New member. Infiniteqst

[Infiniteqst]

Hi, I manufacture cabinetry and with the need to do something different in this tough market, my husband and I started looking at cnc lasers. I want create detailed pictures/designs on wood. Is the accuracy for the fine detail achievable with the 2.0 build?

Looking forward to adding this machine to my collection of tools, most women collect jewelry, it seems I collect machines.
Thank you!

[TLHarrell]

This and many other lasers are more than capable of doing some very beautiful and intricate work engraving on wood. A 40 watt machine would be perfect for what you're talking about doing. You would just need to make sure of the largest piece you would need to engrave on, and select a machine that the piece fits into. Or at the least, a machine with the size available to engrave the largest of your designs, and be able to fit the work below the machine.

The machine on here is a DIY design. There are parts that you will need to find a source for having cut and bent, especially the gantry ends. It is not beyond the capability of tech savvy.mechanically inclined people. If you're not comfortable working with electronics, wiring, tinkering and making stuff, there are other machine available as well.

[Infiniteqst]

We make lots of items in my cabinetry shop and at one point when we were larger we had a full blown metalworking shop as well. We have made several machines including our own vacuum heat press. I feel. Confident that we can either make the parts or outsource if needed.

I we very fortunate that I grew up in an electronics environment and I do much of the electronics work on my current cnc machines as well as hardware and software related work on computers that we own.
Definitely working on figuring out what size would be optimum for my initial aspirations.

What software do you recommend I have been looking at the vectric aspire and vgroove. I've seen there products for years and some of the manufacturers of cnc Routers that I know really like their products.

Thanks

Mandy

[TLHarrell]

You won't need a full 3D capable CAM software for the laser. Usually a vector capable drawing program is about all you need. Corel Draw, Inkscape, Autocad. You need a file with vector linework for cutting, and raster (picture) for engraving.

For the 2x laser, most people run the DSP package which I believe has it's own software. The system also supports running from a USB connected device.
For systems from Full Spectrum, they have their own software as well called Retina Engrave. The software drives the laser. It has limited drawing capability inside, but accepts a range of vector files created elsewhere, as well as has a direct print driver. Print to it from any software, and it'll show up ready to run on the laser.
The Chinese controllers also have their own software, such as MoshiDraw, which some people mixed results with.