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PLEASE NOTE: I'm really not competing to win the laser, a t-shirt would be fine, thanks.
I saw the competition and thought it would be fun to show off my system.
INTRODUCTION. The general idea of this CO2 laser system is that a beam is directed down to a part for cutting. The part sits on a computer controlled platform which moves the piece around the stationary laser beam. Cutting is acheived by passing the beam through a focusing lens. A focused beam exits through the bottom of a cutting head nozzle. Gas, such as oxygen, is fed into the side of the chamber below the focusing lens. This gas exits the nozzle along with the beam and the laser beam/oxygen combination serves to vaporize the steel for cutting.
Click here to see it cut
One thing that I discovered when making this system is that purchasing the laser was the easy part; many other systems are required to be on-line in order to achieve anything useful with the laser. To give you an idea, this is a comprehensive diagram describing the basic components of a CNC laser cutting system.
This is a picture organizing many of these components around the central control unit and includes other sub components such as the motors, encoders, solenoids and flow sensors.
Assume for now that you have a really great laser, and these main components are handled:
Electrical
Two 110VAC 20 amp lines were run to operate ancillary equipment, a 220VAC 20 amp line services the laser power supply, a 220VAC 20 amp line services the chiller outside of my house, and another 110VAC 15 amp line runs room lighting.
It was also useful to make boxes like this that have 110VAC entering into them and also had relays system that could be driven by TTL levels to run various appliances like ventilation.
Ventilation
A ventilation system has yet to be installed in the work area. This will be required to remove fumes and reduce smoke that will contaiminate the optics inside the beam delivery system. The laser has the capability to cut a number of different materials like wood and plastic. Ventilation will be essential to remove the fumes produced by these materials.
Gas Lines
The laser cutting system can use either oxygen or nitrogen depending on the cutting application. This required that a couple tanks get installed and I ended up mounting the tanks up off the wall. This is to conserve floor space so I can cut larger sheets of metal. The brackets came from the welding supplier. The plastic chameleon has a couple magnets embedded in it for sticking to the tank.
Here's a pic of the gas set up. Here is another.
Support Arm
The laser head needs to be suspended about 48 inches away from the nearest wall. Another design criteria was that it has to be able to change the height of the laser along the z-axis. A CAD drawing was put together, and I bought a pile of channel iron, angle iron, and flat stock then went to work with my chopsaw. Note the lag bolts attaching the angle iron to wall and floor.
Here's the support.
I saw the competition and thought it would be fun to show off my system.
INTRODUCTION. The general idea of this CO2 laser system is that a beam is directed down to a part for cutting. The part sits on a computer controlled platform which moves the piece around the stationary laser beam. Cutting is acheived by passing the beam through a focusing lens. A focused beam exits through the bottom of a cutting head nozzle. Gas, such as oxygen, is fed into the side of the chamber below the focusing lens. This gas exits the nozzle along with the beam and the laser beam/oxygen combination serves to vaporize the steel for cutting.
Click here to see it cut
One thing that I discovered when making this system is that purchasing the laser was the easy part; many other systems are required to be on-line in order to achieve anything useful with the laser. To give you an idea, this is a comprehensive diagram describing the basic components of a CNC laser cutting system.
This is a picture organizing many of these components around the central control unit and includes other sub components such as the motors, encoders, solenoids and flow sensors.
Assume for now that you have a really great laser, and these main components are handled:
- Laser head and power supply
- Optics
- Control unit
- CNC table and power supply.
- Computer
- Cooling systems
Electrical
Two 110VAC 20 amp lines were run to operate ancillary equipment, a 220VAC 20 amp line services the laser power supply, a 220VAC 20 amp line services the chiller outside of my house, and another 110VAC 15 amp line runs room lighting.
It was also useful to make boxes like this that have 110VAC entering into them and also had relays system that could be driven by TTL levels to run various appliances like ventilation.
Ventilation
A ventilation system has yet to be installed in the work area. This will be required to remove fumes and reduce smoke that will contaiminate the optics inside the beam delivery system. The laser has the capability to cut a number of different materials like wood and plastic. Ventilation will be essential to remove the fumes produced by these materials.
Gas Lines
The laser cutting system can use either oxygen or nitrogen depending on the cutting application. This required that a couple tanks get installed and I ended up mounting the tanks up off the wall. This is to conserve floor space so I can cut larger sheets of metal. The brackets came from the welding supplier. The plastic chameleon has a couple magnets embedded in it for sticking to the tank.
