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Pocket laser engraver.by Groover on February 22, 2011

Table of Contents

Pocket laser engraver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Intro:   Pocket laser engraver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 1:   Acquire the parts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 2:   Rip apart the DVD-Roms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Step 3:   Putting a laser together. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Step 4:   Construct the mechanics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Step 5:   Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Step 6:   Prepare the Arduino. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Step 7:   Getting the software ready. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Step 8:   Final assembly and extras. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Step 9:   Final results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pocket-laser-engraver/

Author:GrooverI'm just a poor lonesome cowboy...

Not really, I am married and live in the cold country of Sweden. I am not much of a author but tries to share what I have done so that others might learn frommy mistakes.

I think I love the technical part of DIY as it is close to my work without being my work. I am a software engineer by day and a, well whatever I think is fun atthe moment by night.

Intro:  Pocket laser engraver.I have been trying to get my hands on a laser cutter for some time but they always seem out of reach. All the great things that can be done with a real laser cutter ticklethe imagination. One thing I've wanted to do for a long time is houses and other scenery for garden railroads maybe even make my own wagons (most parts at least).Other ideas I have are enclosures for my projects, signs and engravings, cutouts and stamps for my wife’s scrapbooking, Doll house and furniture for my friend’s kidsand plant markers for my mother. There are so many uses for a laser cutter.

Now I feel it's time to share my latest project - a low cost laser engraver, and maybe just have the chance to get my hands on the real thing ;) . The workspace is a bitsmall but none the less it works and comes so cheap that most will be able to replicate the result. I did take a few shortcuts, as I feel I don't have the knowledge to do allthe electronics I opted for readymade but low cost in favor of trying to make my own (and most likely fail). All parts used are however easy to find.

I am pleased with the end result even if there is room for improvements. The small size and low power is a bit limiting but I have made allot of fun things already. Papercutouts, plant markers and stamps among some. The engraver itself might not fit in a pocket but the workspace limits what you can do with it to fit in the pocket.

A word of warning is in place . This instructable is using a ~200mW red laser. It might nut cut through chunks of wood but it will make you go blind if you are notcareful. Never look into the beam, even reflections can be dangerous if focused. Please be careful.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pocket-laser-engraver/

Step 1: Acquire the parts.Most of the hardware comes from my junk bin. The aluminum profiles, the piece of MDF and various nuts, bolts and wires. But some things need to be acquired. Most ofthe electronics can be found over at Sparcfun and the rest on e-bay or a swap meet.

- Arduino - this is the heart of the control electronics.- Easydrive - stepper driver.- Two DVD-rom drivers - Maybe more if you’re unlucky, and at least one DVD-R to salvage the laser from.- Laser housing - singles can be found on e-bay.- Laser driver - There are lots of alternatives here, I use a simple LM317 based circuit.- Various nuts, bolts and other building materials.

Image Notes1. Laser housing2. Easydrive x 2

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Step 2: Rip apart the DVD-Roms.All you need from the DVD-Roms are the stepper motor assembly and one laser diode. I had a bit of bad luck and found that one of my DVD-Roms had a plasticassembly that would be very hard to work with. Thus I ripped apart three DVD-Roms and only used parts from two of them. It is pretty strait forward and most DVD-RomsI have opened works more or less the same way.

After removal of the screws at the bottom of the drive you can lift it of like a lid. Underneath you will most likely find two circuit boards and none of them are any use to us.But remember to salvage other useful parts that can be used for other projects. For example under the front circuit board there is a small dc motor worth saving. This iswhen it is time to remove the front together with the front of the tray; the front comes loose after you pull out the tray (just use a hairpin and the small hole in the front).The next step can include some screws and/or mild force. Remove the two circuit boards. Be careful with the ribbon cable to the stepper motor. If you turn the DVD-Romright side up and remove the cover, you should find what we are looking for, the stepper motor assembly. Remove the screws and just lift it out.

Now that we have the assembly out it needs to be cleaned up a bit. Remove the spindle motor, it could be useful but I feel they are hard to drive and thus don't keepthem. They are usually hold in place by three very small screws but sometimes they are part of a larger assembly so be careful that removing it won’t compromise thetwo rods holding the lens.

The lens is another story, just remove it best possible way, we need a smooth surface to attach other parts to later. Be careful to not harm the DVDR laser diode. It cancome to good use if you don't want to buy a new powerful laser later. See the next step.

Image Notes1. Broken DVD-rom drive.

Image Notes1. Right under here there are a small DC motor that could be salvaged for futureprojects.

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Image Notes1. This motor needs to go.

Image Notes1. This whole assembly was discarded (put aside for future projects) due to thebulky plastic.

Step 3: Putting a laser together.There are so many good instructables on this subject, I will just make this part a quick one and let the pictures do most of the talking.

Removing the laser from the DVDR is not hard but most lens assemblies look different. Locate the diodes (there will be two, one IR and one red) and remove them fromthe assembly. There are some optics and two magnets that can be saved for future projects. Once you have removed the two diodes you must be careful. The two diodesare very small and fragile. Remove the small connecting PCB strips from the diodes and use two AAA batteries to check for the red diode.

