“Since lasers cut at one specific focal length, there is not need for a Z axis (simplifying the build greatly).”

So you have to cut the exact same thickness then with this machine? Or put in shims? How hard would a Z axis be to add – probably not too bad.

If this can eventually cut through what looks to be construction paper, the wattage has got to be in the 1 – 3 watt range, tops. It cuts but *awfully* slowly.

Have you looked into silicone pad style silkscreening? That might be an inexpensive method and is readily DIY friendly.

For the bottlecaps look at an etch-o-matic it is infinitely easier and faster.Using a Z axis would be somewhat useful for going from a cut to etch operation but that could be achieved electrically much more reliably.

Will it cut mylar? SMT stencil…

Jake, No. You will need CO2. Virtually no absorption at the 650nm wavelength.

pRoFlT, No. Almost everything reflects off of copper. Combined with the high thermal conductivity its not going to do anything. Heck, high power CO2 lasers use mirrors made from polished copper. Best you could do is use it to etch away resist and use a regular chemical etch.

does anyone know where to get suitable collimator lenses from junk parts? i don’t want to buy an aixiz module and throw away the included laser and driver just to get a tube and a plastic lens…

btw, i just ripped apart an lg drive and it seems to me that the stepper driver controller can be reused. there are 4 control lines and 1 line for the endstop switch. all active high, 3,3v.
i captured the drive initialisation (drive to endstop, then home) with buspirate in LA mode, but i can’t make sense of the protocol just yet.
to get a relationship between control and movement, i recorded the drive init:

will post in the forum if i get the controller working. preassembled driver boards are way to expensive for my taste…

i recognize the plant ;)

pRoFlT, No. Almost everything reflects off of copper.

Not entirely true. You *CAN* cut copper with 1000+ watt laser cutters but will need 2000+ to go through thicker stuff. Cutting copper or aluminum with a laser cutter is not likely to work very well. But you could paint the surface of copper with a resist and then selectively laser it off to get an etch.

Waterjets or CNC mills are suggested to cut thicker than 1/8″ copper sheets. Thinner stuff you can get away with using industrial lasers but we aren’t talking Epilog 60 watters here.

compukidmike: thanks, but i asked for a salvage solution since i’m in europe and the market is pretty small here for such things, therefore the prices are not in my budget.

to address the reuse-controller idea:
it seems all three controllers on my lg board here are from renesas, and they provide no datasheets at all. comparing to a similar renesas ic for optical drives, i found out that the control signal is not digital but an analog waveform controlling only the current going through the motor, so reusing that driver ic is not really an easy thing to do without also hacking and reusing the controller.
to throw in some part numbers:
board: “jr6-mp k”, motor driver “r2s30202fp”, controller “r8j32007fpv”

luv me sum ‘maters

Why not whack a RepRap head on it and make a little extruder :)

Probably more viable for the pen version of a while back