Here's a pic of the gas set up. Here is another.
Support Arm
The laser head needs to be suspended about 48 inches away from the nearest wall. Another design criteria was that it has to be able to change the height of the laser along the z-axis. A CAD drawing was put together, and I bought a pile of channel iron, angle iron, and flat stock then went to work with my chopsaw. Note the lag bolts attaching the angle iron to wall and floor.
Here's the support.
block_diagram.pdf150 KB
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Signing UpStep 1The Laser Head
This be that laser. My system is based the Coherent G-100, an RF excited sealed industrial C02 pulsed laser. It consists of 100 watt laser resonator and solid state RF amplifier integrated into an all aluminum enclosure. The RF amplifier provides pulsed RF power to the laser to ionize the CO2 gas mixture in the tube. A modulation signal applied to the laser head controls the output pulse width and period. The amplifier produces 3000 watts of RF power.
Control systems. The G-100 has a DB25 connector that supplies control and input modulation signals to the RF amplifier and supplies status information from the amplifier. This allows monitoring of the temperature, duty cycle, and supports digital control of the overall power output of the laser.
- Average power range 10-100 watts.
- Peak effective power: 250 watts.
- Input power: 48 volts DC at 50 amps.
- Weight: 35 pounds.
- Cooling requirements: 2500 watts, water based.
- Documentation
- Original price: $27,000.
- The Coherent web site.
Control systems. The G-100 has a DB25 connector that supplies control and input modulation signals to the RF amplifier and supplies status information from the amplifier. This allows monitoring of the temperature, duty cycle, and supports digital control of the overall power output of the laser.
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Great project - been thinking about building such a thing (after finding out that TechShop here in the Bay Area doesn't have a metal-capable laser cutter... :-(
(Hint, hint, Jim, Ridge, et al... >;-)
And it doesn't have to be.
Less than $350 can get you 3 axes *with* controlling electronics and motors.
(see the reprap project for a great example, although with a moving head. a moving table is just as easy and maybe even cheaper though.)
You don't even need 3, but if you use 3 you could save on laser power and thus on laser cost a lot by using a reciprocating laser setup which adjusts focus during the cut.
A quick look on ebay gives me $1375 (that's with worldwide shipping) for a laser with power supply included.
Your transformer setup requires a large, bulky, line frequency transformer which gives you horrible regulation and high cost. A computer power supply or some other form of SMPS will give you much better regulation at a lower cost. The $350 figure already includes the power supply with the electronics though.
Cooling with a cheap pump and water is fine, so I'll say $100.
I have no clue about optics though, but the optics can't cost a lot more than the laser so I'm making that $1000.
laser: $6500 - $1375
CNC table: $ 500 - $ 350
Optics: $2500 - $1000
Cooling: $ 500 - $ 100
electronics:$5000 - $ 0 (driving electronics included in table price)
total: $15000 - $2825
Savings: $12 175
Or, if I am wrong about the optics and it's indeed $2500, the total is still only $4 325. Savings $10 675.
I hope this is of use to someone =)
I just realised that the $350 table might be a bit unrealistic for a laser cutter cutting steel sheets - but even a $1000 table still means significant savings.
Just my $10k ;)
--Nathan
Do you have any sources to buy Laser Head, Optics..?
Thanks
Yatish
I want to build a cnc laser for cutting stanless steel 6 mm
so I need electrical parts . like power suply400w- laser gun-and ets
if it is possible for you send me comlete lists of parts and price I.ll need to
building these machine.
best regards
laser cut melbourne
the correct correct is 0.1643 watts/mm2 .
Known to most as a gas laser.
The oxidized steel has a melting point of ~ 1450 C and runs off the steel which melts at a little over 1500 C.
It is really important to have the laser cutter inside an enclosure or to precisely study the angles of possible reflections coming out to the observer to create and set protecting panels in the correct paths.
Most people isn't aware of this and handle lasers with absolutely insufficient care.
Be aware! You have only two eyes, no spare!
http://cascadelaser.com/safetyeyewear.html
Jerry
And either way, I wouldn't bet my eyes on a cheap pair of safety glasses.
A $100 pair of laser goggles might seem expensive - until you lose your sight.
The $50 you saved won't get you back your eye.
808 nm, on the other hand is in the visible range and will pass right through anything that visible light passes through.
Great blog though, many thanks, Andy
Approximate would do it too.
gotta find a good bank to rob :D
Project is well thought out and
it shows you have put in a lotta effort.
I like but I no makes it!