The Laser Thread

Started my laser box today. Now waiting for ordered parts to arrive to complete it.
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Not my design, found plans online and modified to meet my needs.
 
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DanF said:
Started my laser box today. Now waiting for ordered parts to arrive to complete it.
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Not my design, found plans online and modified to meet my needs.
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Looks good. I may borrow part of that design. Here's a few photos of what I've done to date on mine. I need to order a couple fans. I also painted the inside of the box with Flame resistant paint. Basically header paint. To prevent the spread of any possible fires when I use the laser on wood. I need to order more and put on a second coat. The plywood sucked it right up. In insight an undercoat of primer paint would have been better. Then the header paint as the topcoat.
Box No 1.jpgBox No 3.jpgBox No 4.jpg
 
Oh man, I never considered the fire retardant paint, will need to order some, and thanks for that heads up.
 
DanF said:
Oh man, I never considered the fire retardant paint, will need to order some, and thanks for that heads up.
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I don't know how much of a problem it really is. I've never seen any actual damage from a fire started by one of these desk top lasers. But it's mentioned fairly frequently that it's a possibility. So I thought I'd go ahead and do it.
 
^ Better safe than sorry!
 
Well, not too bad for scraps from my cutoffs pile, but still pretty dang rough.
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Inelegant, but should suffice. When the extractor fan gets here I’ll decide where along the bottom I’ll put intake slits or holes.
 
That's a good looking enclosure - you gonna like it. What are you looking at for an extraction fan? I ordered this fan from Amazon B01M7S46YZ and it works good, and not too noisy. Combined with this carbon filter B0BXD8JYLB I don't have any order to speak of while cutting leather, wood, etc. Before cutting/engraving leather gave such an order I would move laser outside.

I use this remote plug B07GXCYWRQ so I can plug the air assist pump and exhaust fan both into the same recept and control from the desk.
 
I ordered that fan, should be here tomorrow (hopefully).

ETA, Ken, can you vent indoors with the filter?
 
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Yes, with that fan and filter my laser sits inside the room with VERY little order when cutting/engraving leather. No problems.
 
Will the diode lasers engrave a convex metal surface? Say- the top of a 1911 pistol slide?
 
There are a number of YouTube videos detailing pistol etching/engravings.
I bought the attachment with my laser to etch/engrave cylindrical objects (thermos, cups, etc), but have not ventured into that use just yet.
 
One engineering feature I see in those boxes is air exchange. If all you have is an exhaust port it will remove some smoke, but it mainly creates low pressure in the box. Adding a vent to the left back side of the box will allow strong air flow. This will evacuate the smoke much better. A cheap 3" fan soffit vent or other screened port will be an easy addition. You can cut off the excess tube portion and make it flush from the inside.

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DanF said:
There are a number of YouTube videos detailing pistol etching/engravings.
I bought the attachment with my laser to etch/engrave cylindrical objects (thermos, cups, etc), but have not ventured into that use just yet.
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I'm not sure what the depth of field the 10 watt OLM3 will engrave - at least 1/8" if not a tad more.

DanF - you got the rotary attachment, did you get the roller or chuck attachment for engraving cylindrical objects? I got the roller first and it really has issues (for me anyway). I then ordered the chuck rotary attachment and boy does it work so much better.
 
Ken H, I have not opened the box on that particular accessory but if I remember correctly, I/we ordered the roller type. I’ll have to look into that, and thanks for the heads-up.

S stacy , the left side bottom is raised a half inch to allow the fan to draw from left to right and then the duct is run out the window 18” on the right side. I cut the first leather sheath yesterday with this setup, there was no odor in the room.
I opted for this configuration versus slit or hole vents so I can sit to the far left at my leather sewing machine (facing the laser box) and not have to worry about accidental laser light exposure if the wife is using the laser while I am making sheaths.
 
DanF said:
There are a number of YouTube videos detailing pistol etching/engravings.
I bought the attachment with my laser to etch/engrave cylindrical objects (thermos, cups, etc), but have not ventured into that use just yet.
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Thanks, Dan.
But the cylindrical attachment keeps the engraved surface at exactly the same distance (focal point) by turning cylindrical items. I don't think it will work for just curved surfaces.
That's why I'm asking. Could you, for example, sit a pistol slide, level, with the rounded top exposed, and engrave the curved surface successfully? I know it can be done, but the engraver I spoke with yesterday said his fiber laser needed surfaces level to about 1 mm. to engrave them.
 
I think you might want to look into the chucked fixture. One of the YouTube vids I watched used that accessory vs the type I have.
I think Ken_H may have the chuck type?
Hopefully we can find something to work, I have a drawer full of low-to-mid level candidates I want to experiment with.
Sorry I could not be of more help at the moment.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Thanks, Dan.
But the cylindrical attachment keeps the engraved surface at exactly the same distance (focal point) by turning cylindrical items. I don't think it will work for just curved surfaces.
That's why I'm asking. Could you, for example, sit a pistol slide, level, with the rounded top exposed, and engrave the curved surface successfully? I know it can be done, but the engraver I spoke with yesterday said his fiber laser needed surfaces level to about 1 mm. to engrave them.
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Bill, I think what you need for that application is more about depth of field, rather than the source technology of the laser beam. The depth of field will depend on the properties of the lens and that will be different from product to product. If I remember correctly when I researched the depth of field for the laser I have, it was supposed to be about 1-2 mm, give or take, so somewhat in line with what you say. But then again the diode laser is much worse at engraving steel than fiber laser (you need a powerful one to make a deep mark), so that may diminish the effect of having nominally larger depth of field. The 1911 slide that I have has about 3 mm of height, so if you wanted to engrave from side to side it would probably not fit in there fully either (but again, I think it will depend on the specific product).

The fiber lasers I have seem have a form factor like this:
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So they do not have x-y axes, but they do have a nice Z-axis adjustment - would it not be possible to set the piece down, engrave, decrease z-height, engrave, repeat? The result might be fuzzy, but that could also be compensated for by only engraving the appropriate portion of the image.
The diode lasers I have seen generally do not have z-axis adjustment (though some do), they are mostly setup for moving in x-y. So they would be less suitable for this repeated engraving with z-change.

The cylindrical attachment would probably work if the piece was attached at the appropriate distance from the center, no? It's not the axis of the barrel, but something larger I guess.

EDIT: ah, according to this, the depth of field is 4-6 mm, so it might even work for the 455 nm diode laser (xtool laser). So it might be worth a try with a product like this. But I repeat, the diode laser is bad at engraving metal.
source
 
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