Hello! There is a laser cutter in the loading dock someone donated that we might not be able to use as a laser cutter (since it’s not enclosed, I think?) – but if you ignore the laser part, it’s essentially a gcode-driven CNC machine… probably?
What if we looked into converting it into a pen plotter to go into the print-making room? Would anyone like to collaborate on that?
Edit: basically the idea being removing the laser component, adding a pen holder with a lift servo, and rewiring it to control the pen lift motor instead of activating the laser? Easy! It would probably be a big project, but might be fun and a pen plotter would be a neat addition to the printmaking room IMHO!
Is there any chance we can replace the enclosure to make the laser safe?
It’s actually really easy to turn something like this into a plotter, its just a few g code commands, instead of triggering the laser, it would trigger a servo with a pen or something attached. I actually did this with an old 3d printer and it was pretty neat.
Nice! That’s cool to hear it’s not as tough as it sounds to convert it to a plotter. Maybe we want it to be a laser cutter though? I really don’t know how difficult it would be to make it safe as a laser cutter, or what would be involved in replacing the enclosure. (Would we just need to get a new part?)
Maybe we could see what folks are more interested in having around?
Yeah personally I would love to have a small laser cutter!
I was at the studio last night and was looking around for this but I didn’t see it. I was going to see if I can find a direct replacement for missing enclosure. But if not, depending on the wattage, we can easily fabricate some laser shielding with laser rated acrylic, aluminum composite material (ACM) or just sheet metal.
It would probably be a big project, but might be fun and a pen plotter would be a neat addition to the printmaking room IMHO!
