Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] lasers... so many different types????

Russ Waters wrote:

>First of all, thanks to all that responded to my first laser question..... What I found out is how much I don't know about all the different types of lasers!
>
>So my question is.. What type of laser should I be looking for to do engraving (wood, plastics)? And where would a good place be to start my search, knowing I am on a very limited budget.
>
>

I saw a CO2 laser setup a guy used for making rubber stamps (very
similar to wood engraving)
and cutting out Plexiglas masks and light transmission layers for
aircraft instrument panels.
(He made one layer with clear Plexi with grain of wheat bulbs embedded
in it, and another
mask layer with smaller holes, so the pilot didn't see the edge of the
clear plexi. He could
cut one of these in less than 5 minutes, and they looked a lot like
swiss cheese - lots of
holes. I think his laser was somewhere between 10 and 50 W, and used a
flowing gas mix.
He was able to do some very thin metal sheet, too, but the cutting rate
was slower.

There is (was) an outfit that was making kits for CO2 lasers - but the
link no longer works.
http://www.jetstuff.com/rconway/laser.htm

A search brought this http://x.webring.com/hub?ring=nightlase

I think CO2 is your best bet. The laser is made from glass tubing. For
a flowing laser, you
need a water cooled glass tube, a vacuum pump, a bottle of the gas mix,
which gas suppliers
make for this purpose, and a power supply. A neon sign transformer will
make it light up,
but you'll get a 120 Hz flicker in the beam. A more sophisticated power
supply will cost
more, but it is within reach. The only really tricky part is the
mirrors, and several outfits
sell these for a few hundred $ per set. If you can't invest $1000 in
this, I suggest you just
sit on your hands, there's no way you can do it for less than that.

Jon