Quantcast
Channel: Reprap Forum - Laser Cutter Working Group
Viewing all 299 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

Some "serious" laser-marking with a fiber-laser ... (no replies)

December 16, 2018, 3:37 am
$
0
0
... was on an "Advent market" exhibition last week -- and did some "Christmas-deko" with engraved and cut brass sheets:

[attachment 108726 Stand-Leute.jpg]


The "boot" was two tables, where I've placed the marking laser ... and on the other table some other samples (3D-printing, CNC-milling/engraving, others ...):

[attachment 108725 Stand-Komplett.jpg]

[attachment 108724 Stand-Detail2.jpg]



But one of the visitors wanted some "personal" laser-marking (others will eventually contact me the next days for their "personal" items):

[attachment 108727 Korkenzieher-fertig.png]

Here the video engraving the part - [vimeo.com]
↧
Search

Beam Dumps (1 reply)

January 3, 2019, 4:26 pm
$
0
0
Here is a thought I figured I would bring up. Simple diode lasers make due just fine with flame-resistant MDF as a cutting bed. As they become higher powered, a metal bed (honeycomb particularly) becomes much more popular. What I don't see much of is the ideal materials used for a beam dump beneath this.

I have seen some designs where the beam goes straight through to the base and other more negligent ones where there is fragile mechanical or electrical equipment present. I understand a laser beam becomes less abrasive as it goes out of focus but this seems poorly thought through for something of such high power. Especially if you are trying to avoid beams reflecting onto a viewing panel or other burnable material.

Does anyone have some good or bad experiences to share? Or thoughts on what makes a good safe base?

Thanks,
↧
↧

Issue with grayscale raster images (no replies)

January 4, 2019, 5:04 am
$
0
0
Hi.

I have built up a new laser system and having an issue with etching raster pictures on my mediums.

I have a RAMPS 1.6 with Arduino DUE. Been using Repetier's firmware and have tried MarlinKimbra.

So far, I have no issues with either firmwares with movement, endstops, or firing the laser at different intensities. I can cut and do outlines and monotone drawings.
But when I run a raster setup, it keeps passing over the same row and never advancing to the next Y cordinate. I see the movement command in the gcode.

I use LaserWeb as my interface and can see the drawing from the gcode script show in the preview correctly. I use Inkscape and tried different extensions to prepare the image and get the same result.

Probably missing a simple item somewhere. Anyone seen something similiar?

I am at work now, but can upload the gcode later when I get off if that will help.
↧

Laser is marking it's path. (3 replies)

January 6, 2019, 10:07 am
$
0
0
Hi. I have a Chinese 50w laser cutter. I'm using Adobe Illustrator and rdworks. When my laser scans or cuts it marks the path where it moves to each cut. Is there a setting to stop this from happening. Thankyou.
↧

laser TTL arduino DUE RADDS 3.3v pinout (2 replies)

January 10, 2019, 3:33 pm
$
0
0
I just bought this laser from aliexpress

[attachment 109397 HTB1wgFcRFXXXXabXVXXq6xXFXXX2.jpg]
is a 2 W laser

I connected to my radds on fan pin 2 and used with commands M106 P1 Sxxx on, and M107 P1 off
is working
but i want to try TTL
controller for this board is

[attachment 109400 HTB1.HWLLXXXXXaXapXXq6xXFXXXt.jpg]

the problem is I use RADDS with arduino due and pinout are on 3.3 v
I try to figure out how to use it with my board true TTL
I am not sure but i try to draw a small schematic using normal way to connect a laser true ramps or arduino uno which have 5 v out pins

[attachment 109399 control.png]

power supply is that given with laser 12v 5A and is separate by RADDS controller
laser controller can be put on by power supply , I tried also to supply power straight from 12 v Fan , is working but I don't have laser intensity
For PWM --- M106 P1 S1 for example laser already cut paper
idea is to have laser intensity variable
M106 Sxxx is for fan 1
M106 P1 Sxxx is for fan 2
this is happend for REPETIER firmware

maybe somebody can give me some information's in this way
↧
↧

Laser Cutting Bed material (3 replies)

January 13, 2019, 4:17 am
$
0
0
Hi there
I did do a search, and could not find an answer, so I thought I'd ask. I've made a bracket to turn my homebrew 3d printer into a laser cutter. I've a 5w laser and wiring all set, I just need to know what is safe to cut over. Currently, there is a Ultrabase by anycubic, which I believe would probably be destroyed by the laser - I would most likely need to put some felt down and clamp something else onto it to cut on.

So far, I can only imagine a ceramic tile would work but could be heavy and cause some distortion in the y-axis belt. I an concerned aluminium may reflect the laser back into the material? I would only be cutting balsa, to begin with.

Are there any other ideas for bedding material for a 5w laser cutter?

