* UPDATE MAY 2024: I have an updated, better, and cheaper design...also check out this video series: th-cam.com/video/AL-qmKZxsL4/w-d-xo.html * I'm getting a lot of comments about the gas prices and I really appreciate everyones feedback. I should have gone into a little more detail in the video...the prices I listed are to fill 300 cu/ft bottles at Airgas. I purchased their Ultra High Purity rated gasses, because it was the only option that they offered that met the requirements recommended by RayTools (the laser head manufacturer) of 99.95% purity,
Yeah, that high purity stuff is hella expensive. But if compressed air is an option, then "low purity" compressed gasses are surely an option. Compared to just air, those cheap gases are already as pure as you can get them. Also looking forward to seeing the buildseries and breakdown. Subbed.
If you are cutting a bunch also consider a liquidpack nitrogen bottle. prob going to cost over a grand to get one there, but then the cost of the actual gas it produces will be way way cheaper in the long run. And as others have said the 30 or less per bottle nitrogen is what most people use from what I have seen. Very impressive build!
Never seen anyone build one of these before. The results look awesome. One thing to consider if you need more power and you’re not planning to run it 24/7 is a gas generator. For a couple grand you should be able to find a high enough power inverter generator that can run anything you need. Another option specifically regarding the air compressor is a gas powered compressor that you fire up when you’re going to cut. You can get really high CFM ones, especially if go up to a diesel unit. The essential craftsman does this for his air hammer which is super air hungry.
Thank you Sir! I never thought about a gas generator, but I have been keeping an eye on Marketplace for a used gas powered compressor…I just picked up a used air dryer tonight. BTW, I’m a little star-struck…I have to publicly admit that you are my TH-cam hero!!! 😃
@@diyfiberlaser I work with big air compressors for scientific work as part of my job. Keep in mind that the CFM of a compressor decreases as pressure increases. Be cautious of large piston compressors, that's a lot of mass moving, and they tend to have vibration problems, especially the oilless ones (I have a $20K compressor offline atm because it's trying to rip itself apart). Scroll compressors are quiet and good to 120 psi or so. Compressors with threaded inlets can be used in series, so one kicks you to 100 PSI, the next bumps you up to 200, etc. The size of the tank only affects the time between compressor runs. Old tanks that have sat with water in the bottom can rupture and kill people, so be cautious of used tanks (also drain your tank daily!). Even a modestly sized tank rupturing at 200 PSI will take the walls out of that building. Some years ago, I was running a small tabletop sand blaster in my garage. To get the pressure and volume of air I needed, I ran three small 120-volt compressors in parallel. The setup was vastly cheaper than a single large compressor; you can save space by plumbing multiple pumps into a single tank. Also, there are places that sell used scientific equipment; you could look for a used nitrogen generator. IMHO gas fueled air compressors are a massive PITA. you have far more maintenance, they tend to be loud, and you have the concern of the exhaust being drawn into the intake and brought into your shop with a whole lot of moisture. You can easily overload a dryer.
@@diyfiberlaser Look at something like a Motor Guard filter to go along with the air drier. The air drier will remove moisture but won't help much with removing contaminants and used gas compressors aren't treated very nice during their life. Also, look for a stationary gas air compressor instead of a wheel barrow style since they will provide more CFM due to having larger pumps.
