On first read of your email, I thought 'Hooray, you got it to work, well done!'. I find I mostly put the box on it, but check it by peering in the top with the glasses on. I printed a mount for a webcam on my printer so I can box it up and watch on the laptop (there are kids around). Of course, before I got started, I got a pair of laser glasses. However, I have been tinkering and I think I am onto something. I think with a higher watt blue laser like that used in the link, it would be much less of a problem. Once started it seems to keep going, but it needs to reliably start. I have found engraving wood a little bit tricky in that it doesn't always start to burn at the start of a path. Not sure how much it helps, but it certainly doesn't hurt. at the most! My new extruder lets the J-head fan swivel to help cool the laser too. So now going between 3d printing and laser engraving/cutting is a matter of minutes. I reprinted the Wade extruder to fit the laser housing I bought.
I don't use a current source to drive my laser, just some hi watt series resistors (and I have a capacitor across the laser to provide some protection). The Marlin configuration.h file must have the motherboard set to a 'EFB' type, so that it knows there is a fan (that is what the 'F' in EFB means) connected to D9. And I connect the laser to D9, where the print fan would normally connect. It is the g-code that operates the print fan: M106 S255 turns it on fully, M106 S0 turns it off fully. For what I have done so far, it works well.Īs mentioned, the way I turn the laser on and off is with the M106 g-code. I have only done a little bit of raster engraving, and have used 305engineering's extension 'Raster 2 Laser Gcode generator'. I also might change the order of the paths that are cut (for example, if you are cutting a pattern inside, say, a circle, I would cut the circle last, because if it is cut first, the foam - or whatever - might move during the remainder of the cutting process). Sometimes now I let it move slowly between segments. I turn the laser off at the end of each segment, turn it on at the start of each segment, set the cutting engraving speed at the start of each segment, set a higher speed at the end of each segment so it isn't too slow moving between cutting paths). The Inkscape output files (using the 'gcodetools' extension) separates each path into a group of g-codes. I do some manipulation of the g-code files from Inkscape before I put them on the SD card. Marlin even accepts the G2 and G3 arc moves output by Inkscape for curved paths. Well, it turns out that Marlin is quite capable of interpreting the g-codes from Inkscape, so grbl and Gcodesender aren't necessary.
He runs grbl on an arduino controlling his Pocket Laser Engraver, and he manipulates the files somehow with his own 'gcodesender' script. Groover uses Inkscape to generate the cutting/engraving files. At the best height I found the laser 'circle' was larger, but the point in the middle must have been tighter.Īnother benefit of using my 3D printer is that it is already setup to read from the SD card. I used it to print the same thing over slightly displaced with the laser raised a little each time I found that what looked like the best focus was not the best height for cutting/engraving. This provides a useful way to adjust for the laser focal length, but also to adjust for engraving on objects of different heights. Using my 3D printer (Prusa i3) gave me a larger work area than the pocket laser engraver, and also gave me Z-axis control. The laser used in the link is a blue laser good for a couple of watts. A red DVD burner laser is good for a few hundred milliwatts. The instructable shows you the things you can do with it. He (and I) used a laser from a DVD burner. My inspiration came from Groover's instructable: I did a similar thing to the laser cutter/engraver.