LASER cutting and marking. 4

[itsmoked]

I thought a while back there was some discussion between members who had CNC laser systems.

I have several questions about the subject as I need to do occasional/regular stencils for board assembly.

Any knowledge around here?

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[btrueblood]

Agree, Mac. But I contemplate running the thing in an un-heated garage, and if installed in a heated room, ducting outside air to its intake. Right now, we haven't run the furnace since around June, except for a couple of colder mornings. And don't have AC at home. Gotta love our climate. Like I said, YMMV.

Oh, and it's not a solid-state CO2 laser head, just air-cooled, so no cooling water supply or off-board water/air heat exchanger. Shouldn't be writing posts this week, the jet lag is taking me to the cleaners.

Smoked, look around for trophy shops and/or "gift shops" that offer personalized marking of things such as Ipads, laptops, etc. Most of them are probably running a small-ish CO2 laser engraver, and they could easily run off a batch of acrylic/paper/rubber stencils for you, especially if you give them the artwork as a digital file in a format they can read.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

I contemplate running the thing in an un-heated garage, and if installed in a heated room, ducting outside air to its intake. Right now, we haven't run the furnace since around June, except for a couple of colder mornings. And don't have AC at home.

Ducting outside air to the laser is a bad idea... invariably you will have moisture condensation due to differences in temps between outside and inside air, and that's a sure way to shorten the life of your tube. How hot does the garage get? How cold? Too cold (<50F or so) and the laser won't fire reliably and will need to warm up over several hours before use. Too hot (>90F or so) and the electronics will shut it down as the cartridge heats up and you'll lose power without necessarily knowing it.

Lasers want environmentally-controlled areas to work in reliably... change any of that at your own risk. Temperature, humidity, quality of electricity, etc. all play a major role in the consistency of cuts and reliability of the machine.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[btrueblood]

Hmm...I'll bow to your superior knowledge, Mac.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Keith,

Thought this might be of interest to you...

http://builders.reprap.org/2010/08/selective-laser-sintering-part-8.html

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[itsmoked]

Thanks Dan!

It's interesting and reminds me of the 3D printing possibilities with a laser.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[MacGyverS2000]

The main point there was them using a 1W IR diode to make a laser system, not necessarily the sintering portion of the project. I didn't look to see if they provided build details for it or not...

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com