DIY Laser

Note: This project was stopped in January 2013. See the Laser Cutter page for further information.

In November 2012, Nottinghack members ran a pledge drive to fund the building of a new, larger, laser cutter. With a goal of £1000, we raised £2000 in 48 hours! Now the plan to to build and even bigger, more powerful, more awesome laser cutter! These pages will chart the design, build, setup and use of this laser. In the Beginning The pledge was started on 13th November 2012, but the monies won't be called in until we have finalised a design for the cutter and have a build plan in place. The first design meeting was on Wednesday 21st November 2012 at 8pm in the Blue Room and was well attended. The Design The blackhole laser by iGull We can split the design into two major sections - essentials and addons. Essentials are those features or design elements that will be built as we put the laser together for the first time. They may or may not be actually essential to the running of the device, but as a group we consider them essential to our laser Addons are all the nice to have features that we will document and look to build after we have a functioning laser cutter. The main design restriction is the size of the cutting area - this will be 800x450mm The design is going to be based upon the build log open source design and more specifically the 'Black Hole' laser cutter made by iGull, the details can be found here. http://www.buildlog.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=751 SubSystems XY Gantry Laser and Optics Extraction Air Assist Cooling and Cool Bot Electronics Z Axis and Bed Additional Essentials Frame (including free standing element) Skin (including doors and lids) Wiring and Hose Looms Addons Vacuum Bed Rotational Axis USB Control Open Source control software RFID access system (tied into Holly) Possibles Parallel Control System (using CNC software) The Team Below is a list of everyone that will be working on the laser. For some people I just have a first name, please fill in any missing details of yours! Name Interest Sub Team Notes Reprap Matt Anything Kai Anything Ian Anything Andy Anything Joe Brackets, etc Martin Control Edward Mac handicaps Russell Mechanicals Michael Mechanicals Lionel Mechanicals Steve Mechanicals, Control James Project Jake Project Daniel RFID Matt Little USB, Steppers, Anything Wendy Anything Learn/Help David Extraction, Mechanicals, Anything Froggy Anything Handy with soldering iron. Notes If you need to make random notes for inclusion later on, use the Notepad. Full Subpage List DIY Laser/Air Assist DIY Laser/Electronics DIY Laser/Extraction DIY Laser/Frame DIY Laser/Laser DIY Laser/Old Plan DIY Laser/Parallel DIY Laser/Pledge DIY Laser/Rotational Axis DIY Laser/XY Gantry Specifications Size: Laser power: Minimum 60W/Maximum 80W Cutting Speed: X axis: Y axis: Resolution: Precision: Accuracy: Repeatability: Yes Etching Speed: Resolution: Accuracy: Precision: Repeatability: Available Gantry Specifications Speed: X axis: 1000mm/s Y axis: 550mm/s