Many thanks
Kevin
↧

Galvo motor and G code (no replies)

January 20, 2019, 11:25 am
$
0
0
Hello everyone. I am doing galvo laser project. I can scan square are with galvos. how can I read G code with galvo motors and arduino ?
↧

Laser Engraver: ArduinoMega2560+Ramps1.4+drv8825 (1 reply)

January 24, 2019, 10:30 am
$
0
0
I have bought a laser [www.aliexpress.com]
And I've built a coordinate table wich consist of axis X and Y but I didn't find pins in the firmware (It is attached) where I should plug in the laser power 12v+- and ttl+- with ramps 1.4.
I've read other topics so I burned one arduino and I didn't understand how I should plug in the laser.

Thank you
↧
Search

2.5W Laser TTL Confused (4 replies)

January 31, 2019, 10:58 am
$
0
0
I am wondering if someone can steer me straight in regards to adding a laser to my 3d printer? I am trying to get this to work on my older Prusa i2. I picked up a 2.5w module which comes with the small driver board that has a TTL input. As many have tried and there is lots of good information on here, I am having a hard time trying to nail down a way to get my setup to work - I have researched so much, I have just confused myself!.D9 remapping to pin 44 doesn't work, using a 7805 regulator direct from the D9 to TTL does not work either.. I don't just want to have the laser turn off and on I would like to use the PWM and TTL..I am running Arduino 1.8.3 and Marlin 1.1.9 which does have a Laser option in Config Adv.

So here is where I am at: I think if I run a wire from the + TTL on the board to Pin D6 on the ramps board and the gnd to gnd in the same Ramps 1.4 servo block, I can get the 5v signal for TTL and PWM – but I don’t know what lines to change in the firmware, it's confusing as I am no programmer.

Hoping someone can assist

Thanks!
↧
↧

Conservative kerf value for tabbed box cutting? (1 reply)

March 12, 2019, 7:47 am
$
0
0
Hello,

I am going to have my first tabbed box cut. It will be made of 6mm birch plywood.

I don't know which kerf value to encode in the box designer (Tabbed Box Maker for Inkscape). I suppose it's better to choose a value which would be a bit too small rather than too big?

Currently I have set it 0.22mm according to some website whereas the shop where I plan to have the cutting done tell me to set it to 0.3mm. What's the more conservative choice to be sure that the parts can be interlocked? Should I even set it to a lower figure?

Thank you for helping.
↧

Stupid Question about 2.5W laser (2 replies)

April 19, 2019, 9:56 am
$
0
0
Right, so I recently purchased this 2.5W Laser from Amazon and have received it. When looking at it, it only has a plug and a small cooling fan on the back side of the laser module. It came with a 120V/12V wall plug to connect to the laser.

Is it safe to assume that I could just wire this plug into the RAMPS 1.4 board as if it was a hotend heater, heatbed, or cooling fan and run PWM? I was sort of expecting my laser to have power and some sort of control signal that would turn it on or off, but since it appears its just power I'm assuming what I expect should work? Either way, if this does function that way, I may splice the cooling fan to be always on and just PWM the laser power itself.

Is there anything else I should be looking at to control this or will what I think work?
↧

Firmware/Electronics (1 reply)

April 17, 2019, 12:43 pm
$
0
0
Hi, im currently converting a K40 cutter. I wanted to use the Ramps 1.4 i have but im not sure what firmware to use. If possible it would be great if i could use the reprapdiscount full graphic smart controller. I had a look at grbl but it seems it needs some specific board on top. At the other hand Marlin seems to be focused on printing. Im not sure how to control it after that. Seems there is a inkscape plugin. Would be great if i could read the svg from sdcart and cut/engrave directly from there or use a web based management.
Cherz
↧

Epilog laser won’t go home, looking for miracle solution (2 replies)

June 23, 2019, 11:49 am
$
0
0
Hiya laser community,

We have a 50W Epilog Zing CO2 laser. The Y-Axis keeps homing at about the 6.5" mark out on the ruler guide AS IF the rotary attachment were connected, even though its not.

When working properly, the Zing recognizes the rotary is attached and automatically adjusts the home position for it. And when the rotary is disconnected, it will revert to the correct, left, rear home position for the 12x24 bed (always connect/disconnect rotary controller cable with machine off)

Up until this homing problem began, it worked flawlessly.

Here is what I've tried so far ...

  • I made sure the sensor is clean and belts are tight.
  • I tried turning off X/Y and moving the rail back to the normal home position
  • I manually set the home to factory default positions (X -152, Y +200) using the Config Menu in the machine's LCD display
    Note: There is no 'Restore to Factory Default' option in the LCD Config Menu on the machine or in the Epilog driver interface on a computer.
  • I tried reconnecting and disconnecting the rotary to see if that would reset it.
  • Epilog Support suggested the motor wasn't pulling properly. Even though the rail and carriage seem to have no issues moving, I replaced the motor anyway.

