Thinking box. Building a CO2 laser

[Robin Hewitt]

If you are cutting plywood you need to pump air down with the beam so the tarry gungy horrible smoke cannot get back on to your lens rendering it opaque and destroying the surface coating.
The 6040 I got had a particularly naff fume extraction, a vague suck somewhere at the back, sudden steps in the ducting, no particular air inlet to guide or encourage the flow.
The driver board and ghastly dongled Chinese software, open frame high voltage PSU scarcely justified the enormous amount of case set aside for them. Every expense had been spared.
What it really needed was a water flow/temperature measure to stop me firing up the tube should the flow stop for any reason.
If making your own, remember that everything below the beam wants to scatter light, not reflect

[Palmar]

If you are cutting plywood you need to pump air down with the beam so the tarry gungy horrible smoke cannot get back on to your lens rendering it opaque and destroying the surface coating.
The 6040 I got had a particularly naff fume extraction, a vague suck somewhere at the back, sudden steps in the ducting, no particular air inlet to guide or encourage the flow.
The driver board and ghastly dongled Chinese software, open frame high voltage PSU scarcely justified the enormous amount of case set aside for them. Every expense had been spared.
What it really needed was a water flow/temperature measure to stop me firing up the tube should the flow stop for any reason.
If making your own, remember that everything below the beam wants to scatter light, not reflect

Thanks for the reply.
I will add a waterpump and a exhaust system + an air compressor for the head.
I think a knife or honeycomb table will do the trick for no reflection of laser

[Palmar]

Nema 23 motor with 8mm shaft... but there are many of theese, different types... any that is recomennded for usage with a co2 laser and drivers
Is it best to use dual shaft motor in Y axis?

Will this do:
Nema 23 motor for y axis

• Step angle: 0.9 deg
• Step per revolution: 400
• Phases: 2
• No. wires: 4
• Current: 2.1A
• Holding Torque: 0.9 N.M (127 oz*in)
• Dual Shaft: 6.35mm in diameter
• Dual Shaft length: 21mm
• Inductance: 2.5 mH
• Phase resistance: 1.8 ohms
• Detente torque: 400 gcm
• Rotor Inertia: 280 g-cm2
• Weight: 0.6KG (1.4lb)
• Length: 54mm

[Robin Hewitt]

The 6040 uses 200 step NEMA17 motors which are really zippy at 12V.
There are no cutting forces, you really want to keep this as light as possible, especially if you want to scan a cross hatch engraving.

[Palmar]

The 6040 uses 200 step NEMA17 motors which are really zippy at 12V.
There are no cutting forces, you really want to keep this as light as possible, especially if you want to scan a cross hatch engraving.

I see. What about the step angle?
I see there are 0.9, 1.2 and 1.8 angle.
Should I go for an nema 17 also for the x axis ?

regards

[Robin Hewitt]

Sorry cross purposes, I am trying to do too much and, apparently, failing miserably

I am talking about the cheap Chinese laser, you are talking about converting a cheap Chinese router table in to a laser

Please ignore everything I said

[Palmar]

hehe
I have ordered the rail kit from mjunit Link here want to build co2 laser cutter/engraver from scratch :) I think that is better than ordering theese systems.
Regarding the motors and drivers, I am a bit confused... There are a sh*tload of different nema 17 and nema 23 motors.
They recommend nema23 motors since they have 8mm shaft. And the kit contains 8mm couplings and mounts for nema 23. But I am lost here...so many motors to choose from.

What do I need to look after regarding motors and drivers?