
Lasersaur – open-source laser cutter - anonsivalley652
https://github.com/nortd/lasersaur
======
jcoffland
An LASER cutter is a really productive device to have around. It's very easy
to create 2D parts.

Another way to go Open-Source for a lot less money (~$1500) is to buy a K40 on
EBay and refit it with a Buildbotics controller.

The other day I needed a faceplate for an outlet with a circular 240v US dryer
plug and a two port 120v US plug. I couldn't find anything at the hardware
store that would work but I found drawings for the junction box and plugs
online. After an hour or two with LibreCAD and CAMotics, I was ready to LASER
cut my faceplate from 1/4" poplar. I was really happy when it fit exactly the
first time. Now I keep looking behind the dryer to admire my handiwork.

Disclaimer: I'm a creator of CAMotics and Buildbotics.

~~~
momzer
Slightly offtopic: is poplar really the best material for an electrical wall
plate? Wouldn't it be flammable? What's the dielectric withstand going to be
like for a wooden wall plate in a humid environment like a laundry room?

~~~
crtlaltdel
solidwood faceplates are not uncommon. take a stroll down the electrical
section of a major chain hardware store and you should be able to find a few.
a lot of them seem to be made of bamboo. as for the dielectric properties,
even in a “humid environment” its unlikely to be an issue. i mean, does a
foggy morning short every outlet without a protective cover? if your voltages
were high enough, sure you could draw an arc through the humid air...but it
seems like you would have to hit closer to the kV range

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mrfusion
The home page might be more informative:
[http://www.lasersaur.com/](http://www.lasersaur.com/)

~~~
MR4D
I’ll second that. The HN title page just says this:

“

Lasersaur -- open source laser cutter

The Lasersaur website is in the gh-pages branch and mapped to
www.lasersaur.com. “

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pupdogg
Am I the only one still waiting for the first open-source kW fiber laser
solution? Open-source laser tinkering has always hovered at subpar wattage
levels...barely enough to cut any metals above 0.060” (1.5mm) thickness...all
while the Chinese have already surpassed closed-source companies like IPG and
developed affordable ($11-15k...compared to $90-150k) closed-source solutions
for fiber laser.

~~~
alpineidyll3
Not alone at all. I think it's one of those things where someone just needs to
reveal the hidden market.

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pcdoodle
Hate to plug them but their product is pretty good: glowforge. the opposite of
open source, it does plug and play for around $2,500 with a smaller work
area(12x20) and 40W laser. We prototype enclosure cut outs with ours. Working
with wood and acrylic is fun.

~~~
crankylinuxuser
And it requires 100% online operations. If your internet craps out, so does
this device.

Hard pass.

~~~
TaylorAlexander
Wow, that’s gross.

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chris_wot
My brother designed and built his own plasma cutter. I wonder how useful
people would find that?

~~~
pstuart
I'm sure it would at least be _interesting_ to the HN crowd. Any link to info
on it?

~~~
jacquesm
I should dig up the data on mine and write it up.

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scottshambaugh
I built a lasersaur of my own last year! I put together a project writeup[1],
and have been doing a little bit of development on my fork of the firmware in
order to significantly speed up raster & fill engraving, and to and put in
some quality of life software mods.[2]

Unfortunately the original creators have abandoned the project, but
fortunately it's completely open source so it's still buildable. Mine cost
about $7k for the parts and all the accessories I had to get along with it,
but I think that there's a lot of low-hanging fruit in someone going through
and updating a lot of the more expensive parts in the BOM. I saved about $2k
by doing so and put together a spreadsheet linked to from [1], but there's
definitely still room to upgrade the steppers to something cheaper and more
powerful, etc. There was a good discussion in the mailing list[3] a few weeks
ago about whether it still makes sense in 2020 to build a Lasersaur. I'm
personally of the opinion that if you want a laser cutter for the purpose of
creating stuff with it, the best option is going to be getting a Chinese
cutter, doing a few upgrades, and buying Lightburn as your software interface.
But if you want the experience of building / intimately knowing the machine
and find that rewarding in and of itself, go for it.

[1] [https://theshamblog.com/a-tour-of-the-lasersaur-laser-
cutter...](https://theshamblog.com/a-tour-of-the-lasersaur-laser-cutter/)

[2]
[https://github.com/scottshambaugh/driveboardapp](https://github.com/scottshambaugh/driveboardapp)

[3]
[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/lasersaur/Ieu6aAG_0s...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/lasersaur/Ieu6aAG_0sc)

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misthop
The 7000 price point is an interesting middle ground. That is past the
hobbyist range and into small industrial cutter range. So trading works out of
the box and a warrantee for bed size and wattage

~~~
mondoshawan
For that price you might as well get a proper laser cutter from glowforge or
that Colorado corp whose name escapes me which includes an exhaust plan as
well as saftey interlocks.

~~~
mlyle
Not sure about the Colorado corp. But I have a 40W laser cutter from Full
Spectrum Laser (Las Vegas) which cost me ~$1700. (Their hobby series laser,
which got much more expensive afterwards). Now they have their "Muse" which
seems pretty nice for ~$2800.