Now that you have the bare diode it is time to mount the diode in the housing. Place the diode in the housing and use the back of the housing to press down the diodevery carefully using a vice. When you get this far you are on the home stretch. Solder the wires to the positive and negative pins, screw in the lens and you are done.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pocket-laser-engraver/

Image Notes1. Laser diode.2. Laser diode.

Image Notes1. The optics can be saved for future projects.

Image Notes1. On each side of the lens there are two powerful magnets worth saving.

Image Notes1. Trash2. Magnets from the lens.3. Mirrors and lenses.4. The laser diodes.

Image Notes Image Notes

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1. The laser diodes needs to be removed from the mounts. This can require somemild force. Be careful not to hurt the diodes.

1. One of these are an IR diode and the other is the red laser we are after.

Image Notes1. Remove the connecting PCB from the diode.

Image Notes1. The small hole on the back of the laser housing fits over the pins of thediode.

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Image Notes1. The diode is now secured in the housing.

Image Notes1. Some Teflon tape keeps the lens secure in place.

Image Notes1. 178mW output is not bad. But this is with the diode way into overdrive.

Image Notes1. The diode running at 310mA

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Step 4: Construct the mechanics.To make this as easy as possible I got hold of a piece of MDF just a little bit larger than the DVD-Rom stepper assembly. This will work as the base to hold both the X andY axis. I found some spacers to hold the Y axis but bolts with a couple of nuts would work just as well. The measurements here are not critical but it is important thatevery axis is square to the other entire axis. I found that mounting the first assembly level with the MDF would make it easier to align everything.

The workspace is mounted on the old laser diode assembly. Make sure it is flat and level then glue something on that will serve as workspace. I found a piece of 1/4"acrylic that worked out just fine. It made this workspace stable enough but as the laser can shine through it I was not sure if this would be a security hazard or not. Later Ifound the solution I think works out for the best. I cut a piece of the DVDR metal case to the same size as the acrylic and glued it on. This way it still very stable and youget a workspace that will be tough. One positive side effect is that you can secure whatever you are engraving with small magnets.

For the X axis I found some aluminum profiles in my junk bin but just about anything could be used as long as it is stable. Measure the height you feel will be right forwhat you want to engrave. I opted for 7.5" long pieces for the support. This would give me a little under 2" clearance.

One important thing, the mounting holes on the assembly are not symmetrical. Be sure to measure the distance from the bottom end of the supports to the linear guides.That way you will be sure to get everything aligned. Where you mount the X axis will be dependent on the laser mounting. The laser should be in the center of the workarea when the Y axis is in the middle position. When you mount the axis to the base plate drill a small guide hole for the screws after you made sure that everything issquare.

Now you should have the X and Y axis done and square to each other.

The laser mount does not have to be very sophisticated, mine is made from a small piece of plastic sheet and a clip then everything is glued together. Using a clip to holdthe laser lets me change the focus point by simply slide the laser up and down. As with all other parts the size is not that important as long as everything is square. Thereare just one measurement you need to think about here, the laser should be in the center of the work area when the Y and X axis is in the center position.

Image Notes1. I had the luxury of finding these spacers but a bolt and some nuts would workjust as well.

Image Notes1. This piece of acrylic is used as a base. Later I will mount another plate ontop of this.

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Image Notes1. I drilled a couple of small holes to be able to fasten the wires with cable ties.

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Image Notes1. The most important measurement is making everything square.

Image Notes1. Here I test a piece of the same black plastic that I used in the laser mount. Inthe end I used a piece of metal from the DVDR case.

Step 5: ElectronicsI started soldering the steppers. I used a ribbon cable to connect the steppers and solder them to the existing connections from the DVD boards. On the other end I soldera four pin header so that it could be used with a breadboard. The same thing goes for the Easydriver, solder pin headers and use them with the breadboard. Ribbon cablecan be found in abundance around old computer shops and service centers. All those old disk drive cables can be of good use.

In the schematics I have added a relay for use with a fan. This can come in handy as the engraving produces some smoke.

The Easydriver have two pins called MS1 and MS2, these sets the step sequence. Tie them both to the five volt output from the Easydriver. This sets the step sequenceto micro stepping . The four pins from the stepper connect to the motor output, and the control pins (step, dir, gnd) to the Arduino. Besides this the Easydriver needsmotor power connected. I use a twelve volt wall wart that drives the motors, fan and Arduino. There is a potentiometer that controls the power to the motors, I just set thisto the lowest setting and turn it up a tad if the steppers don't have enough force. I don't know the rating on the steppers, if they gets to hot you’re driving them to hard.

The fan just needs to be connected to the fan output. A small computer fan works well, just connect the positive and negative leads to the correct output.

The laser driver is an LM317 based circuit with no specials. This will work fine but it is far from optimal. I am driving the laser diode far too hard at about 300mA and if youdo that you can’t expect a very long life for the diode. The best solution would be to find a stronger laser and better driver but to keep to the spirit of things I wanted touse the laser from the DVDR itself. Laser on/off is controlled by the same relay as the fan.

