Freestyleing a laser.

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Freestyleing a laser.

Postby Groover » Thu Dec 29, 2011 10:37 pm

Hi everyone.

I've been lurking at this forum for a long time and only recently started to be part of discussions. I thought it might be a good idea to let people know who I am and what I'm building. As I'm from Sweden my English is not the best but please try to bare with me. I started this project about two years ago when I moved back to Sweden from working abroad. Last spring I had a go at Instructables Epilog contest and did very well winning first prize but missed out on the grand prize.

I'm building a small laser with a work area of about 16" by 24". I have no drawings what so ever when building and I cant really recommend it. But as this project have a long timespan on a minimal budget I try to scrape together the parts needed as they are needed. I did get a new job about a year and a half ago and now I'm finally getting back on my feet and so the speed of building have increased quite a bit. The laser is powered by two servos and one stepper, the stepper is supposed to drive the Z axis but I haven't gotten to that part yet. As of now I got X and Y axis working but thats about it. The axis is working great, stable and precise even at high speeds. The Y axis on the other hand have a bad issue of shaking that I haven't quite figured out yet. It might have to do with the linear bearings or the belt tension, I need to change the way the belts are connected to the X axis.

Today I got my laser tube and I hope to get first light during the weekend. It's a Chinese 40W tube that have been stuck in customs during the holidays.

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Y axis servo

The servos are from an old HP plotter. The belt and pulleys for the X axis comes from the same plotter.

IMG_0590.JPG

The progress from about two month ago.

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Latest picture of the laser.

This is the latest image from today.

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It is running arduino and lasaurGRBL at the moment but that will change as I put in a order from Lightobjects for a DSP controller a couple of days ago.
Groover
 
Posts: 17
Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 1:04 pm
Location: Sweden

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