?

    Reply Report comment
  • CutThroughStuffGuy says:
    September 10, 2010 at 7:21 am

    Considering a 40 – 60 watt solid laser engraver/cutter can run $10 – $20k used, this is decent but 250 watts is pretty lightweight. It takes 4000 watts to cut through 1/4″ aluminum. 1500ish can do steel though.

    Reply Report comment
  • Sparky says:
    September 10, 2010 at 7:34 am

    Hope the fire marshal or electrical inspector doesn’t ever need to ever see that panel. I think he’ll lose the argument.

    Reply Report comment
  • owen says:
    September 10, 2010 at 8:40 am

    “Hope the fire marshal or electrical inspector doesn’t ever need to ever see that panel. I think he’ll lose the argument.”

    The electrical inspector did see the panel. Funny story – he didnt know I did the work and he kept saying: “oh man, they did that right” and other comments. that part of the build is documented here:

    http://laseroflove.wordpress.com/category/harassment/

    owen

    Reply Report comment
  • MrCritic says:
    September 10, 2010 at 8:42 am

    Props/Respect on the build.

    @Sparky, I agree with you. Looking at that sub,
    it’s hard to tell if he has a separate ground
    feeding it (from main panel). If not, it’s going
    to create safety issues, and under some fault
    conditions, you’ll have the outer conduit between
    the sub, and the “appliance control” panel “hot”.
    (ie. touch it, ground yourself, die). Reason NEC
    wants grounds extended from the main to a sub (in
    the same building). And unless he left the cover off
    for the picture, it’s definitely a hazard without
    the protective cover.

    In one picture he says he tore out the brick (at
    the base of the laser supporting frame), and put
    rebar down before pouring a slab. But if you look
    at the pic, it shows the rebar, and the brick is
    still below it. It does show some ‘efflorescence”
    (ie. moisture issues). Long term, probably a bad
    idea pouring concrete over it, but given it’s not
    a house foundation, it’s no big deal for a simple
    slab supporting shop equipment.

    Why is asking “how much did it cost?” (in his FAQ)
    a “rude question” ?

    Reply Report comment
  • owen says:
    September 10, 2010 at 8:59 am

    It has a separate ground. Typically I keep covers on both the sub and appliance control.

    Yeah, the slab was made by removing some of the brick along the edges of the form, but not all of it. When they made the floor (probably 50-90 years ago) they just dropped the brick on top of dirt. I could have poured concrete on the brick, or the dirt, not sure moisture issues would be really different.

    Its a rented house so I dont go too crazy on building for my life time. Hell the roof leaks I figure that’ll be the biggest moisture problem.

    Cost questions are not rude, I was being funny.
    o

    Reply Report comment
  • owen says:
    September 10, 2010 at 9:01 am

    Concrete enthusiasts may also find my workbench interesting…

    http://laseroflove.wordpress.com/2010/05/29/ready-for-the-big-pour/

    http://laseroflove.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/completed-the-workbench/

    owen

    Reply Report comment
  • Tachikoma says:
    September 10, 2010 at 9:13 am

    Love the skeleton artwork, particularly the fish. Nice work!

    Reply Report comment
  • Tachikoma says:
    September 10, 2010 at 9:16 am

    p.s. quick question… I don’t have much background knowledge on these things, but how do you keep the support slats (that keep the piece in place) from getting burned by the laser?

    Reply Report comment
  • MS3FGX says:
    September 10, 2010 at 9:42 am

    Outstanding documentation. Interesting idea making the whole site available for download.

    Reply Report comment
  • Spork says:
    September 10, 2010 at 9:46 am

    @Tachikoma,
    If it’s anything like my plasma cutter:
    1) You make an effort to avoid hitting them with the laser.
    2) You just cut through them and then replace as needed. They’re really easy to make if you own… say.. a laser cutter.

    Reply Report comment
  • Taylor Alexander says:
    September 10, 2010 at 11:34 am

    This is an awesome build, but I am more amused by the setting. Looking at this, you see this incredibly high tech device that was just kind of built from spare parts in a grungy basement. Its awesome, and reminds me of all those things in star wars that were just thrown together by junk, but are still actually highly complex machines compared to what we have. Like how the millennium falcon was just a big pile of junk, but was still a very capable spacecraft. This certainly isn’t a pile of junk, but at first glance you may not notice. When our technology gets complex enough, it becomes possible for one dude in his basement to build an extremely high powered laser cutter. 20 years ago this would have been in a very expensive lab environment if it were even possible, and this guys just got his in a grungy basement. I love it. :)
    -Taylor

    Reply Report comment
  • barry99705 says:
    September 10, 2010 at 11:50 am

    I’ve seen his site before, and I think it’s been on this site before. Somewhere there’s a picture of his thumb that got in the way of the beam. Says it cauterizes as it cuts!

    Reply Report comment
  • austin y. says:
    September 10, 2010 at 3:18 pm

    Yeah it’s been here before, I recognized it too. It’s an oldie.

    http://hackaday.com/2005/03/27/cut-sheet-metal-with-your-homemade-laser/

    Reply Report comment
  • owen says:
    September 10, 2010 at 3:48 pm

    my finger:

    http://nilno.com/images/finger1.jpg

    and speaking of injuries….

    http://laseroflove.wordpress.com/category/injuries/

    Reply Report comment
  • hrpuffnstuff says:
    September 10, 2010 at 6:40 pm

    This brings back memories of replacing a 125 pound transformer on a Co2 laser 20 plus years ago. Damn thing had a slab of granite in it about 1000 pounds to absorb vibrations.

    Reply Report comment
  • owen says:
    September 10, 2010 at 6:55 pm

    @ Caleb and others.
    Its true I did have a post on this over five years ago. The project represents a complete overhaul of everything starting from electrical wiring, the physical plant, optics, software, and a lot of new electronics. This system was essentially rebuilt because I had to move to a new site, with a lotta construction to the shop. I also documented it far more than before, and I also built the web site which I thought would be of interest. I mentioned all this in my original request to get it posted – I hope its okay.

    owen

    Reply Report comment
  • hth says:
    September 10, 2010 at 9:05 pm

    Protip: Fresnel Lense, q switching, black paint extruder, annnnnnnnd…… the for win……………. sign it hth :p

    Reply Report comment
  • strider_mt2k says:
    September 11, 2010 at 1:55 am

    Props dude.
    Dedication and what looks like a s#!7 ton of work.

    -and look at the RESULTS! WOW!

    Reply Report comment
  • fish says:
    September 11, 2010 at 12:36 pm

    This guy gonna spend another 50K on electricity bills lol.

    Reply Report comment
  • CutThroughStuffGuy says:
    September 12, 2010 at 8:12 am

    50k on electricity? Huh? This laser really doesn’t take that much power to run.

    Reply Report comment
  • owen says:
    September 12, 2010 at 8:33 am

    I made the calculation once – cost of running the laser (plus ventilation and chiller) increases my electrical bill by about $2.50 per month.

    Its not like running air conditioning or even a hottub — the thing only runs intermittently — maybe a max of a 5-6 hours a weekend.

    Reply Report comment

    • Leave a Reply

    XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title="" rel=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

    Hack a Day serves up fresh hacks each day, every day from around the web as well as hacking related news.

    Send us your hacks










         



    Hacks

    Resources