If you want to simplify you could skip the whole laser driver and use a readymade driver. Then all you would have to do would be to connect the power to the fan relay. Ofcourse this would probably be a little bit more expensive.

The whole thing evolved into a new Arduino shield, the Laser Shield. I have included the schematic and board layout in Eagle format . Creating a circuit board is a bit outof the scope for this instructable, but there are lots of really good guides here on Instructables.If you want to make your own layout with Easydrivers I have made a Eagle library with the driver, it can be downloaded here .

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Image Notes1. Old computers are a great place to find ribbon cables for your projects.

Image Notes1. This is not easy to solder but worked out well. I did the same thing with bothsteppers.

Image Notes1. First test with the Easydriver and Arduino. Great success.

Image Notes1. Stray components not used in this project.

Image Notes1. Always remember to check the placement before soldering all pins.

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Image Notes1. I placed the Easydrives in sockets to be able to use them again in futureversions.

File Downloads

Lasershield.zip (73 KB)[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'Lasershield.zip']

Step 6: Prepare the Arduino.For the Arduino I started out writing my own software. But while searching for a good way to control movement from the serial port I stumbled upon something called "Grbl ". This is a g-code interpreter with lots of nifty functions. As I already had everything connected to the Arduino I had to ether change my connections or change thesoftware. Luckily it is easy to change control pins in the software. I did however have to download Winavr and then the code from github.com . It is not that hard to do.After downloading and extracting the code you have to change the port numbers in config.h and make sure you get them in the right order. Then all you have to do is starta command window, enter the correct folder and type "make". If all goes to plan you should end up with a .hex file ready for the Arduino.

I have however changed the pin-out since then and here in the instructable I use the default pin-out of Grbl. This will make it a lot simpler to follow and setup. You can justdownload the prepared hex file from the Grbl download page .

Any way you choose to do it you will end up with a .hex file that you must get into the Arduino. I have tried a couple of different ways and the one I like the most is by aprogram called XLoader . The programming is pretty straight forward; select the correct serial port for your Arduino. Select the hex file and type of Arduino and pressupload. If you are using the new Arduino Uno the XLoader doesn’t work, you will get an upload error. In that case I recommend using ARP/Arduino Uploader but eventhis uploader has some issues with the Uno. When programming the Arduino select the com port and microcontroller in the respective dropdown. After that you will haveto make a change in the “AVR Dude Params” text. Erase the “-b19200” (without the quotes) part and click on the upload button. In any case, a couple of seconds later

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you are done and are ready to try it out. Exit the XLoader and get to the next paragraph.

The Arduino needs to be set up for the job. Start your favorite serial terminal and open the port your Arduino is connected to. You should get a welcome message:

Grbl 0.6b'$' to dump current settings"

If you enter $ followed by return you will get a list of options. Something like this:

$0 = 400.0 (steps/mm x)$1 = 400.0 (steps/mm y)$2 = 400.0 (steps/mm z)$3 = 30 (microseconds step pulse)$4 = 480.0 (mm/sec default feed rate)$5 = 480.0 (mm/sec default seek rate)$6 = 0.100 (mm/arc segment)$7 = 0 (step port invert mask. binary = 0)$8 = 25 (acceleration in mm/sec^2)$9 = 300 (max instant cornering speed change in delta mm/min)'$x=value' to set parameter or just '$' to dump current settingsok

You must change the steps/mm for X and Y axis to 53.333 on both. Just enter "$0=53.33" followed by return and then "$1=53.333" followed by return. Z axis can beignored as it is not used. The acceleration can be ramped up to something like 100 ("$8=100" and return). As we move really slowly with this machine acceleration can behigh. Another side effect of low acceleration can be that curves get a lot more burnt than straight lines as the controller constantly tries to accelerate and decelerate butnever reach full speed. If you build this like me one of your axis might be mirrored. This is easy to fix. Option $7 lets you change direction on axis. I wanted to changedirection on the X axis so I type in "$7=8" as I want to change bit 3 (8 = 00001000 binary) if you want to change direction on Y axis you type in 16 (00010000) or 24(00011000) to change both. The complete documentation of the invert mask can be found here .

Now you are ready for the computer setup. If you want to try some movement you can type "G91 G28 X0 Y0 [return]" to zero the axis. Followed by "X10 Y10 [enter]". Youshould see 10mm movement on each of the axis.

Step 7: Getting the software ready.I will just go through the basics here. What software you need, how to set it up and the basic tool chain. I will only talk about windows based systems, all you Linux peoplewill have to do some digging around (even if Inkscape and the extension should work fine on Linux as well). First you will have to download three files:

Inkscape - this is open source vector editing software. (download )Laser engraver extension - This generates the g-code needed to control the laser. (download )G-code sender - A small windows program I wrote to communicate with Grbl. (download )(source )

Install Inkscape by following their instructions. This should be a pretty painless process. And any help on the subject should be easy to find in the documentation on theirweb page. Next up is the extension; this is a little harder but not much. Open the .zip file in your favorite unpacker and copy all the files to "c:\ProgramFiles\Inkscape\share\extensions". You have to restart Inkscape for the extension to show up. The extension is a heavily modified version of "Gcodetools ". That is it forsetting up Inkscape. You can leave the "G-code sender" on your desktop or any other place where you will find it later. It does not need to be installed.

