/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1167395
For reference I did this laser build six years ago.

>>657837
I built one like 6 years ago.

Buildlog.net is the very first, and by far the best build. It's had a few revisions and the guy who designed it knows whats up.

Almost all of the newer kits/designs are absolutely retarded. For example, the one in your picture is going to oscillate like crazy - laser cutters require high accelerations and two thin lengths of rod are just going to act like springs.

There was a horrible design built out of wood that was just asking to start a fire. From what I remember it also had the tube on the gantry which was catastrophically stupid on numerous levels as well. Horrible acceleration since the gantry is so heavy, and you are flexing your water cooling lines + 15,000 volts of power right next to each other. The fucking idiot almost got funded on kickstarter as well.

What you have to remember is that on a laser cutter any error is amplified by the beam travel distance. Shifting one of the early mirrors slightly will have a huge impact on where the beam eventually ends up so rigidity does matter.

As long as you don't do anything catastrophically stupid, laser cutters are fairly easy to build. But so fucking many people are absolute idiots.

Expect to spend 2000$ if you are getting a proper tube and controller. You might also consider buying one of the 700$ cutters off ebay and moving the laser/optics onto a larger and more rigid platform.