Not sure if you can get a big enough gas generator (Nitrogen) that would be able to keep up with the power available in a home shop. I have a nitrogen generator system and it costs about the same as the laser. It has not 1 but 2 compressors! A standard 11kw 3 phase 10bar atlas copco air compressor and a high pressure 200bar booster compressor to fill 4x 50l 200bar cylinders. I can out run this system when cutting 2mm stainless steel. The 1kw fibre laser and nitrogen system probably pull 30kw 400v 3 phase at full power. I would try to find a cheaper source of bottled nitrogen or try a high pressure dive compressor and fill several cylinders when the laser is off and cut on air. Adjust your laser parameters to fine tune the results 👍
Hey Travis, Hi from Australia!! And all I can say is wow!! this is the definition of what "not being a sheep in the crowd" means. All the "critics" are quite happy to offer their opinions, keyboard warriors, where as your desire to move forward and do, well done mate!. Motion control has been there for decades, the mechanics and designs are a plenty - there are people out there who have made these DIY Fibre machines, they're just not confident enough, or care to put them up for the world to see and criticise. Budgets are the key ingredient to any project, and design choices based on available tech, or budget constraints. At the end, the only difference between a DIY and commercial machine, is support, and if you are the builder, you are the supporter, you don't have the overhead of having a technician on hand to take care of warranty. There are those who will argue that the quality of the machine... stop, quality is in the end result of the purpose of the tool. The logo that Travis just cut is beautiful and a high "quality" (costly) machine would do no better. Looking forward to the rest of your video series Travis, just subscribed.
Very impressive work for so many reasons. I've built 3d printers, CNC cutters of many types, laser engravers, lots of micro controller projects and some pretty large machine tools, power hamemrs, presses, etc. I think I just found my next labor of love. 1500W's here I come!!!!!
Awesome! I have a laser welder on the way, it’s already landed at the US port, so I will have some content on that coming soon…hopefully you stick around, it would be great to hear your commentary on the laser welding machine
It has been a little unnerving, but through an unexpected chain of events, I ended up with 15K and about 85% confidence that I could figure it out, so I decided to take one for the team...that was the easy part...convincing my wife was the real challenge! : )
Impressive!! I have been searching for a “desk top” fiber laser, but it seams very hard to find for acceptable money. Thanks for sharing. 15’ $ is still out of my budget.
I was looking for something like this, but about ten years ago. It's amazing how fibre lasers have become more attainable. The Coherent Meta1000 I looked at was at least £150,000. Stay safe!
For the record, Eagle Pair goggles, and specifically those you have, are completely unsafe and don't provide any significant protection at 1064nm. Me and a few colleagues tested this on industrial spectrophotometers designed for this purpose(testing coatings/film transmission), and they transmit as much as 8% of light where they should be transmitting 0.0000001% Get a pair for 800-1100nm @ OD6 or higher, from any of the following brands: Kentek, Lasertack, Thorlabs, Honeywell, Glendale, Sperian, Newport/MKS, Edmund Optics, Laservision/Uvex, Laserglow, NoIR (LaserShield). As others pointed out, you are being straight up *gouged* for gas price. You don't need UHP, refilling a 40L nitrogen bottle costs me $15, oxygen $45. Both at regular technical purity, 99.95%. Even 95% reject garbage grade will work perfectly fine for cutting. Also, when opening the gas cylinder, you want to open the valve at least halfway, otherwise you'll be wearing the gasket through way more quickly and can cause leaks(high pressure leaks are scary). If you have space and power, you could also try replacing the oxygen supply with a small army of oxygen concentrators. They're basically free in the US after they become no longer fit for medical uses, and I reckon you could get away with around 4-6 units running in parallel, through a tiny air compressor on their output to bring up the pressure. They'll also provide nitrogen(well, oxygen-free air) out the reject port.
Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge! The glasses I have are FreeMascot (maybe it's rebrand? amzn.to/3GVoWEE) they say they're OD8 800nm-1100nm, but I will check out some of the other brands you listed. And thanks, I will get cheaper gas next time
@@diyfiberlaser FreeMascot is just garbage, worse than Eagle Pair. Whatever they say is irrelevant. Anything from Amazon, eBay, Wish, and any other site besides official distributors of the brands I mentioned is completely unsafe and you should not buy from them.