One important word about the extension, I am not a python programmer and there might be some kinks in the code.

I assume you have everything installed and ready to use by now. Here is a quick screencast of the work flow.

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I hope this was not too quick. There are loads of guides on how to use Inkscape out there. I will not go into any details on how to use it.

The G-code sender is another story; there is no documentation as I just made the program. All the documentation is in this instructable, but feel free to ask if you haveany questions. When you open the program it should be pretty self explanatory. The only strange thing is the radio buttons "\n\r" and "\r\n". Depending on what version ofGrbl you are using the line ending are different. If the one doesn't work try the other one. Choose your serial port, and if you do forget to plug in your laser engraver, plugit in and hit the refresh button and your serial port should show up. Hit the "open" button to open hailing frequencies. Once the port is open you can type in commands likeany terminal software in the text box above the open button. To start engraving a file you can ether type in the file path or click on the browse button and select a file.When you click on "print" your file transfer will begin. The file will be transferred until the buffer on the Arduino is full, about 20 rows or so. When the buffer is ready formore data another row will be transferred. When you hit stop the transfer will end but the Arduino will not stop until the buffer is empty. When you hit the "close" button orexit the program the serial port will be closed and any transfer will be stopped.

Sometimes there will be a G-code that Grbl can’t interpret and will return an error. Most of the times these errors can be ignored but they will show up in the sender. Thiscan be comments or the start and end "%" sign. If there is a comment after a command there will be an error but the command will still be executed. For example "G21(All units in mm)" the G21 command will be executed but the comment will give an error. 

Step 8: Final assembly and extras.To finish the small engraver I made a small box from the Masonite board I found in a picture frame. It is just glued together. In the front there is a small fan from an oldgraphics card. The cooling is necessary for the Easydrivers when you mount them in any kind of housing. They get hot when out in the open and even hotter in some sortof housing. In the box I glued some threaded spacers; this allows me to screw on the bottom. The Arduino is in turn screwed to the bottom. It makes the engraver into auseful and easy to handle little tool.

Some small extras have been added along the build. First of is the fan that keeps smoke away from the workspace. This is a small 40mm computer fan connected to thelaser relay that I wrote about in the electronics step. The fan is pointed away from the workspace and gently sucks away smoke.

Another small but very useful extra are the magnets to hold down paper and other light weight objects. I got these from an old toy . After gluing some nuts on top of themthey are done.

To change the focus you can screw in and out the lens. Or you could set the focus once on the workspace and then slide the laser up and down in the mount. This is howI do it. I have a set focus when the laser is at the lowest possible position in the mount. Then all I have to do is measure the thickness of the material and raise the laserthe same amount. Most times I just hold the material next to the laser mount and move the laser to the correct height.

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Image Notes1. When mounting the Easydrivers in a box they need a fan to cool them down.They get crazy hot.

Image Notes1. Glued spacers makes it easy to screw on a bottom lid.

Image Notes1. Ventilation holes.

Image Notes1. All wires goes in the box through the top.

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Image Notes1. I found this small fan on an old graphics card complete with fan guard.

Image Notes1. This fan is connected to the laser relay and pointing away from the workspace.It removes smoke without disturbing whats on the workspace.

Image Notes1. Small neodymium magnet with a nut glued to the top. Perfect for holdingdown your workpiece.

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Image Notes1. The focus is set to the workspace surface when the laser is at the lowestpossible position.

Image Notes1. By moving the laser to the height of the material I get the focus point at thetop of the material.

Step 9: Final results.Here are some of the things I made with the engraver so far. I will let the images tell most of the story. The only limit is your imagination (besides the low power and smallwork area).

Key chain.I found some paint stirrer sticks at my local DIY shop. I liked the look of the wood and they were cheap. I saw of a piece and drilled a small hole. After some sanding Iengraved the Binford logo from the sitcom "Home improvement".

Plant marker.A normal Popsicle stick engraved with the plants name.

Personalized matches.I'm just trying to show off ;)

Memo note holder.A clothespin engraved and with a small neodymium magnet glued to the back makes a great way to stick a bunch of notes together on the fridge or any other metalsurface. I like clothespins they are very versatile.

Stamp.Cut out of a small foam sheet and glued to a piece of Masonite.

Airplane.Thanks to scriptster how made the G-code for the model. Check out his model here .

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Image Notes1. I love the old "Home improvement" show. Why not make a Binford key chain.

Image Notes1. The text is less than 2 mm high. It is fully readable but hard to take a picture of.

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Image Notes1. Thin foam from a craft store.2. Cutout glued to a piece of Masonite.3. Black ink pad.4. Stamped result.

