Hi all,

Thanks to all the kind folks who bought RepRap parts and kits from me I was able to order a Laser Cutter

BuWahahahaha! /* Doctor Evil Pinkie Finger



I scraped and saved and then bit the bullet and ordered a 5th Gen Full Spectrum Hobby Laser

Truth is that I have spent so much time working this Half/Full-Time Hobby/Job (on top of a full time Space Systems Masters Degree) that I barely know what I will do with it when it gets here in a month or so

I thought I would call on my Maker/RepRap brothers for inspiration:

What are the best, coolest, newest RepRap / 3D Printer items one can make with a laser cutter?

What are some cool things in general that you would make with a laser cutter if you had access to one?

What mind-blowing/cool/tough items could someone make that require access to both a laser cutter and a 3D Printer?

Are Laser Cut extruders and/or wooden gears (ala Ultimaker or PrinterBot) any good?

Finally, the Bonus Question: If you could build a Laser Cutter from laser cut parts, would you consider that device to be a RepRap?

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FabberForge - Printing Happiness

[www.fabberforge.com]

... hmmm ... $3k5 is slightly more than the common 'hobby'-level - are you planning going commercial?

Have got one of this cheapish chinese 40W-CO2-lasercutters (normal price around $800) as exchange for a spare lasercut 'wood'-mendel frame and have now sourced all the parts and bits for replacing the original motherboard (and the awfull "MoshiDraw-left"-software) by a ArduinoMega and RepRap-software (or Isel-CNC-controller and the Isel-software with modied PP's) ... and two microstepping drivers with much higher resolution than the original ones ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

No real commercial aspirations for at least 3+ years. I am tied to my current line of work for now.

The laser cutter is pretty much something I have wanted to help me fuel my "Maker" passions for a while now. I almost can't believe I actually made it this far and ordered it

At $3.5K ($4k+ with water cooler and accessories etc) she is a pricey toy to have "Hobby" in the title

Then again, Epilogue Zing Lasers start around $8k I believe.

God willing, this laser will strike the balance between reliability and not costing $12k+

... for my daywork some time ago we too were buying some lasers with €40k+ ... and then I was 'dreaming' to get hands of one of this 'toys' for home use

Now this changed - I have some proffessional laser- , positioning- and CNC-equipent at home, orignally worth some tens to hundreds k€ -- but until now didn'tt find the time/organisation to get this working on regular basis ... tests and prototyping was successfull, but all the bits needs some 'focussing' to get ready

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

An eggbot would be fun.

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- akhlut

Just remember - Iterate, Iterate, Iterate!

[myhomelessmind.blogspot.com]

Awesome!, I would love a lasercutter, but like you can't think of any real reasons to actually have one, I could make do with a DIY CNC really, and again don't really need that either.

Do the Co2 lasers have a life-time of use? and if so how long and how much do they cost to replace?

I bet you could make a decent laser-cut spool holder for all that loose filament we keep on buying - that may help it pay for itself

And yes, one should consider a laser cutter device - that could cut another laser cutter (minus laser, elec, motors etc.) no different to a RepRap 3D printer, so yes, it's a RepRap.

Have fun, and do show us what you ended up doing with it.

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

Thanks much for the well wishes I will post on any cool developments

I believe the 4th Gen FSL Hobby Cutter had a 10,000 hr tube life. I read on the FSL forums that the 5th gen tube was manufactured according to requirements they put forth.

Now that you mention it, I could use a filament spool for my upcoming RepRap build

Been a CO2 Laser service engineer for over 15 years now. (1500W-5200W)

CO2's wear out. Glass gets coated, if DC the electrodes wear out, the optics get dirty/burned and fatigued. The power supplies, cooling are the killers for cost. The lasers are HORRIBLY inefficient. But fun to see them cut through 3/4" (19mm) stainless steel.

I would look at Yags and the new fiber lasers for hobby/small shop.
(well I'd just buy a bag of bones from one of my customers and rebuild it if I had the room/power, but that's me)

Quote
anode505
CO2's wear out. Glass gets coated, if DC the electrodes wear out, the optics get dirty/burned and fatigued. The power supplies, cooling are the killers for cost. The lasers are HORRIBLY inefficient.

I would have to whole heartedly disagee. I've been cutting and engraving with my CO2 lasers for years and they are my bread and butter. Especially with acrylic and wood, they make economic sense. If your looking to build a business, with the least amount of capital and the highest potential profit, get a laser.

any recommendations on building a business with a laser?

Idolcrasher Wrote:
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> any recommendations on building a business with a
> laser?