Thanks for sharing this project! About the gasses, I don't know where you're getting your bottles filled, but I'd suggest calling around the welding supply houses, as neither of those gasses are particularly exotic, and are commonly available for various processes. Nitrogen is ~78% of the atmosphere, and not in any way in short supply. Oxygen is ~20% of the atmosphere, and again not a short supply issue. I usually use a nearby welding gas supply house for argon, argon/CO2, oxygen, acetylene, and nitrogen. My biggest cost savings on this was just checking around the stores and comparing prices. AirGas was always been one of the most expensive, as well as prone to trying to force bottle rental instead of purchased bottles.
Like You, I have also have spent a few years regularly searching the internet for an example of this!!!!!! Please do a good job documenting this! Including links to the fiber components. Thank you for these videos!
Focus on showing the assembly or a detailed trace/expo of the laser components. This is what makes your build unique and important to those of us who’ve wanted to attempt this build for awhile. The gantry and table build aren’t a big deal there’s easily a million tutorials that can be found by on TH-cam alone posted almost weekly and plenty more on properly building a controller. Why did you chose to go with a “laser” controller? Couldn’t you just use Mach 3/4 or LinuxCNC with a traditional motion control card setup? Was there customs fees and did you need a broker for any of the laser components?
I was going to do this a couple of years ago, glad you actually went all the way! Awesome work here! I ended up buying a 1.5kW RECI laser source for this, but gave up when I found that you can buy a complete machine (at least right now, prices have dropped a lot) for about your budget plus shipping/duties. The laser source is now in a 3 in 1 handheld Weld/Cut/Clean system. Maybe build a laser welder next?
WOAH! This is going to open up a trillion doors to us geeks and makers!I have always wanted to have an actual metal cutting laser but considering their steep price, had never been an option. Now it is! Thanks for making it happen and more importantly documenting it so well! Looking forward to the other videos.
Watching every DIY laser cutting machine videos I can find and this is great. While outside of my budget, I'm hopeful you share your gantry build process. This is going to be 90% universal to any CNC machine and worth watching. And yes, knowing more about fiber lasers will leave that itch in the back of my mind for a follow up build.
Travis my friend...👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 You are my hero! I've wanted a Fiber Laser but ended up getting an Avid 8x10 CNC Router. My next project would be adding a fiber laser to it... You have inspired me greatly!!! My eyes will be glued to your next video like my 1st time watching Return Of The Jedi! Thank you! SUBSCRIBED.
Well done, Man!!! It takes some guts to attempt something like this from a home garage. I have many years of experience in lasers. I myself have designed and or built almost all types of industrial laser systems you can think of except subsurface green laser marking or UV lasers, but all the rest high power performance CO2, 3D galvo, laser welding, welding cleaning, heat treating, scribing, robotic, metal cutting (CO2 and fiber), marking (CO2, Fiber and old school diode pumped ND:YAG). Although i have never had to do it with such limited tools and budget. What you are doing is very impressive. I sincerely want to reach out to you and offer you my help and experience if you are interested. I don't get much time to play around anymore and would love to help you get the most out of your machine. I can see your machine is still very clean, so you still have quite a learning curve ahead of you. Let me know how I can get in contact with you to send you, my details.
I'm so pumped to find this video! I'm collecting parts to build a DIY fiber laser too, but there's so many missing elements of the system. I'm mostly interested in the controller. I've got a 4kw IPG sitting in my garage. It's relatively easy to generate 3 phase power with "off grid solar inverters" but it's not the cheapest option. You can do ~15kw for around $2000 or so. I'm so into you
From my research, it appears most commercial machines are using Friendess controllers and CypCut software. I went with the Ruida RD6563F controller because it is cheaper and I'm familiar using a Ruida controller on my C02 lase. It has it's own software called RDCutist V2.0. It seems less robust than the CypCut software, but so far, has all of the basic features I've needed.
@@danielelenarduzzi9888 Raycus RFL-C 1000 has a direct modulation input, your circuit can control the laser up to 5000Hz. this can be used for PWM control. Is also has an analog 0-10V input that can be enabled. A serial and and ethernet port is also present, however it is not clear if we can obtain a description of it's protocol, I have not found it yet. A user manual is available, google it.