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Comments

50 comments Add Comment view all 198 comments

 scriptster says:  Mar 19, 2011. 11:34 PM  REPLYMeet Bumblebee the foam rocket!

Here is one more project for your laser cutting pleasure using Groover's cutter. I've designed it around the cutter's  size limitations (38mm x 38mm or1.5"x1.5" ) so all you need is Groover's cutter and three small 1.5" x 1.5" pieces of 2mm craft foam.

For this particular project I really wish the laser diode could cut lighter foam (yellow). Well, maybe one of those days I'll acquire a diode from a bluray burnerand try it again. The intended color scheme - alternating black and yellow formers (ribs) to justify the name - Bumblebee - could not be achieved with my red200mW (actually more like 160mW) laser diode.

You'll need a few drops of glue for the landing gear - it's so small that I could not fit slots deep enough to hold on their own. I mean, if you have inhumanelysturdy hand, you should be able to attach the landing gear without glue but I would advise to use glue to alleviate frustration. Don't drink too much coffeebefore putting this one together, too :)

The larger rocket is for scale comparison only - too big for this cutter.

The SVG sources and CNC code is here more info about the model is here

As always, post your pictures!

Here goes:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pocket-laser-engraver/

 Groover says:  Mar 20, 2011. 4:10 AM  REPLYHere is my version. Blue and purple, I tried yellow a couple of times with different settings but with no luck. It just can't be done with this low power.

 scriptster says:  Mar 23, 2011. 6:56 AM  REPLYHi Groover, I'm getting parts ready for my own build and have a practical question: you've mentioned here that you've used the sheet metal from the drive'scase for the cutting surface. Those drives I've seen so far all had the casing made of some pretty serious ferrous alloy at least 0.75mm thick - not somethingI'd use my snips against. So, how did you cut it? Band saw, some good size shears? What's the best way to deal with this particular little detail? Little but notinsignificant, actually - a good stable surface is very important.

 Groover says:  Mar 23, 2011. 7:27 AM  REPLYI used a small nibbler from Radio shack. It is one of my favorite cutting tools. The sheet metal is glued to a 1/4" acrylic plate that helps keeping it stable.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2289712

 scriptster says:  Mar 23, 2011. 9:58 AM  REPLY

Interesting... I have the exact same tool, never thought of using it for anything other than small rectangular cutouts. In fact, some of these cases areso thick, I'd be afraid to break the tool. On the other hand, I've only opened pre-2000 drives, maybe they have less metal nowadays. I'll see when mybatch of broken ones comes from an eBay seller.

 matstermind says:  Mar 23, 2011. 9:08 AM  REPLYI'm new (as in don't even have an arduino) to microcontrollers, and was wondering that if i bought an arduino, could i use ULN2003 stepper motor diversinstead of the easydrives? and would i need to change the code at all, or connect them to different pins?

Thanks in advance

 nashblackcat says:  Mar 23, 2011. 5:08 AM  REPLYI voted for you! I love to see projects like this and might have a go at it myself!

 Groover says:  Mar 23, 2011. 7:16 AM  REPLYThank you. I would love to see your results if you do get around to it. :)

 strmrnnr says:  Mar 21, 2011. 7:39 PM  REPLYYou can use this one to make the precision parts for a larger version and move up at a low cost.

Good Instructable

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pocket-laser-engraver/

 scriptster says:  Mar 20, 2011. 7:26 AM  REPLYHi Groover, for some reason the Reply button is gone from your post with the rocket, so I post this reply on top, sorry.First off, nice job! I like the colors :) I noticed on your pictures you use purple foam often and I cannot cut it on any speed - it just melts if I go too slow anddoes not cut deep enough if too fast. I thought the problem is the red part of the color mix that reflects too much of the red laser light but you got me thinkingI'm probably not driving the diode hard enough.

If your driver's circuitry is easily accessible, could you take measurements of the voltage across the diode and the current?

Also, how hot does it run? I want to see how much these diodes can be pushed until it's time to upgrade to the 1W version.

Thanks!

 Groover says:  Mar 20, 2011. 7:45 AM  REPLYIt seems like when I make a comment sticky the reply button disappears.

The purple foam cuts almost as well as the blue.I run the diode at 300mA and the output after the lens is about 200mW but it gets hot. Not hot enough to burn your skin but hot enough to beuncomfortable. It will not have a very long lifespan at this power.

 scriptster says:  Mar 21, 2011. 8:45 AM  REPLYhere is me again with questions :)

"output after the lens is about 200mW" - how do you measure that? Do you have a meter device of sorts?

Also, I noticed on your video the AixiZ diode housing has some kind of a radial heat sink on it. Is it a stock item? Any chance you can post areference to where you got it, it may be an important part of the project. noone would want to burn the diode out too often. Some of these projectstake a long time to cut - the total cutting time for Bumblebee was close to 1 hr for me (although we've established I don't drive the diode hard enough,so it could have been quicker). So good cooling is essential.

Anyways, your project got my vote, I hope you win!

