Bought another laser engraver.

[dikman]

Well, I've been forced to make an enclosure for the wee beastie. After my effort at engraving bakelite I realised my theory of using it under an overhead exhaust fan didn't work out too well in practice. I knocked this up over three days, it's rough-as-guts and I used whatever I had lying around. Cost = $0 . I had a few constraints in designing it - it had to be removable from the baseboard so I could move things around and also to give me access if I wanted to do anything bigger than the framework (an advantage of the open-frame diode type laser), be as light as I could make it and with a window to see what's happening inside.

The frame is welded up from some 8mm rod salvaged from a section of decorative fencing (heavily galvanized so it was a pain to weld!) and fits into holes in the corners of the baseboard. The sides are mostly ply from various packing cases from tools I've bought (lathe, mill, Cowboy 4500 etc), not really good quality stuff but good enough for this. I cut some 3/4" stock and used a nail gun to attach it to the ply so it acts as guides to hold the lids in place. After coming up with all sorts of clever ideas for the top I simply made it in two halves and both are removeable, they simply sit across the rails. The fan needed a 110mm hole and my holesaws are either too big or too small, a jigsaw would have made a messy job and then it occurred to me that I have a laser cutter! Doh!  The advantage of an open frame laser, I took it outside and put it over the plywood and cut a perfect hole!!

The window was cut out with a jigsaw to fit (sort of!) a piece of smoked perspex I had, and two 2" holes cut in the front to allow air in to feed the exhaust fan. It's a big and bulky lump of a thing, but it works, I engraved a piece of leather (took 40 minutes) and although there was still a faint smell of burning leather I'd say it was a success. I think a short length of pipe over the fan to feed the fumes up closer to the exhaust fan might reduce the faint smell even more, and if I can get a length of flexible tubing I can move the whole thing and vent the exhaust out a window or door (but that means spending money.).

[dikman]

3D printed a fan-duct flange I found on thingiverse and sat some aluminium ducting on it that was left over from our kitchen reno, it now sends the fumes directly into the overhead exhaust fan. One other benefit of the enclosure is it cuts down the noise considerably. I might try and get some orange perspex to replace the smoky stuff in the window, other than that I think I'll call it done.

[toxo]

3 hours ago, dikman said:

3D printed a fan-duct flange I found on thingiverse and sat some aluminium ducting on it that was left over from our kitchen reno, it now sends the fumes directly into the overhead exhaust fan. One other benefit of the enclosure is it cuts down the noise considerably. I might try and get some orange perspex to replace the smoky stuff in the window, other than that I think I'll call it done.

Looks like a good job well done. Thought about stuff like this many times but no space and can't get anywhere near the outside so I'll stick with my mini one for light engraving.

[kgg]

 

On 4/23/2024 at 6:06 AM, dikman said:

I used whatever I had lying around.

@dikman nicely done. Necessity is the mother of invention.

kgg