BUT as soon as I power off and on, or punch the Reset or Go button, the rail returns to the home position for the rotary attachment.

As far as I can tell, the machine is working properly in all regards to hardware, but is confused about where home is, which seems like a software glitch to me.

A new control board from Epilog cost over $1K+ so I just wanted to see if anyone knew of a fix, or trick even.

Any suggestions are welcome, thanks!
↧
↧

Need guidance (1 reply)

September 20, 2019, 7:59 am
$
0
0
I am relative new to CNC Laser Cutting Machines and I am having a problem that I have not been able to figure out. I am using a Mitsubishi ML4020-F60 Fiber Optic laser machine. I don't seem to have any issues until I start cutting .375" Mild Steel. According to the chart I should use a 1.2 tip which is the same for .50" steel. It will cut the .50" all day with no issues but if I switch to .375" all of the sudden I have dross issues. I have done and re-done centering until I am blue in the face but I still cannot get rid of the dross and bad edge. What am I doing/not doing wrong? I am attaching some pics of what a part ends up looking like after it has been cut. There is a pic for each side (as the dross issue seems to only happen on one side) so that you will have a reference for what I am talking about.
↧

Wiring up the laser to RAMPS (3 replies)

January 31, 2020, 4:17 pm
$
0
0
Okay, here's my first post..

I have a laser that turns on with 2 wires (it's on/off at 12V) and the GCode that my laser program creates uses M03 and M05 to turn the laser on and off. I have chosen to use a RAMPS to drive the thing and I use Marlin firmware with the option "MOTHERBOARD BOARD_RAMPS_14_SF" in the Configuration.h file.

At the moment, I have connected the laser on D08 where some manuals write that you're supposed to connect the laser on that port. However, this will result in the laser only being turned on or off with M106 and M107.

Can you help me figure out how I have to connect that laser so that it'll work with the M03/M05 commands?
↧
Search

windows printer driver (4 replies)

March 30, 2020, 11:10 am
$
0
0
Hi, I built my own laser engraver using a RAMP controller board with Marlin firmware and currently I am using laserweb for all my laser cutting and engraving projects.

On YouTube I found however some tutorials whereby people are printing directly from CorelDraw to a printer (appearing in the windows Printers &Scanner list). Various colours then perform different actions (e.g. black is raster engraving, blue is vector engraving, red is cutting). This seems a much easier way to control my machine.

I need however a windows printer driver for my marlin based printer. I have searched high and low on google (maybe I am using the word search criteria) but I couldn't find such a driver. Does anybody know if it exists?


Thanks in advance for any help / hints in the right direction.
↧

Get more speed in laser pwm/ttl (2 replies)

April 5, 2020, 6:36 am
$
0
0
Hello,

I'm using a 2.5W blue laser. It's ok for lines but when are dotted not print well because It takes a long time to turn on and off. I'm using M4 S0~255 for ON and M4 S0 for OFF.

If the speed is high, the laser does not turn on. And if the bass comes on but then the long lines come out very thick. Is there no way to balance this?


Best regards
↧
↧

Laser smoothing of 3D printed object? (no replies)

April 12, 2020, 4:54 pm
$
0
0
I had a thought that I could use my newly acquired laser cutter/engraver to smooth the surface of 3D-printed objects... run the laser across or along the layers to melt the surface of the PLA so that it fuses together better.

Ideally the laser module would be moved by the same mechanism (maybe as an exchangeable tool?) so that there wouldn't be any positioning errors, I guess. But perhaps with another 3 degrees of freedom so that it could always be positioned normal to the surface being smoothed.

Has anyone tried this? Any thoughts?
↧

Recommended software/firmware? (no replies)

April 12, 2020, 5:16 pm
$
0
0
I've just set up my new 3018 CNC/laser cutter. It came with Grbl firmware which I upgraded to the latest version, so I'm currently using LaserGrbl software to control it. But I'm wondering if there is better software and/or firmware out there? For example, I see people here talking about Marlin, but I wasn't aware that was suitable for CNC milling and laser cutting. And presumably Grbl-oriented software won't talk to that? Are people using something like e.g. Octopi for offline operation?

Is there somewhere I can go to find out what the software/firmware options are, and the pros and cons?
↧

Arduino Uno + CNC shield (no replies)

May 10, 2020, 2:40 am
$
0
0
Hi everyone,

I a having problems with the Y axis on my CNC. I am using LaserGRBL and the manual jog control works but once the cutting starts the y axis does not move anymore, any sugestion?

Thans in advanced.
↧
Viewing all 299 articles
Browse latest View live
Search
<script src="https://jsc.adskeeper.com/r/s/rssing.com.1596347.js" async> </script>