 Groover says:  Mar 21, 2011. 10:10 AM  REPLYYes, I have a Coherent Laser check from work. It can be seen at the "Putting the laser together" step, second image from the right. About theheat sink. I don't use it anymore. It was to much of a hassle as it got in the way. I got it from an old 405nm laser kit that I found on ebay a whileback. Look at RC helicopter parts, there are tail motors that uses 12mm heat sinks (just a quick google search, I dont know anything about thecompany).

Thanks for the vote. :)

 scriptster says:  Mar 21, 2011. 6:46 PM  REPLY

Thanks for the tip, Groover! I've looked Coherent device up and it seems quite a useful thing indeed. If only it were a bit less expensive :) Imay still spring for one at some point because I'm now very much not satisfied with the output of my laser and need some way of quantifyingchanges as I make tweaks to the drivers.Cheers!

 csharpdeveloper says:  Mar 20, 2011. 8:16 PM  REPLYFantastic work Groover! Are the steppers powerful enough for tools that make contact with the work piece? for example pens or rotary engravers?

 Groover says:  Mar 20, 2011. 10:55 PM  REPLYThanks. A pen should work, maybe even a floating engraving cutter but I don't think they have the power for any heavier machining than that. Thechallenge would be to ad the third axis to lift the pen/engraver. A solenoid might do the trick, like on a pen plotter.

 Verga says:  Mar 20, 2011. 12:37 PM  REPLYI have been trying to find out how to vote for this project but have not gotten a response.could someone tell me since this is the last day?

 Groover says:  Mar 20, 2011. 1:07 PM  REPLYThanks, the voting starts tomorrow. :)

 everywhere says:  Mar 20, 2011. 6:37 AM  REPLYnice instructable i will make after the next crapfest i visit. until than i will try on my etch a sketch

 foxmcf says:  Mar 19, 2011. 9:00 AM  REPLYI'm trying to upload the Hex file to a new Uno. Using xloader, and getting Upload Failed message. I'm new to Arduino. Any ideas?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pocket-laser-engraver/

 foxmcf says:  Mar 19, 2011. 9:35 AM  REPLYSaw that others are having problems using xloader with the Uno. Any other suggestions for a hex uploader for the Uno?

 Groover says:  Mar 19, 2011. 10:02 AM  REPLYI have never tried with the Uno. Here is another loader that I tried but couldn't get to work with the old Duemilanove. "Arduino hex uploader andprogrammer "

 foxmcf says:  Mar 19, 2011. 10:20 AM  REPLYThat worked... kindof... I had to manually change the command line parameter and take out the baud rate for some reason. Found this on anotherpost where someone was having trouble using external hex loaders for the Uno. Here is what I used for the Uno: AVRDUDE -F -v -pm328p -cstk500v1 -P\\.\COM3 -D -Uflash:w:"C:\Users\mcf\Desktop\Laser Cutter\grbl_0_6b_atmega328p_16mhz_9600.hex":i

The Uno communicates at 115200 baud. Do you think this might have a problem with the code you wrote to communicate to the laser cutter? I'mnot that far along, but I'm wondering if I should purhcase a different Arduino. What one are you using?

 Groover says:  Mar 19, 2011. 11:17 AM  REPLYI'm using a Duemilanove but as luck would have it I had a brand new Uno on my desk. I've installed the Grbl hex to it and it seems to workfine with the G-code sender.

I came to the same conclusion as you about the uploader, I had to change the command line parameters but I used the same as the ArduinoIDE uses. By holding down the shift key while uploading one of the examples you get verbose output. I just "copy n paste" the parametersand got it to work. This is what I got (after changing the path to the grbl hex file):

-v -v -v -v -patmega328p -cstk500v1 -P\\.\COM7 -b115200 -D -Uflash:w:C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\ArduinoWorkspace\grbl\grbl.hex":i

I will make an addition to the instructable with the new information about the Uno. Thanks for letting me know. :)

 Kdemon says:  Mar 19, 2011. 6:26 AM  REPLYI have an old xbox HD DVD player, would that be a good laser to 'recycle'?

 Groover says:  Mar 19, 2011. 6:59 AM  REPLYI found this instructable (first hit on google). It looks like the mechanics might be hard to use as it is shifted but I cant tell for sure. There are however anice 405nm laser diode in those drives.

 Gartholameau says:  Mar 17, 2011. 10:02 PM  REPLYI love this instructable. I am inspired. Thanks.I have an old CraftRobo machine that allows me to cut cardstock with a blade, but also comes with a pen holder to allow me to draw. It transfers from an artprogram on the computer and cuts out the item on the CraftRobo, similar to a printer. I was wondering how slow the red laser would have to be moved inorder to cut through cardstock (65lb or 110lb). I'd need to work out a method of holding the laser in the pen holder. The area it would allow me to cut is about7"x 9".

 scriptster says:  Mar 18, 2011. 8:17 AM  REPLYI'm not sure laser would work in a cutter that drags the material back and forth. I also have one of those (Silhouette Digital Craft Cutter) and it appearsthat it really needs that sticky backing sheet to do any fine work else the parts already cut just start flying while it drags the paper back and forth cuttingthe rest. You don't want to melt that paper with a laser.

