Newb a question about TOOL HEADS

Hey,

Just another newbie doing some research before diving deep into building a reprap. These machines seem pretty customizable and I'm wondering if any has or could find a way to turn the reprap into a lasercutter...

I'm curious about how difficult that would be and also how much a laser would cost.

Many Thanks!

This depends on what you want to cut and how finely you want to cut it.

Over at Instructables there are instructions for using a diode laser from a dvd writer to cut black paper stencils. That is probably a decent hack to throw onto a Darwin, but be aware that the positional accuracy of a Darwin is around .05 millimeters which is considerably less than a commercial laser cutter. You might consider a Cri-kut cutter if you want to make stencils.

Beyond that playing with lasers in this context is a bad idea. Even the DVD diode laser can blind you before you can blink. Real laser cutters use high watt CO2 lasers which can kill if a mirror is off by a few degrees. These lasers are too heavy to mount on the toolhead, so the beam has to be directed through a high precision optical chain with lots of moving parts. The pieces to make something like this would cost you more than a used epilog. Sorry.

There are good small laserpointers with high wattage around, but they will cost you more than the reprap is worth... And then you can only cut paper or small pieces of plastic.

... i built a laser-welding-station with a pigtailed 8W-diodelaser that costs 300Eur/400USD, a power-driver with 6 parallel LM317, a 10Ampere powersource and a foot-switch with a PWM-chip.

Look here: [forums.reprap.org] - all inclusive something around 600 Euros (but could be cheaper).

This would be a perfect cutting-head for reprap too ...

Viktor... why don't you ever blog any of this stuff? :-)

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Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas A. Edison

Hi Forrest,

... i've made some weird stuff ...

Mostly for other problems/solutions and sometimes with bad restrictions in respect of confidentionality and such - so i cant't make images of my solutions.

With time i'll rework some of the ideas and make new concepts for my repstrap (DIY-laser-curing, LOM-fabbing, noncartesian mechanics, ...), then i can blog this too.

But the last year i didn't have any real time for this (or totally consumed by optimizing my CNC-mill or family-tasks).

The next steps on my agenda are UV-curing of fluid PMMA (see "Acrifix192") and LOM-fabbing with laser-cutting and micro-milling ...

Viktor

VDX Wrote:
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> ... i've made some weird stuff ...
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Yes, I know. It is very interesting weird stuff, to me anyway, that deserves more detailed descriptions when you can find the time and interest.

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Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas A. Edison

It might be possible to funnel a cutting laser through a fiber-optic cable, but if I recall my temp coefficents from my time at Ocean Optics, Inc... that may not be doable--it'll likely melt the "glass" in the cable.

My best bet would be to look directly at the laser setups; since I'm planning on attending the exhibit halls at SPIE's Defense, Security & Sensing show, I can look up OOI's laser distributer [Quantel Lasers] there. Their website show several interesting small-scale flex-head laser engravers for industrial/commerical purposes. I'll try and find out what their prices are at then.