This is the first release of the Boot-strappable Open Laser Cutter project that I've been working on for the past few months. The goal of the project is to construct an open design laser cutter with a large cut area (about 1 meter square), for about 5%-10% of the cost of a commercial system. The design draws heavily from other open laser cutter projects out there (such as the Buildlog 2X Laser Cutter) in using inexpensive aluminum extrusion and optics for most of the structural frame, while here most of the custom parts are 3D printed from ABS.

The printed parts represent about 10 hours of total printing time on a Makerbot or Reprap, and have been designed with the hope that they would be of general utility to anyone printing out a large CNC system -- not just a laser cutter. These include parts such as NEMA17 motor holders that mount onto t-slot, idler brackets, pillow block bushing mounts for motors, idlers, and shafts, and so on.

On Saturday afternoons, like any good grad student, I visit my parents place to do my laundry. While it's spinning around, my dad and I usually get up to some neat projects, and this is what we worked on this week.

I've had an idea for a while that one might be able to build an inexpensive laser cutter using a 1 Watt IR laser diode, as opposed to the larger 20-100 Watt CO2 tubes traditionally in something like an Epilog laser cutter, using a bit of a trick. Traditionally laser cutters have a lot of power, and (to my knowledge) are generally fixed focus, meaning that the focal point -- the hottest portion of the cutting beam -- stays at a fixed depth relative to the material that you're cutting. This is an experiment in dynamically varying the depth of the focal point through the material at runtime, such that you create a boring, "reciprocating laser cutter" or reciprocating laser mill.

This is an offshoot of my Open SLS 3D printer project, and was constructed using the same laser as that project, as well as and a bunch of old broken CD/DVD drives. The mini CNC portion itself has a very short travel distance -- about 3 to 4 cm per axis, but that's more than enough to be useful for experiments, and it's small, easy size more than makes up for it.

This is a hot-end modification for the MK4 extruder that removes the PTFE, which is prone to melting and swelling, from the hot end. It is a derivitive of lampmaker's all-steel hot end ( thingiverse.com/thing:3452 ), where this design uses the brass parts from a failed MK4 hot-end plus some easily made aluminum fins.

This is a design for a /really/ inexpensive linear axis mechanism for an open source selective laser sintering 3D printer that I've been designing (but it should be generally useable for anything that requires a one or two axis system). This is a follow up to the selective laser sintering alpha one dual Z tables that I recently posted ( thingiverse.com/thing:3390 ).

The innovations in this system are its extremely minimal vitamin count -- only a handful of bolts, washers, and nuts are required. It also uses several long pieces of kapton tape as a linear slide bushing, to dramatically reduce friction and drag (though regular old scotch tape may work just as well ;) ).

This is the design for a /really/ inexpensive dual z-axis table mechanism for an open source selective laser sintering 3D printer that I've been designing. This is a follow up to the selective laser sintering powder test rig that I recently posted ( thingiverse.com/thing:3389 ).

These are the design files for my first powder test rig for an open selective laser sintering 3D printer. The project has been detailed on the reprap builders blog.

These parts are just here for educational purposes -- I've been actively developing a more capable system, which was largely based on lessons learned from this one. :)

This is a chess set that I designed for my dad for his birthday this year.

My dad taught me how to make, create, design, build, program, and solder from a young age. This year I finally remembered that parents don't like their children to buy them expensive things, they like their children to build them things. And you could end up making the worst looking thing ever, but they'll love it, just because you made it.

Happy birthday dad.