In any case, you would need a rather powerful laser diode to cut cardstock. Paper is actually a very difficult material for low power lasers because ittransfers heat too well, too dense and it does not melt, it has to literally burn at the focus point in order to be cut. Additionally, color is very important and Iassume you don't exclusively cut black paper. These lasers cannot even put a dent on anything that's white.

I'd say for cardstock and other dense materials you'll have to stick to your current blade cutter. Craft foam is a completely different story though - it cutsterribly with blade cutters and works great with lasers, so it's all in the material you need to cut.

 Gartholameau says:  Mar 18, 2011. 5:31 PM  REPLYThanks for the info scriptster, I guess what I really want is an epilog. :-)

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pocket-laser-engraver/

 Groover says:  Mar 19, 2011. 2:22 AM  REPLYDon't we all ;)

 mpandersen says:  Mar 17, 2011. 11:02 AM  REPLYGreat Instructable... My brother in-law dropped his XBox and gave it to me for parts. Will the optical drive unit be suitable for this project ? The tray wasbroken off and missing so I don't know whether it is a CD / DVD Rom / RW... Label on inside says Class I / Class IIIB laser product.

 scriptster says:  Mar 17, 2011. 1:17 PM  REPLYAll XBoxes have DVDs so it should work for the mechanical parts. They are not writers though, so they don't have the most powerful diode needed forthe laser part of the project. In other words you have just acquired one of the two DVD drives needed for the project. The second one has to be DVD-RW.

If you do get to open the XBox DVD, can you post here if its worm drive worked out for you? These drives in non-working, for parts, condition are verycommon on eBay, so it may be useful to have a data point about them.

Having just disassembled an old (circa 1998)  CD -ROM, I came to realize why you should stay away from CD -ROMs (and maybe even CD -RW drives)- they don't have the worm drive at all! Both the laser head and the CD tray are driven by the same DC motor through a rather fascinating series ofgears/clutches and such.  A delight to look at but absolutely useless as far as the CNC part of the project is concerned.  I guess CD-ROMs were muchless accurate because their mechanical system looks very imprecise with quite a bit of play in gears, too. So, if 15 years ago you were wondering whyyou could not read that CD, well, now you know :)

 mpandersen says:  Mar 18, 2011. 10:23 AM  REPLYOops, when I took the XBox apart, I only kept the laser carriage mechanism as I think it will make an excellent X-Axis guide for my CNC Machine. Itossed the motor because at the time I hadn't come across your Instructable and I was specifically looking for unipolar stepper motors (5-8 wire)...However, the LG does has the worm drive motor assembly, so I've kept everything except the box it came in.

 mpandersen says:  Mar 18, 2011. 9:49 AM  REPLYIt does have a worm drive, do you know what voltage is required? I'd rather not blow it up during testing. I've also come across a used LG SuperMulti DVD Drive (CD / DVD+RW), its recognised by the PC as installed but doesn't function. I'll let you know how it goes. BTW, can a CNC (4 Phase)Driver Board be hacked to work with these motors ? (I'm building my own using ULN2003A ICs, and I don't remember all the stuff I learned in highschool...It was a long time ago in a galaxy far far away!)

 Groover says:  Mar 18, 2011. 10:21 AM  REPLYAll the DVD and CD roms I have opened have had the same type of stepper motors and it is all bipolar. They need a four lead driver, basicallytwo H-bridges one per coil winding. I don't think it can be done with a darlington array like the ULN2003.

 scriptster says:  Mar 18, 2011. 1:22 PM  REPLYYou meant you can't control both motors with one ULN2003? You can control one motor with one ULN2003 though - one ULN2003 chip hasseven Darlington arrays.

 Groover says:  Mar 18, 2011. 3:31 PM  REPLYI've never seen anyone drive a bipolar stepper with a ULN2003. But you could just invert the low and high to invert the polarity if I'm notmistaken. There is a reason that I choose to buy readymade drivers. ;)

 scriptster says:  Mar 18, 2011. 4:10 PM  REPLYYou don't really drive the coils with literally +12V and -12V, at least not in a simple driver/controller. You drive them with 0 and +24V(or whatever the supply happens to be) and the direction obviously comes from the sequence of coils to be energized, not polarity ofthe coils' ends. So, if your microcontroller (Arduino) provides the driving sequence correctly, you could skip a dedicated stepper driverlike the Easydrive and use ULN2003 to just amplify the signal coming from Arduino.

Granted, this coming from a guy that just bought his first Arduino a month ago (all my computers are 64-bit Linux and Arduinosoftware only just started to support that) and haven't even turned it on once. I don't know if it has enough memory or clock speed torun the communication software and at the same time control the two motors (and has 8 I/O lines available for that matter). I was justspeaking in general terms. In theory you can drive a small (and not so small) stepper motor using the ULN2003 chip but to be able totell if Ardiuno can actually do that in this particular application, I would have to finally open that manual!

