Prusa I2 for laser etching

With a inexpensive Eleksmaker 2.5w blue laser module and a rotary Y-axis adapter, I wanted to see if it was possible to etch these acrylic tumblers. Overall I'm happy with the results.I'm coating the surface with a dry erase marker and if its not put on
uniformly some of it gets embedded in the molten acrylic and can't be removed. The rest of the marker washes off with warm water. I'll
need to experiment with a different surface method to see what works best.

All of the engraving was done at 50mm/ second. The Scull and OpenSource logo took a little over 50 minutes. The Laser logo was a 21 minute job.

Well done!

Interesting setup. Where did you find the Y adapter?
Are you using this laser ? [www.ebay.com]?

thanks

Quote
kd6hq
Well done!

Interesting setup. Where did you find the Y adapter?
Are you using this laser ? [www.ebay.com]?

thanks

The gears for the Y adapter are scaled up versions of the big gear for a Wades Geared Extruder. The rest of the set-up
was made in Openscad. It would be better served with a pulley and belt approach but I wasn't sure on a method to splice a belt together Overall It is a piss-poor design but seems to work just fine. It uses cut down M8 threaded rod, 608 bearings and some M8 hex nuts. I cut up a rubber band into strips and glued them to the cone to provide some grip.

yeah that is the same laser I'm using and it works great. I also got those green safety glasses that popped up when I clicked on your link.

Well, as long as it works, it can't be all bad.
If you don't mind how do you have the laser connected?
What turns it on and off?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2017 02:02PM by kd6hq.

Quote
kd6hq
Well, as long as it works, it can't be all bad.
If you don't mind how do you have the laser connected?
What turns it on and off?

I have it connected to the D9 or fan connection on the Ramps board. Any PWM connections on any control board should work too.
The laser came with a 12vdc power supply. I clipped off the barrel connector and tied this into the Ramps.
I had to set the board to 33 in the marlin firmware. Its also possible to run the laser from a TTL signal but I'm not sure how to set that up yet,

I use Inkscape with the 305 Engineering extension to generate the gcode to turn the laser on and off.

// 33 = RAMPS 1.3 (Power outputs: Extruder, Bed, Fan)

I'm doing the same thing. The only difference is that I do not use the supplied power supply. I converted a printer and it already had enough power to run the laser.
I've been a little bit disappointed in the laser only because it does not use the PWM signal as well as I would like. However I think it's a good learning tool and can be used for a lot of thinks just the way it is.

I think I'm going to have to make one of the rotary Y axis adapters. Looks like that could be fun.

Although this budget friendly laser uses are limited, it is suitable for some applications. Cutting out patterns from paper and balsam wood doesn’t interest me although it probably would be good for cutting out stencils. My antique Prusa I2 doesn’t offer much in the way of X & Y dimensions,
only 180 x 180, so they would have to be small stencils. Using it to cut patterns would likely decrease the life span of this laser anyway. I’m guessing that running it in continuous burn mode would cause it to fail sooner.

I was able to engrave images on to some Rowmark engravable plastic. I bought a small sheet of their #922-422, 2-ply .052" material. The blue diode laser had enough power to vaporize the top layer and expose the white core. The end results aren’t as nice as a fiber laser
would produce but the plates still came out looking pretty good.





I didn’t have much success trying to make a PCB with this laser. It took a lot of trial and error to come up with a somewhat usable board. From the DIY guides on-line they have you believing that spraying some matte paint on a copper clad board and after lasering the pattern you will be able to just wipe off the scorched area and reveal a nice shiny copper surface for etching. I found this not to be the case at all. This laser was not powerful enough to remove all of the paint from the surface. It left just enough paint behind to prevent the etching fluid from reaching the copper. I tried coating the PCB with Matt Enamel Spray Paint, Acrylic paint, a Sharpie marker, Etch resistant pen and all had the same results. It left a thin layer over the lasered portions that I couldn’t remove without damaging the traces. I also tried making multiple passes over the board and varying the speed rates but that too had no affect. After around 30 tries, I gave black fingernail polish a try. I seen it used on one of the DIY videos. Of everything I tried it was the fingernail polish that produced the best results. There was still a thin layer left after lasering but I was able to remove it with some 50% Isopropyl alcohol. I managed to make a semi-usable SevenSwitch PCB. I’m sure with a little more practice I would be able to refine the technique and make a better board. It’s also possible this low powered blue diode laser is just not up to the task. However it does show a lot of promise.

The one on the bottom was a vector cut and was only intended to expose the lines between the traces.This would be an ideal way to etch the board because it preserves more of the copper. It didn’t turn out very well so I didn’t bother trying to etch it. Maybe a more powerful laser would make a finer lines? Whether or not this method is better than the toner transfer method to make PCB’s is open to debate.

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Prusa I2
Gen7-ARM 2.0 / Teacup
Genuine J-Head Mk V-BV

Hypercube
RAMPS 1.4 / Marlin
E3D V6

Piper 1 Version 2
Gen7-ARM 2.0 / Teacup
E3D V6

MPCNC
RAMPS 1.4/ Marlin