Any control 7$ or above can do the job just fine. I currently have complete cnc machine and building table for plasma torch since its relatively cheap. But from what I understand same laser source can be used for metal cutting, engraving, welding.. So fiber laser in the end may be cheaper and much more quality solution than having separate.. Engraver, cutting machine,welder... Can anyone confirm this?
Hi Travis, I took the same route as you did in 2013 with a CO2 laser, when fiber lasers were a new technology. Raycus and Max laser weren't around yet. One thing that could benefit you greatly, and I would love to collaborate with you if needed, is to create your own Nitrogen generator. This will eliminate the cost of purchasing or refilling N2 every time you cut exotic metals such as aluminum, stainless steel, copper, brass, etc. For steel, you can actually use dry compressed air instead of oxygen. However, this must be supplied by a reputable rotary screw compressor (5-10HP or more) which is the bulk of the cost upfront.
Awesome! Do some test cuts showing the types of materials you can cut and the max thickness please and thank you. I want to cut steel plates up to half inch. I’m curious if you could do that with oxygen
Hi travis I’m watching this for the second time, and I’m realising your gas prices are way too high. Those prices sound like the cost to buy the bottles. If you rent them they are 100-200 per big bottle. Just to reiterate I think this project is so amazing. Bravo
I'm so impressed with what you have achieved here. I've been working on one on a larger scale, more industrial. You are right, there is not much info for the beginner into this. Looked at all the Ruida / Cypcut systems, need a PC. Plus it is a very old Windows system. So sorting something from the start along the lines with the Masso G3 with the new Plasma start configuration. This is also working with a LPC-PLUS6 Fibre Laser power source controller. Plus with my own THC with the LFS-AM-T43-AP01. This capacitive sensor also works with the Masso DTHC. With the Masso G3 Plasma start configuration, it may be able to be done. I see you run a Masso touchscreen in the background. Cheers.
To be on the safe side, buy a co2 fire extinguisher for metal fires. Slag could cause your aluminum profile to burn. and the Si and Mg content could catch fire and become inextinguishable... auf Deutsch... Gute Arbeit weiter so!
At 8:06, it looks like you’re adjusting those tank valves just enough to hit the mark on your regulator. Remember to go full open on the tank valve and then close a click or two. Use the regulator to regulate pressure, not the tank valve. I’m not certain why, but my welding teacher made a point about it and it’s always stuck with me.
4:42 , that's a very common cost cutting measure, I work with a 2500W laser at work (industrial), we do up to 10mm black steel or 6mm stainless steel, reliably, BUT, we have a liquid ring compressor system, and HIGH pressure is an important factor in evacuating molten metal and a good finish. I'd be happy to relay any questions you have to our more experienced operator, keep in mind, I live in the middle east, so specific pricing question may be irrelevant.
I'm so happy someone finally made a great video on this, I'm trying to eventually get parts for my own fiber laser. One thing I'm curious about is if a water table could work for a fiber laser the same way it works for a plasma cutting torch. I assume that might increase the risk of the lenses getting damaged. Being around a plasma CNC, I'm used to a water table so I'm wondering if downdrafts are the only way to go with fiber lasers.
It would be very messy as most of the thin metals you will cut with assist gas or compressed air at 10 bar and more. It would just spray it all over the place. Also you dont want to get any moisture on your copper nozzle as the auto focus system uses it as the capacitive sensing point and would mess up the calibration and would not follow to the correct hight (usually 1mm) and you then have a very bad cut. Depending on the machine style, you dont want your parts to fall thought the bed as the sparks from cutting would adhere to the parts below. With fiber lasers you can have tiny micro joints that keep the parts you want to keep attached so its really easy to break them off the sheet.
Thanks for posting this. I had no idea how "inexpensive" fiber lasers could be. I'm in the middle of a cnc plasma build but it wouldn't be too much work to swap it out for a fiber laser one day.
