Goofy Homemade Stand For My Laser

[kmmcrafts]

So one reason I haven’t messed with my laser yet even though I’ve had it for nearly two years is I needed to figure out a stand, being busy and trying to learn the ropes of the CNC router the laser just sat on the back burner. 
 

Earlier this summer my bbq grill bottom rusted out. I fabricated a new bottom for it to get by while this COVID was so rampant. Last week the igniter quit and I’d had enough of this piecing it together with tape and glue so to speak. Went and got a new grill. 
 

My wife asked me what I was going to do with the old grill while we was moving it out of the spot to put the new grill. I said put it on the scrap trailer,  ( I have a dedicated trailer that I throw metal scraps on to haul to the metal recycling centers) then it hit me. I unmourned the grill from the stand and had this scrap 1/2” osb already cut to the right size. I have some 1” too that I used for my flooring in my loft but this seems to be plenty heavy enough ( laser doesn’t weigh much) . The spot on the bottom where the lp tank goes is a perfect spot for the 5 gallon bucket of coolant for the C02 laser tube.  I’ll probably build a heavier top later with enough room for a work bench spot for the laptop etc but this seems to work pretty well like this for now. 
 

Planning to have the laser setup outside of my main shop due to all the fine dust that I haven’t been able to get 100% control of yet from my saws and sanders even though I have dust collection and air filters etc. and I’m assuming the dust and the laser won’t get along with one another to well. So anyway I’m setting it up in my loft above my shop. 

[NC Scroller]

Repurpose and reuse....you must be watching to many of those Alaska "reality" shows.  Great idea though. 

[Phantom Scroller]

Very nice, now burn some stuff. Roly

[kmmcrafts]

6 minutes ago, Phantom Scroller said:

Very nice, now burn some stuff. Roly

That's one thing I'm afraid of doing.. burning too many unexpected things, LOL.. like burning the shop down or? I won't fire it until I get a fire extinguisher.. LOL Not sure what to run in the laser for coolant yet too.. I know they say distilled water.. but I'm in an area where water will freeze solid during the winter months... I could run the water until I figure out what I can run to keep it from freezing.. since I'm a couple months before I need to worry about it yet..

[Rockytime]

Looks good. I like re-purposing. Learned a lot from the Red-Green show years ago.

[kmmcrafts]

1 hour ago, Rockytime said:

Looks good. I like re-purposing. Learned a lot from the Red-Green show years ago.

Red Green would have made a duct tape table.. 

[BadBob]

21 hours ago, kmmcrafts said:

That's one thing I'm afraid of doing.. burning too many unexpected things, LOL.. like burning the shop down or? I won't fire it until I get a fire extinguisher.. LOL Not sure what to run in the laser for coolant yet too.. I know they say distilled water.. but I'm in an area where water will freeze solid during the winter months... I could run the water until I figure out what I can run to keep it from freezing.. since I'm a couple months before I need to worry about it yet..

Why not add a little antifreeze to the distilled water?

[jerrye]

"Retired" grill frames are highly adaptable and quite useful for anything that needs to be mobile and doesn't need to hold a ton (literally) of weight. As is they are stronger than you may think, and with a little reinforcement hold up under heavier loads. You can also replace the wheels with larger options from Harbor Freight for use over unlevel ground. They also come in various sizes, are usually easy to find, and often are free or very low cost.

I'm thinking about using one to make a miter saw stand.

Kevin, I think you'll be happy with this setup. If not, adapt!

Edited August 15, 2020 by jerrye

[amazingkevin]

Well it sounds like you went from a BBQ to a smoker now,lol. Keep us posted on your advances!!!

[kmmcrafts]

On 8/15/2020 at 9:20 AM, BadBob said:

Why not add a little antifreeze to the distilled water?

The water actually flows through the C02 light bulb.. and contaminates can ark from the beam... believe it or not antifreeze has conductivity properties... There are folks using antifreeze and RV antifreeze etc.. but it shortens the life of the laser tube.. replacement tubes run as much as I paid for the whole machine, LOL.. So hoping to get at least a couple years from it..

From what I've read... the best option is a fish tank heater.. For the time being.. I'm just going to run water.. Possibly just flush the water out and winterize it, then wait for spring / summer to run it.. If I find I can run it with little learning curve and add products from it to my selling inventory... I'll add the tank heater and run it through the winter if needed..  

[kmmcrafts]

Well, i did my first run on it today.. just practicing..and this image was the only thing that I had on my old laptop that would work on the program so I ran it.. ( too lazy to come in the house to get a different image, LOL )

Took some tweaking to get it to run decent.. the mirrors as way outta wack.. once things was tuned properly it seemed to work quite well.. 

Here is a couple short clips made into one video of it running and a finished engraving photo at the end..

 

[Phantom Scroller]

18 hours ago, kmmcrafts said:

Well, i did my first run on it today.. just practicing..and this image was the only thing that I had on my old laptop that would work on the program so I ran it.. ( too lazy to come in the house to get a different image, LOL )

Took some tweaking to get it to run decent.. the mirrors as way outta wack.. once things was tuned properly it seemed to work quite well.. 