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cstross
"Do not stare into laser beam with remaining eyeball."

Seriously, this sort of project is _dangerous_. While there's a big fat
disclaimer and warning on their home page, the wiki info about exhaust
filtration is sketchy at best, and there doesn't seem to be any sort of
serious attempt at health and safety guidelines.

Remember: any laser cutter that can actually cut wood can actually cut skin
and muscle, cause serious burns, boil your eye in your skull, and creates
toxic particulate exhaust.

~~~
ben_w
More worryingly, it’s possible to buy pre-built laser etchers online that
don’t come with safety glass: [https://www.amazon.com/Compact-Engraver-
LaserPecker-Engravin...](https://www.amazon.com/Compact-Engraver-LaserPecker-
Engraving-
Portable/dp/B07W5SYWSF/ref=mp_s_a_1_14?keywords=laser+cutter&qid=1581172254&sr=8-14)

And Q-switched pulse lasers for hair removal (i.e. to be aimed at your face)
whose included safety goggles are more than a little suspicious:
[https://youtu.be/-BeTq99LqUo](https://youtu.be/-BeTq99LqUo)

~~~
detritus
You should see how some low budget Chinese factories that pump out laser-cut
cards (etc) operate.

I've seen videos of workers huddled in a small room operating wholly
unshielded galvonometer-type lasers (as in the sort that were popular in laser
shows in the 80s.. but with lasers designed to actually cut) without any
extraction, using bits of corrugated card to manually waft away fumes.

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woadwarrior01
My local hacker space[1] in Dublin has one, although I haven't had a need to
use it, yet.

[1]: [https://www.tog.ie/](https://www.tog.ie/)

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snarfy
The BOM is here:

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eU_76EaB256B_k3UIFOs...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eU_76EaB256B_k3UIFOs3czkD7NZIeQG7Arkk8Dl7SY/edit#gid=0)

I'm surprised the laser tube is $1000. It's not much different than a light
bulb. Sure it is different, but not by that many zeros.

~~~
driverdan
It _is_ different by that many zeros. They require much tighter tolerances and
higher quality materials. They're also not mass produced.

You can get cheaper laser tubes but there is a difference between them.

~~~
mdorazio
That’s debatable. I had a laser cutter for a couple years and used cheap tubes
off eBay with zero issues. Cutting power was probably less per watt than with
an expensive tube and lifetime was lower, but at 1/4 the price it doesn’t
really matter.

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mrfusion
Can anyone say what it might cost to build one? Where do you buy the laser?

~~~
misthop
According to the home page (linked down thread edited: linked by you!) it is
fully diy. They gave a bill of materials, construction directions, etc, but
you source and build it all yourself. They list an estimated cost of 7000
usd/eur depending on location.

~~~
mrfusion
Interesting. I wonder how that compares to buying one for $7000?

~~~
marcinzm
As far as I can tell it's more expensive than getting a cheap one from China
in that power range. The China ones vary in quality and usually require some
hacking but this one you need to assemble from scratch so probably still less
time investment.

~~~
anonsivalley652
Yup. If one had the cash to burn (puns are mandatory to clear out the sigh-ing
glands in the sub-cockle nether-regions) in a commercial laser cutter, there's
always Trotec.

[https://www.troteclaser.com/en-us/laser-machines/laser-
cutte...](https://www.troteclaser.com/en-us/laser-machines/laser-cutters-sp/)

~~~
detritus
Or [https://www.epiloglaser.com/](https://www.epiloglaser.com/) (what I run)
or [https://www.ulsinc.com/](https://www.ulsinc.com/) . But if you're in
Europe and want to support a Euro company (ones I linked are American),
Trotec's the one to go for.

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eebynight
Is it just me or can anyone else not find the source for the Driveboard?

I’m an electrical engineer and I love looking at boards like this but it seems
like the linked github is just a manual at best.

~~~
sgentle
This looks like it:
[https://github.com/nortd/driveboardapp](https://github.com/nortd/driveboardapp)

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madc
The project seems dead anyway.. last commit was two years ago.

~~~
marcinzm
There seems to have been a store for buying components but from what I can
tell the people behind it all are busy with kids nowadays.

~~~
hugs
They sent a note about closing down their store to the Lasersaur mailing list
in February 2019. The store for custom Lasersaur parts is closed, but the
project is still open and open source.

"The time has come when we close the Nortd Labs Lasersaur store. For almost
nine years we have supplied parts to nearly one thousand builders and owners.
It allowed us to have a budget for software development and made the BOM
sourcing more convenient. It was a great run but its time for us to move on. "
[https://groups.google.com/forum/?path=59#!msg/lasersaur/QQTS...](https://groups.google.com/forum/?path=59#!msg/lasersaur/QQTSghen5gk/f38_JE3aAQAJindex.php)

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laser
Nice.

~~~
jimnotgym
I guessed you might like it!