Thanks. I built a sturdy cnc plasma table with the intention of having laser as an option too. This gave a good insight into what would be required to fit a laser.
Congratulations on successfully building your DIY 1000W fiber laser cutter! It's great that you are willing to share your experience and knowledge by creating a series of videos to help others who may be interested in building a similar machine. It is important to note that fiber lasers can be dangerous, so it's important to do your own research and take proper safety precautions when building or using a laser.
Working as a salesman for company that sells laserwelders. Which is also a class 4 laser. I have to point out the safety aspect. Please cover up the window. The rays will go straight through the glass. You would be surprised how far the damaging rays could travel because of the reflection. I just subcribed because this I such a cool project. Keep those episodes coming!
Dude! I*ve been looking to do the exact same thing! Please make your future videos as detailed as possible. I'm currently looking for buildings to build my new workshop and a fiber laser able to cut at least 2 mm aluminium is on the absolute top of my wishlist for the new shop. Can't wait to see your future videos. Instantly subscribed!
Very workmanlike job. T. The stepper drivers (closed loop servo?) look nice, not cheap at all. Looking forward to more fiber (lasers) in my TH-cam diet.
Awesome job! I also created something similar with a used Raycus laser source and a Queenbee CNC and it cost me about 5000USD. The price drop of laser sources has been spectacular but still expensive for hobby use.
Excellent introduction to a unique built! Thanks for sharing so many details already in the first video... really looking forward to the full series! Greetings from another maker from Germany.
That is a really nicely built. Suddenly my home-built 3D printer with screws seems like a waste of time 🙃 but at the same time I think, with the knowledge I acquired, I can build one like that too... I understand that you are not used to the metric system but that is 20 millimeters and not centimeters... extremely impressive.
I am completely overwhelmed with the amazing response this video has received, so now I backpedaling to set up the infrastructure to hopefully better support everyone. I'm working on setting up a Patreon community for interested builders, where I can share BOM, more detailed vids, and with a forum to make a repository of information, answers to common question, share ideas, etc. Please have some patience with me, I'm a little slow moving as I'm trying to juggle video making, day job, kids, etc. Maybe with enough support, I can convince my wife to let me make a career jump and open up a lot more time for content creation and support. Thanks for your interest! 😀
That's awesome! From experience building frames with aluminum profile I would say you need to go with a minimum of 2040 size for both weight (to help counter inertia) and frame rigidity.
Yes, cant wait to see you cutting thicker stuff. I placed an order for a Bodor 1000x1500mm 3000W at the Univ of East London, and for personal reasons I needed to leave it. Now the machine arrived and I will soon join the training. Now here in Hamburg we are building a Mobile Truck lab and I want to have one in it. How heavy would you say your whole system weights?
Very interesting, I am looking at making (because nobody makes one) a combo unit, CNC router and laser. I have been thinking of getting a MillRight and making the table move and not the gantry, mount the laser on the back of the mill head off of the table. and have a small footprint that does two functions. The application is cut 1" boards, 5/8 aluminum, and laser thin gauge metal, with engraving.
Thank you. I am really looking forward to learning from your project. I have a small plasma table, but really want a laser setup for clean cuts for motorsports parts. The frame/basic machine controls are easy for me, but I've never touched a laser so that setup is new. I also appreciate you sharing the costs so there's resonable expectation if any of us follow suite and build a similar setup.
Holy cow this thing is badass!!!!!! I just liked, subscribed, and shared it with a few CNC guys I know. I want to make one just like this!!!!! Amazing job Travis!!!!
Great Project! I pay about $35 for oxygen tank exchange (for a tank about half your size) - at work where we buy a lot of gas I pay about $50 for a nitrogen tank exchange. Buying the first tank is expensive but after that it is just a matter of exchanging tanks at the local welding supply store. I don't know how much gas you need but I purchase used oxygen concentrators (off Craigslist or the marketplace) for torches for glasswork (you can compress the oxygen for storage if needed). for a 5 LPM unit I pay $50 to $200 - You should be able to get the nitrogen out of the exhaust without too much trouble. If the concentrator breaks there is a great little low pressure compressor inside that is worth whatever you paid.
