[Mark aka Mokey] borrowed his friend’s open-body laser engraver for a while, and found it relatively lacking in attributes and a little bit also expensive for what it was. In a natural way, he assumed he could do far better (movie, embedded below.) Right after a place of modelling in Fusion 360, and some on-line shopping at the typical locations, he had all the sections required to construct an X-Y bot, and we reckon it seems like a really superior setting up place. [Mark] had a Sainsmart FL55 5.5W laser module kicking all around, so that was dropped into the create, together with the regular Arduino moreover CNC defend combo jogging GRBL.
[Mark] has provided the complete F360 source (see the mokeylaser GitHub) and a comprehensive invoice-of-products, weighing in at about $400, and based mostly upon the standard 2040 aluminium extrusions. This makes MokeyLaser a fair commencing stage for even further advancement. Potential options include upgrading the controller to some thing a bit far more present day (and 32-bits) as properly as a extra impressive laser (we do hope he’s obtained some right laser glasses!) and adding air help. In our experience, air guide will definitely boost matters, clearing out the smoke from the beam path and escalating the penetration of the laser drastically. We assume there is no have to have for far more optical electric power (and increased chance) for this software. [Mark] says in the video that he’s functioning on an additional build online video, so possibly appear by later on and look at that out?
Of course, MokeyLaser is by no suggests the only these types of beast we’ve featured, here’s the engravinator for starters. For even a lot more minimalism, we covered a create with some intelligent optics executing all the work. But what if you do not come about to have a 5W laser module “lying around” then potentially consider a more purely natural warmth source rather?