Here is a couple short clips made into one video of it running and a finished engraving photo at the end..

 

Great to see you have it up and running a laser is my next acquisition when I've saved a few pennies.  Roly

[kmmcrafts]

Having way too much fun with this thing.. I did this engraving of my friends Ramcharger this morning.. showed it to my wife and she informed me I'll be making Christmas presents with it this year, Hahaha.. she likes the engraved details this thing makes..

Edited August 17, 2020 by kmmcrafts

[rjweb]

Nice, how long did it take to do the camero ?   RJ

[kmmcrafts]

23 minutes ago, rjweb said:

Nice, how long did it take to do the camero ?   RJ

Since it was my first time it took about 40 minutes because I didn't change any speed settings.. it was set at 100mm a sec. and the second one I did this morning I set at 500mm sec.  I also just engraved it so it's not cut all the way through.. Been using 1/8" BB ply.. I haven't done any cutting on it yet.. just learning the power and feed speed settings doing engraving work.. The first one I played around with the power setting in a couple areas while it was running so you probably see some darker spots in the engraving..

While playing around tuning the machines mirrors I burn a hole right through the one piece... you might be able to make that out on top of the ramcharger picture I engraved..  

[Woodmaster1]

The stand looks functional and that's all you can ask for. Great job on you first projects I hope it doesn't become too much of a distraction.

[kmmcrafts]

10 hours ago, Woodmaster1 said:

The stand looks functional and that's all you can ask for. Great job on you first projects I hope it doesn't become too much of a distraction.

Yeah I doubt it.. every "new" toy is a distraction for a while... most are just fr a short period of time.. This laser would probably get boring quite fast because you literally just set the board in and the rest is computer work.. I'm not a big fan of setting at the computer and doing design work etc... Right now it's fun because it's amazing what can be done so easily.. Thing is way less complicated than the CNC router.. 

[teachnlearn]

Now that the laser is on a grill base, can it grill a nice steak? RJF

[kmmcrafts]

3 hours ago, teachnlearn said:

Now that the laser is on a grill base, can it grill a nice steak? RJF

I'm sure it probably would..just not willing to waste steak meat trying to figure out the power setting for cooking a steak... Maybe I'll ask that on the laser forum.. some body has probably tried it. 

[kmmcrafts]

Okay, so played around some more and done some ornaments.. I wanted to see the amount of time it takes to run 4 ornaments off the completely stock machine.. I set up the pattern to engrave and cut two each of these on one sheet of 1/8 BB ply..  Run the engrave on pretty low power setting at the speed at 300mm sec. engrave come out nice I think.. I could probably turn up the power and run it faster.. so couple possibly almost double my cut time on these.. I did the cutting out set around 10 mili-amp power setting at 8mm sec.. which is where I set it the day before when I engraved the ornament photo of my wife and I..which came out nice.. but this time I had put a sacrificial board behind the piece which made no air flow on the back side is the only thing I can figure.. OR.. the lens is getting dirty.. as I have a completely stock machine at this time.. I have upgrades to do to it but I wanted to see how the machine is straight out of the box before I just go doing the upgrades

Anyway, the settings I had set at.. it took about 45 - 50 minutes to engrave and cut these toilet paper ornaments.. I did 4 of them but two of them didn't cut all the way through so I'm going to finish them on my scroll saw.. I can see I need air assist as the smoke / fire stained my pieces so I had to sand off some of it.. which sort of took some of my etching detail away.. So with that said.. I'm going to hook up my first mod today... The air assist nozzle to blow the smoke away from the cut line.. this is supposed to help keep from getting the smoke / fire damage to a minimum.. we'll see.. I need to get me a small are compressor to hook up to my mobile cart / stand.. LOL This way I can keep it all self contained..

I also plan to run these ornaments on my CNC router to see what i can do there as far as carve times etc.. I'm betting the router will be faster than the laser.. but with the router I will need to leave tabs to hold the ornament from flying away.. so I'll have to cut those tabs on my scroll saw to get the ornament cut out.. These times are roughly close to what I could saw these out on a scroll saw with by stack cutting.. I don't see where these lasers and cnc machines pump out production like people portray them to do.. Maybe the very high priced commercial machines.. or if a person had a shop full of machines to run.. but you still shouldn't get to far away from them as they can catch fire and burn down your shop.. LOL

Anyway.. enjoy the photos.. I'll probably leave off on this topic here probably since this is a scroll saw sight some folks don't like to see this laser and CNC stuff.. plus I need to get back at the scroll saw.. 