Awesome. I am so looking forward to the build series. Liking your presentation so far and it looks like you have done a well thought out and professional job. Definitely something I can see myself investing time and $$$ into.
Where the hell do you find a standalone laser and laser supply unit? I’ve been looking for years but when I Google I always get brought to full laser machines never the laser and supply unit them selves
Hi Travis! Your build looks awesome. I built a DIY CO2 laser about 3 years back and I didn't find anything regarding fiber laser back then also, excited about your series 👌🏻
Excellent! Loved the vid. Your production is good and I subbed of course. It was so interesting that I would have loved to have heard your description of booting it up. I think people love the detail, at least I do! Well done.
I’m editing the next couple videos and I think going forward I’m going to also post extended versions of the videos on Patreon for people interested in more of the technical details, as I am editing out lots of footage to keep them entertaining for the casual viewer too
Really looking forward to this series, with that mad scientist hair you are rocking I think this will be a good ride! The diode lasers on a CNC are just not interesting enough for me so this is way better. I can use a VFD to produce the 380V 3phase, what kind of current are we talking? Edit: nvmd, 3500W for the P/S means about 15 amp at 240V. The 1500W I saw on their site was 5500 watts at 240V single phase so, so 23 amps. Well within a Dryer plug specification... Hmmm.... BTW what's up with the Air Powered Shuttlecocks?
You are the first to mention the shuttlecocks, so I feel extra-compelled to reply : ) My wife is a former Team USA Badminton player. Since my introduction to the sport, I have become a huge fan and play weekly. So far, I have primarily used my workshop for prototyping and developing badminton-related products, including: shuttlecock launcher for training, badminton footwork trainer (fasterfootwork.com), 3D printed shuttlecocks, etc. !!WARNING, NERD TALK!!: Compared to other "ball" type sports, the shuttlecock is quite complex to design around, because of its light weight, unique shape, flight characteristics, and handling properties....and I really enjoy the challenge! In the future, I would like to showcase some of my badminton projects on this channel, but I'm not sure how well it will be received, since it is quite unpopular of a sport in the USA.
There's a channel for everything - especially in the makerspace. I recall leagues of badminton when I was younger. It was perceived as a 'lesser' sport by some but while I played other sports I wasn't all mental about them and I quite enjoyed badminton. We often played it in the backyard during family gatherings. If you want to make yourself rich, invent a bird that will stop mid air or at least come back from over the fence where it inevitably ends up during some off balance recovery return. :)
I really considered adding fiber laser to my existing 3kw cnc router. But just the main components and not the cnc bits cost quite a bit. The only real added benefits to me that is, is being able to cut steel which i don't do often. CNC router can cut aluminium and achieves 3 axis. So i abandoned the idea. But finally someone did it! Great work.
Awesome! I've built a couple of CO2 laser cutters but I also want to cut metals. I've been waiting for someone to put up a video about making a fiber laser cutter before I make the plunge myself. Can't wait to see how you did it
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing!! $15,000 is still too much for most of us. I hope I get to see fiber lasers be cheap and handled like plasma cutters are today. I remember as a kid seeing and using the first very large plasma cutter and it was mind blowing. Now they have units so small and cheap it's crazy.
we have an old trumpf 9000w at work that uses liquid Nitrogen that produces around 150ish psi out of the gassifier but we have to boost it to close to 400 psi for cutting 1/4" steel.
At about 8:05 you turn on your Nitrogen. That's an all-the-way on or all-the-way off valve. You should open it up all the way to the packing. Same with all gas cylinders.
