Moeten we als nurdspace investeren in een LaserCutter en hoe gaan we dat betalen.
Money stuff
What does running the cutter cost
- Per hour use?
- When does the tube die and how much does a new one cost?
Cha0z: 60W CO2 Laser tube $150-$230 aliexpress The0: plus 200$ shipment, and length&power are related so getting 60W in a 40W frame might be difficult
In favor of getting a cutter
- zarya
- The0
- niz
- FwD
- buZz
- Cha0z97
In favor of a fee per hour to amortize acquisition and running costs
- The0
- Cha0z
I want to *lend* money for a cutter
- The0: up to 1000,-
I want to donate monyz for a cutter
- The0: 100,-
- FwD: 100,-
- buZz: 100,-
- Cha0z97: 200,-
- Fierman: 50,-
- Niz: 100,-
What can we sell to buy a cutter
- The audio multi track recorder/mixer
3x APC UPS-> Sold for €200, which is now available.
Technical
What do we want?
- Size?
The0: 20x30 cm seems to be the smallest, 40x60 is one size up and considerably more expensive The0: some cheap ebay engravers seem to support only 20x20, with variable reports of mechanical limitations (short axes) and software (irrelevant) causing this
- Features?
Cha0z: Should be able to cut through 0.15mm steel to be able to produce SMT stencils. Theo: motorized up/down and rotation axis (engraving round objects) would be neat.
- Hardware?
The0: performance of software-only solution is horrible. while in theory they could achieve results extremely fast (with a fast computer), even the best software only solutions are rumoured to have difficulty cutting even paper. So, I, for one, am definitely in favor of a hardware solution,.but not definitely against some software-hardware combination.
Where to get one
- Ebay?
- HPC Laser
- http://hpclaser.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=40 (but in need of electronic's change)
The0: Buy cheapest ebay (~600,-), eventually replace controller (e.g. laoslaser.org), total budget ~1200,-
The0: Mood swings. Cheap ebay requires upgrades to become marginally usable, and will forever be stuck with puny working area.
The0: Aluminium t-nut profiles have become remarkably affordable recently. Add motors, pulleys, belts, nuts and bolts, and you have a XYZ robot. Then mount your choise of extruder/spindle or a laser head and mirrors and you have an ultimaker-ultra/CNC mill/lasercutter. Mount all and you have fireworks. Lets design a frame and put a price to it, so we can decide if this is feasible.
buZz; motedis
bjornl: remcoo (tkkrlab) advised us to look at Lasersaur, an open source laser cutter: http://labs.nortd.com/lasersaur/ (Link is dead)