[DIYengineerParticipant]

Well the local laser shop quoted me $180, but they are unable to cut MDF/masonite/plywood. There machine will only cut up to 1/4 acrylic. The other local laser place can cut anything you can think of..literally. They have 10+ machines, there biggest being 4000watts (They do manufacturing for Boeing). They will eventually cut out my aluminum machine but they are very expensive. Since i want to understand the machine basics first before dumping a lot of money into it since i plan on doing a aluminum revision anways and don’t have anyone that will cut the laser part out for sub 200 dollars, i may just be crazy enough to hit up kinkos and use there 48″ wide plotter to print out the plans, exacto knife them out, glue them to the wood, and manually cut them out by hand. I have a large collection of tools and a decent shop, so i figure why not? $30 for the printed plans (kinkos), $25 for the wood, (home depot-baltic ply-wood, mdf dust is dangerous stuff!) and a bit of my time on the weekend. I already have a scroll saw, band saw, table saw, jig saw, belt sander, drills, and a chop saw/etc if need be. Maybe ill do the alternative way, documented for people who have access to kinkos and not a laser?

thoughts/opinions!? haha?

[BillParticipant]

I think all of the T-slot joints are going to drive you absolutely bonkers! Anyway, send me an email at wrhastings at mac dot com. I may be able to help.

[TaylorKeymaster]

Though it is possible, I think that doing this all by hand would probably drive you crazy. Especially seeing as this build is the first step on the way to a more complex machine, why not go with 1/8 1/4 acrylic or PVC at the local laser shoppe?

Depending on your location, you may be able to talk some local University students into running laser cuts in trade for some cash or barter.

[DIYengineerParticipant]

Well after browsing the gallery and staring at the picture that was recently uploaded of the laser cut pieces it has partially shot my motivation down lol. I’m sure it would take me FOREVER, which i would be fine with. However even if i did a decent job most likely nothing would line up worth crap and everything wouldn’t be square; leaving me a mess in my shop and a lot of stress =(

I will think it over and explore my options over the weekend.

[DIYengineerParticipant]

I searched all over and found about 4 other small laser shops that i sent off DXF files too. hopefully one of them will be able to do it at a decent price!

[TaylorKeymaster]

Oops! I said 1/8″ above when I meant 1/4″.

You could also look at fabricating the Z cart/sled assembly by itself. This would only demonstrate one axis of motion, but would allow for cheaper laser cuts (or a less tedious hand-fabrication undertaking).

[DIYengineerParticipant]

I have received numerous replies from small laser shops in the area, which is a good sign! I will most likely have them laser cut it all out except the base which i will do by hand, hopefully tonight/tomorrow. I will probably end up sheething the base with .063 T6 aluminum for easy cleanup and it will keep from damaging the table if things go haywire.

[DIYengineerParticipant]

Today i began cutting the parts out by hand which so far so good. I have completed cutting out all the parts of sheet 1 from .225″ Mdf. I converted the DXF to pdf format, went down to kinkos Office and printed it on a 36″ wide printer. All the circles were marked with centerlines so it allowed me to use drill bits and holesaws. So far so good! I used high power 3M contact spray to atttach the paper printouts to the mdf (I cut each part out with scissors first because the parts were nested so closely together). I have to say i’m pretty impressed with the results so far. I’m using a band saw, jig saw and a thin bladed scroll saw + an assortment of small files. tomorrow sheet 2 =)!! Only downside is the paper is stuck to the wood! Which wont effect performance, but i may sand those off in the end.

[Author]

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