OH, I said completely stock but I did throw away the software the laser came with and run K-40 whisperer  

Edited August 19, 2020 by kmmcrafts

[Phantom Scroller]

On 8/19/2020 at 2:06 PM, kmmcrafts said:

Okay, so played around some more and done some ornaments.. I wanted to see the amount of time it takes to run 4 ornaments off the completely stock machine.. I set up the pattern to engrave and cut two each of these on one sheet of 1/8 BB ply..  Run the engrave on pretty low power setting at the speed at 300mm sec. engrave come out nice I think.. I could probably turn up the power and run it faster.. so couple possibly almost double my cut time on these.. I did the cutting out set around 10 mili-amp power setting at 8mm sec.. which is where I set it the day before when I engraved the ornament photo of my wife and I..which came out nice.. but this time I had put a sacrificial board behind the piece which made no air flow on the back side is the only thing I can figure.. OR.. the lens is getting dirty.. as I have a completely stock machine at this time.. I have upgrades to do to it but I wanted to see how the machine is straight out of the box before I just go doing the upgrades

Anyway, the settings I had set at.. it took about 45 - 50 minutes to engrave and cut these toilet paper ornaments.. I did 4 of them but two of them didn't cut all the way through so I'm going to finish them on my scroll saw.. I can see I need air assist as the smoke / fire stained my pieces so I had to sand off some of it.. which sort of took some of my etching detail away.. So with that said.. I'm going to hook up my first mod today... The air assist nozzle to blow the smoke away from the cut line.. this is supposed to help keep from getting the smoke / fire damage to a minimum.. we'll see.. I need to get me a small are compressor to hook up to my mobile cart / stand.. LOL This way I can keep it all self contained..

I also plan to run these ornaments on my CNC router to see what i can do there as far as carve times etc.. I'm betting the router will be faster than the laser.. but with the router I will need to leave tabs to hold the ornament from flying away.. so I'll have to cut those tabs on my scroll saw to get the ornament cut out.. These times are roughly close to what I could saw these out on a scroll saw with by stack cutting.. I don't see where these lasers and cnc machines pump out production like people portray them to do.. Maybe the very high priced commercial machines.. or if a person had a shop full of machines to run.. but you still shouldn't get to far away from them as they can catch fire and burn down your shop.. LOL

Anyway.. enjoy the photos.. I'll probably leave off on this topic here probably since this is a scroll saw sight some folks don't like to see this laser and CNC stuff.. plus I need to get back at the scroll saw.. 

OH, I said completely stock but I did throw away the software the laser came with and run K-40 whisperer  

 

I was going to add a laser to my CNC but decided on this one instead ordered today expect to see it in about four weeks from China. New NEJE 20W Laser Engraver it's portable which I like so have to test it when it comes. Roly

[kmmcrafts]

33 minutes ago, Phantom Scroller said:

I was going to add a laser to my CNC but decided on this one instead ordered today expect to see it in about four weeks from China. New NEJE 20W Laser Engraver it's portable which I like so have to test it when it comes. Roly

Looks like a interesting laser.. I hope you'll report a review of it once you've run a few pieces on it.. I really like this K-40 I bought..

I too thought about getting the laser head for the CNC router.. but the power of these are limited to what you can do and the price tag of them I can buy two of the K-40 machines that'll engrave or cut.. 

[Phantom Scroller]

20 hours ago, kmmcrafts said:

Looks like a interesting laser.. I hope you'll report a review of it once you've run a few pieces on it.. I really like this K-40 I bought..

I too thought about getting the laser head for the CNC router.. but the power of these are limited to what you can do and the price tag of them I can buy two of the K-40 machines that'll engrave or cut.. 

Looks like I have to wait a while for it but hoping to do some cnc signs and add a picture to it to personalise it then the price goes up or could even do bedroom signs with pictures of the kids on them what do you use your k40 for?

[kmmcrafts]

3 minutes ago, Phantom Scroller said:

Looks like I have to wait a while for it but hoping to do some cnc signs and add a picture to it to personalise it then the price goes up or could even do bedroom signs with pictures of the kids on them what do you use your k40 for?

I bought mine with intentions of doing engraved ornaments and keychains etc..  I made another video of it last night that maybe I'll post on here to give a better idea.. The one photo I posted above shows a quick ornament of a picture of my wife and I.. I could do personal engraved picture ornaments like that of people or pets etc.... With engraving like this gives me another new list of things I can do with ornaments.. I get a lot of customers asking if I can engrave this or that.. This can do a portrait but max size would be about 8 x 13 ish I think.. 

[Phantom Scroller]

2 minutes ago, kmmcrafts said:

I bought mine with intentions of doing engraved ornaments and keychains etc..  I made another video of it last night that maybe I'll post on here to give a better idea.. The one photo I posted above shows a quick ornament of a picture of my wife and I.. I could do personal engraved picture ornaments like that of people or pets etc.... With engraving like this gives me another new list of things I can do with ornaments.. I get a lot of customers asking if I can engrave this or that.. This can do a portrait but max size would be about 8 x 13 ish I think.. 

Yes I'd like to see the video please the more ideas I can get before it turns up the better. Roly

Edited August 22, 2020 by Phantom Scroller