# Laser engraver on the cheap?



## Joe S. (Apr 20, 2014)

Any ideas on how to end up with a cnc laser engraver on the cheap? I wouldn't mind putting up with some pain and heartache to build it myself, a project sounds fun! Or, is there any way to rig one onto a cnc mill? I could get used to a setup like that!

Note: this is just an idea that popped into my head and I decided to ask here. 

Discussion encouraged!


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## lorbay (Apr 20, 2014)

You can start off with one of these.
TB6600 4 5A CNC Engraving Machine Stepper 42 57 86 Motor Driver Board 12V 36V | eBay
Lin


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## Rich L (Apr 20, 2014)

Are you looking to mount the laser head to your mill spindle or next to it? Where's the power supply going to go? CO2 laser, I presume. What kind of power to you need - that will govern how big the head is and how decoupled the optics need to be. What are you trying to engrave?

Cheers,
Rich


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## Pen-Archer (Apr 20, 2014)

I made one on the cheap but it eventually costed me about $1k to get it to work right.  Today I finally got the rotary to turn and engrave a pen.  Needs a bit more tweaking but I'm excited about my progress.

I've never tried using a laser diode but if you are going to mount a laser diode to your CNC mill, you need to think about protecting your eyes and body parts from the reflected laser beam.  You can't see the laser beam.


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## Rich L (Apr 21, 2014)

Pen-Archer said:


> I made one on the cheap but it eventually costed me about $1k to get it to work right.  Today I finally got the rotary to turn and engrave a pen.  Needs a bit more tweaking but I'm excited about my progress.
> 
> I've never tried using a laser diode but if you are going to mount a laser diode to your CNC mill, you need to think about protecting your eyes and body parts from the reflected laser beam.  You can't see the laser beam.



I'm really curious what it is you made. Type of laser? You said you haven't tried a laser diode so what was your laser? Gas? Solid state? Ruby? Dye? What? How much power? Was is continuous or pulsed? Wavelength? What material did you engrave? What was the depth of the engraving? How long did it take?

I'm excited about your progress, too!

Cheers,
Rich


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## DaddyO (Apr 21, 2014)

I have had so many people ask me about adding engravings on my pens but I do not have the capabilities and cannot justify the $1k to tool up.


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## Joe S. (Apr 21, 2014)

To the people asking what I'm looking for; the answer is a good discussion.  

I was thinking that with a 2-axis setup, you could design around the "bump" of a round tube. Maybe you wouldn't need to get a rotary setup! But that is a little limiting, and I doubt you could do laser cutouts with that.


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## Pen-Archer (Apr 21, 2014)

Actually now that I think about it,  if you already have a CNC mill, just put an engraving tip and a rotary 4th axis on it and you are good to go.

I started with a cheap Chinese 40 watt CO2 laser engraver and stripped the basically useless Moshi board out and installed new stepper drives and a new controller board.  I had to install homing switches and safety interlocks, etc.  but I can now use Corel Draw and AutoCad.

It can engrave or cut most non-metallics like wood, most plastics, and glass. (And Tru stone) You can mark specially prepared metal surfaces. It will not engrave or cut metal.

It is pretty slow compared to a commercial $8k+ laser engraver.  It took 7 min. to engrave a pen yesterday and I'm sure that a Epilog could do it in 30 seconds.  But it is good enough for my hobby.


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## Pen-Archer (Apr 21, 2014)

Joe S. said:


> To the people asking what I'm looking for; the answer is a good discussion.
> 
> I was thinking that with a 2-axis setup, you could design around the "bump" of a round tube. Maybe you wouldn't need to get a rotary setup! But that is a little limiting, and I doubt you could do laser cutouts with that.




Without a rotary,  you could burn a single line text. The text would be flat through the "bump". Like a road cutting through a hill.

With a rotary,  you can wrap your design around the pen.


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## Pen-Archer (Apr 21, 2014)

Here is the pen that I worked on yesterday.  I attempted to engrave a whaling ship on to ivory trustone.


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## Joe S. (Apr 21, 2014)

Wow! That's some great work there!


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## Pen-Archer (Apr 21, 2014)

Joe S. said:


> Wow! That's some great work there!



Thanks but it still needs more tweaking.


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## Joe S. (Apr 23, 2014)

CNC Laser Cutter | eBay

What do y'all think of this? I don't know about an electric mechanized rotary, but a mechanical one could be added to do multiple lines of text, etc.


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## Pen-Archer (Apr 23, 2014)

That's what I started with.  It comes with a Moshi board which which did not work predictably.  In other words,  I'd set it up and print and it might work. But then I'll change the blank and hit start again and get a different result. I scrapped too many blanks just to get one good print.

So I threw out the Moshi board and installed new stepper drivers and a DSP Controller (+$500) and now am a happy camper. 

I would save yourself the aggravation and just buy an already converted K40 laser engraver.  You can find one at Lightobject.com


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