I would start with cutting out ultimakers replicators,thingomatics and cupcakes(yes i'm serious ) and the printrbot series(yes i know it's a wobblebot) plus as many of the others that files exist for,

after that maybe acrylic extruders? acrylic/plywood spool holders,

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-=( blog )=- -=( thingiverse )=- -=( 3Dindustries )=- -=( Aluhotend - mostly metal hotend)=--=( Facebook )=-

wobble-bot lol

Idolcrasher Wrote:
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> wobble-bot lol


it really is, the x axis only has 2 lm8uu's on it, and pretty much wobble from the start, and the y axis wiggles left and right when it goes forwards and backwards, even with all that i still got half decent prints off it, while it lasted

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-=( blog )=- -=( thingiverse )=- -=( 3Dindustries )=- -=( Aluhotend - mostly metal hotend)=--=( Facebook )=-

There are two ways to incorporate a laser in a business as I see it. First is the artistic angle; Making custom signage and letters. Engraving laptops is pretty popular. Things of that nature. Secondly, you if you have a machine shop you can make really accurate "jigs" (work holds) and templates. Believe it or not, we used to make these by hand with a band saw and a shaper.

Hey Idol. There's a few other designs out there that you could/should make as well on that laser! The tantillus is one that is still wanted, I've cut a few for os1r1s and others as special requests, but havn't offered kits or frames as of yet since i never heard back from sublime. If you want/can get his ok, i posted the files up to my github (johnoly99) for cutting them out of 1/4" material, acrylic or the melamine like we use for the Rostock MAX's Another up and comer in lasercut kits is the i3 single plate frame version. The one we sell is sgraber's design, and it's available on his github (sgraber) as well as the i3 MiNi frame he did, at about the same time as sound did his, lol

Definately should cut some pi cases, everyone seems to have a pi, and i'm really surprised at the lack of designs for cases out there!

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John "Oly"
SeeMeCNC.com

Cool rack ohio plastics

and good call on the pi cases John. I need a pi case for myself as well now that you mention it

I could see the value in cutting printer sets. I think i like the idea of cutting extruders even more.

It seems that there are not an overwhelming number of folks with RepRaps that also have access to laser cutters. I have not been able to gather a consensus on what people think of laser cut extruders; but I imagine that they could work nicely.

Who's laser you have? Like I said, been a service engineer for 15+ years. Factory trained on one brand, will work on most. Ones I work on *start* at $500K new. They wear out. output couplers were out, lenses wear out, electrodes erode, optics wear out/get the dubi-effect. Turbos crash, etc. I've rebuilt many a resonator.

ohioplastics Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > CO2's wear out. Glass gets coated, if DC the
> electrodes wear out, the optics get dirty/burned
> and fatigued. The power supplies, cooling are the
> killers for cost. The lasers are HORRIBLY
> inefficient.
>
> I would have to whole heartedly disagee. I've been
> cutting and engraving with my CO2 lasers for years
> and they are my bread and butter. Especially with
> acrylic and wood, they make economic sense. If
> your looking to build a business, with the least
> amount of capital and the highest potential
> profit, get a laser.

I built my own for about $5,000. Works fine for what I do.

Anyone have experience with laser cut extruders?

... I have one of the first GRRF-extruders lasercut from plywood:

Works, but is meant to replace by printed parts, as the plywood will wear out or break sometimes ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

I used the one that came with the original techzone laser cut Mendel and was so frustrated with it that I designed the gregs wade. Not that it was bad because it was laser cut, it was just a design with flaws. The techzone oak insulator hotend was a massive pain in the ass too, so that was probably the main source of frustration. Now I have my own all metal hotend, many of the features I designed into the extruder are rarely if ever used.

Idolcrasher Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> No real commercial aspirations for at least 3+
> years. I am tied to my current line of work for
> now.
>
> The laser cutter is pretty much something I have
> wanted to help me fuel my "Maker" passions for a
> while now. I almost can't believe I actually made
> it this far and ordered it
>
> At $3.5K ($4k+ with water cooler and accessories
> etc) she is a pricey toy to have "Hobby" in the
> title
>
> Then again, Epilogue Zing Lasers start around $8k
> I believe.
>
> God willing, this laser will strike the balance
> between reliability and not costing $12k+

Just for fun, I added all of thier options to the cart and the price came to just over $10,000 for one of these units...
I never feel comfortable buying something where all of their options are rounded of to the nearest $50. It's just a bit too suspicious for my likeing.

Still, I hope it works out for you and that you have fun with it.