Check out the Einstein head which [Sebastian Müller] etched on the cover of his calculator using a laser engraver he made from scratch. We think he did a great job with the build, but we’re even more impressed with the work he put into sharing the techniques he used to salvage and repurpose all the components. It’s a perfect resource that should be pretty easy to adapt to different model/manufacturer source hardware.
He used an old scanner and an old printer for the bulk of the parts. These both originally included stepper-motor actuated gantries, which pull together to form the x and y axes in his Frankenstein Laser Engraver. As the parts came together he started in on the control electronics which include a couple of EasyDriver stepper motor boards and an Arduino.
At this point he took the machine for a test-run, attaching a marker to the carriage to use it as a pen plotter. After putting in a solid performance at this [Sebastian] moved on to adding in the laser diode. He covers how to drive the diode, as well as focal point alignment in great detail. It seems like his webpage post has the same content as the Instructable linked above but we wanted to leave the link just in case.
Well I forgot the Laser Safety Glasses (THIS IS A MUST!!):
Good call.
I have an old pen plotter. Would this make the construction of the laser engraver easier?
Okay, here is the obpun
Frank”Enstein” engraver.
^ Frank”Einstein” Engraver..*
something you need to know here the part where it sais you can get dvd drives from recycling places.
i know here where i live they have a policy that no electronics may leave the recycling building.
that’s because someone one time recovered a pc that a local business dropped off and it was still password protected.
they the called up the local business (very stupid thing to do when you have access to google and password crackers) and tried to get the password off the business.
then the local business called up and reported someone tried to get the password and now no electronics may be taken no matter how innocent they are (even if it a ups for example).
however dumpsters are great places especially if you live in a town near a university the students will be throwing out junk around the week of mother’s day (permission may be needed as many dumpsters are on private property).
scrap metal junk yards are good places they pay tin rate for electronics (dont expect to find all plastic electronics (like keyboards, mice and cheap printer only printers) they dont have enough metals for them to take them).
it is possible that state or locally there may be data privacy laws in place where even scrap metal yards may not be allowed to sell any electronics dropped off.
The local thrift store is your friend for electronic junk! You can score some cool stuff for cheap if you look carefully. Also, pretty much any university will have a surplus department where you can usually find high tech stuff for surprising prices! Most state and local governments and educational entities do as well. I built a laser cutter/engraver from old flatbed scanner parts that can do similar things to the one posted above. Check here to see more about it…
You link does not have a target.
http://nivenhome.dyndns-server.com/?page_id=417
Nice and sturdy build ! Great job. What material do you cut at 1:50 ??
Nice and sturdy build ! What material do you cut at 1:50 ??
I have an old pen plotter. Would this make the construction of the laser engraver easier?