Maybe I should just shut up and keep designing the models instead :) At least until my bunch of broken, for parts, DVD-RW drives Ibought on eBay yesterday comes in... None of what throwaway CD drives I had opened so far yielded a usable sliding stage with aworm drive and a stepper motor, so I had to order more (and more recent models, too)

 mplaser says:  Mar 17, 2011. 7:54 AM  REPLYGreat Instructable! I'm interested in making one of these at my dorm and would love to start asap. Only problem is I'm a Mec major at my school notelectrical :(. I'm not too familiar with the schematic and some of the components used. Is there anyway you could list the electrical components or explain it inlayman terms? Sorry for any inconvenience, bit I'd love to start building one!!

 Groover says:  Mar 17, 2011. 9:18 AM  REPLYIf you want to simplify you could skip the whole laser driver and use a readymade driver. Then all you would have to do would be to connect the power into the fan relay. Of course this would probably be a little bit more expensive.

Laser driver circuit:C1 0,1uFC2 47uF 25v electrolytic

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pocket-laser-engraver/

D2 SA15AIC1 LM317R1 3,9 ohmR3 51 ohmR4 1 K ohmR6 500 ohm TRIM POTENTIOMETER

Relay circuit for fan and laser:D1 1N4148R2 2,2 K ohmT1 2N2222VR05R051 RR1A (306-1019-ND at Digikey should work.)

U1 EASYDRIVERU2 EASYDRIVERU4 ARDUINO

 sarav_rvr says:  Mar 18, 2011. 12:55 AM  REPLYThank you very much Groover. I`ll get back to you after finishing the project. :)

 sarav_rvr says:  Mar 17, 2011. 8:16 PM  REPLYHai Groover, I`ve been half way into this project. would you please help me in doing the laser driver. I mean the parts required for the driver and circutdiagram for breadbord. It will be very much helpful. Thanks

 lambsb says:  Mar 17, 2011. 5:01 PM  REPLYNice. I'm rootin' (and votin') for ya.

 scriptster says:  Mar 16, 2011. 11:09 PM  REPLY

I got so intrigued by the project that I've attempted to design my next silhouette airplane model around its size limitations (38mm x 38mm or 1.5"x1.5"). 

I would have to say that a lot of detail had to be sacrificed in order to fit a model on a postal stamp size workspace. But it was fun and you guys can judge foryourself if the 1:212 scale model still resembles the original - Supermarine Spitfire MKII, the British WWII fighter.  The CNC and vector files are here.

In any case, Groover 's cutter will cut this model. I wonder what other people here can cut from a 1.5"x1.5" piece of , well anything that can be cut with a200mW red laser diode? 

 Groover says:  Mar 17, 2011. 4:11 AM  REPLYI think I need to tweak the laser power and speed a little but I had a go. I really likes these models. :)

 scriptster says:  Mar 17, 2011. 8:15 AM  REPLYIt's looks pretty cool! But as far as tweaking, I'd say the most important part is focusing. Looking at the edges of the wings, they look melted ratherthan cleanly sheared off, it means that the laser could be focused a little better. If I can figure out how to make macro pictures through my laser safetyglasses, I'll try to make some photos of how I do focusing. This is exactly the situation where a picture is worth 1000 words but I have no idea how tomake that picture using the camera I got.

If it cuts too slow (which would also result in melted edges), you can try darker material, with black being the best, obviously in terms of speed.

Thanks for posting your picture, it's very nice to see the model already built on a different continent less than 12 hours after it's been completed.That's the power of CNC, illustrated! :)

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pocket-laser-engraver/

P.S. Your DC10 model has engines put backwards :)

 Groover says:  Mar 17, 2011. 9:06 AM  REPLYI thought something looked a bit off. :) That shows how much I know about airplanes.

The focus was indeed off. I have made another try where I was a bit more careful about the setup. It turned out a lot better. I guess it is a goodidea to wait until after the first cup of coffee in the morning.

 scriptster says:  Mar 17, 2011. 10:36 AM  REPLYGlad we got it figured out. It's much easier to fly with your engines pointed the right way forward hehe :)

Did the second try yield the landing gear, too? These were very hard to get right and they are the most susceptible to any deviations, such asbad focus.

Do you mind if I post your photo on my blog where I describe the model?

Cheers!

 Groover says:  Mar 17, 2011. 3:02 PM  REPLYI had to post a photo of the improved model. It was hard getting the tiny pieces together without crushing them. Especially the pedestal forsome reason.

 scriptster says:  Mar 17, 2011. 3:36 PM  REPLYThanks for posting it! The benefit of working with craft foam (as opposed to a rigid foam found in meat packing trays and the like whichI also used in the past) is that it takes a lot of abuse without breaking.  For example, the wings and the stabilizer really stress the foamof the body and yet it settles right back when you've positioned the parts properly, without any visible damage.

As far as the pedestal, I think it's very light color and therefore it did not cut all the way through hence the parts are little bigger thanthe hole for them, especially on the undercut edge. Still looks pretty darn nice to me ;-)

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