Feedback on open source laser cutter project!

Hi everyone,

Let me start of by saying this is about a project we launched on Kickstarter and I am the creator; however, this is not a marketing ploy!  I'm going around to a couple forums to ask people to give us some feedback.  After the Kickstarter is funded, it will be a completely free and open project so I wanted to start talking to experts like you so we can build a community of contributing folks.  Let me know if you think this project fills a good place in the open source world and if you have an feedback on it.  Thanks!

Hubble Kickstarter Link

-Michelle

Unfair criticism. I need to learn to read better.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2015 10:57AM by LarsK.

Hi Larsk,

Thank you for your feedback but I'd like you to take another look at our project. There is in fact a warning label on our page, as well as in our documentation. All kits also come with a pair of safety glasses as shown in our images and on our parts list.

Again thank you for your time but know we've been developing this for quite a while and all of your concerns have long been thoroughly discussed.

Michelle

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MichelleF
Hi Larsk,

Thank you for your feedback but I'd like you to take another look at our project. There is in fact a warning label on our page, as well as in our documentation. All kits also come with a pair of safety glasses as shown in our images and on our parts list.

Again thank you for your time but know we've been developing this for quite a while and all of your concerns have long been thoroughly discussed.

Michelle

Hello Michelle,

Please accept my apologies. I don't know how I missed those glasses.

As a more moderate suggestion I still think it is the better solution to simply box in the laser. Laser glasses only protects the one user and anyone walking into the room is in danger. And I still think you should address the risk of toxic fumes if people start cutting other materials (or just specific types of woods) - But you may have done that already in the instruction, if so disregard.

The world needs more opensource builds so I will say the project is very interesting.

Do you have any statistics on laser lifetimes in the setup you are using? In this forum it is often mentioned that lasers cannot go above 30 C without seriously affecting laser lifetime.

I love this, how are you resolving the exhaust issue. I recall the machine we had back in the school lab had a dedicated exhaust system to remove smoke. They also had issues with the laser lens getting damaged.

Its a cool project and congrats on exceeding your goal.

Hi Ralphy,

Thank you so much for your kind words! We're so excited that Hubble is now a reality.

Up to this point, due to lower classes of lasers 100mW - 2W, we have been able to use conventional cooling and exhaust methods to direct the fumes away from the diode. However, since Hubble is extremely hackable, we expect users to upgrade to lasers that require better ventilation and hope people like you can provide input from what you've seen on other systems (like in your school lab). We have a community forum going at help.tryhubble.com.

Thank you!

Well,

I am no expert but I do recall they had issues when the laser would cut too fast with the lens cracking. I'm sure the gurus out there know a lot more about power cutting speeds and ventilation needed. Later this month if my budjet permits I would love to back it and add it in to my arsenal of creative open source equipment. I do wish you the best!