I have worked with Co2 lasers cutting metals, watch for micro metal particles in your extraction system. I have converted an old EverFlo Oxygen Concentrator to produce ondemand O2 for a small torch setup, not the purest O2 but works well enough for gas welding. Just food for thought.
Wow, amazing build! Can you show that tiny, super detailed part at the end with light behind it? It's hard to tell if those thin lines are free standing, or just engraved in the surface.
I used to work at a shop . They used 4 différents gas co2 oxygen on laser cutter. Co2 nitrogen n 32h and of course h2o on plasma cut . All for différents job . Thickness speed and space from the matériel. Waterjet is a dirty job 😅😅. As a machinist been working on cnc lathe milling and router . Now I got my own small company and is old school machine resharpening grinding tools .But I love your project look pretty cool .
Ok, I’m not going to say it’s the best option but I operated at 1500 watt fiber laser for 4 years on straight compressed air. Was it recommended by the manufacturer? certainly not but it did work. Our big, expensive laser got a weekly nitrogen and Co2 refill, though.
Congrats! With the prior experience of building a CNC mill, as my next project I am thinking about building something like this. What do you guys think about the idea to buy an existing CO2 laser cutting machine as the base, (search for e.g. 'Ruida DSP 1060 100W co2 laser' on eBay to see what I mean) 1000x600mm machines are sold for $3000-3500, they already have the 145kgs heavy machine housing with wheels and safety enclosure, a height adjustable honeycomb bed, the XYZ axis guides + servos, a Ruida 6445G (or similar) cutting controller, a 5000W water chiller, an exhaust fan, the power supplies. I could then reuse and skip building these parts. I would only remove/disable the CO2 laser tube and replace it with a 1000/1500W fiber laser source, add a cutting head, and the gas assist system. The machine height should be increased so the fiber, gas, water, inlets bend nicely. Btw. the gas assist system I already have for my TIG welding setup could also be used. Can someone confirm if the cutting works with Argon? ...if it works with nitrogen, it should also work with argon, I think. The 10600nm blocking window on the CO2 machine should also be replaced with a 1064nm blocking material (will have to test maybe it already blocks both wavelengths), so I would have a professional safety enclosure then. What do you think? My other idea is not to buy a laser source per se but purchase a laser welder, that includes the 1000-1500W laser source, but also has a 3in1 handpiece, with small built-in galvo that can do cutting/welding/cleaning. (the welder additionally has a water chiller, plus a welding wire feed system, both for aluminum and steel) I could then mount the handpiece of the welder on the gantry (and save on not buying the cutting head) and have a more versatile set of parts that besides the CNC cutting I could also use for manual welding (doing welds with astonishing ease and results, look up 'laser welding' videos). and these parts perhaps can also be combined to make simple 2D CNC welding sometime with my existing machine and also a CNC assisted (like traversing an area) surface cleaner (degreaser, rust remover) although not that useful with the 2D limit, but the parts may be later used in my next project with a robotic arm assisted 3D welder... 1000w-1500w laser welders are available for $8-12k all the stuff would fit in the same $15k budget. What do you think?
I can see you put much thought in this design, I think I can help you out on some of your questions. Fiber laser metal cutting is essentially a balance between laser intensity and spot shape/quality, kerf width/spot size and assist gas. Get these right and you have beautiful burr free cuts, have one of these out and really bad cuts. It’s a fine line between getting a great cut and a poor cut. Your focus position relative to the surface of the material plays a big role in determining the width of the cut. Focusing perfectly on top of your material like you would in non-metal CO2 system would create too narrow of a cut and would not leave enough room for the assist gas to expel the vaporised material from the cut. Having your focus too far away from the surface would cause your cut too be too wide and the laser might not be powerful enough to create sufficient energy density to vaporise the metal. You always want to cut metal in a single pass to get the vaporised mater though the cut or it will just cool and adhere to the top of your cut. You also want to ensure that your laser profile is even and round. If you can imagine having an oval shaped focused laser spot your kerf width will be a different size in the X and Y direction. You will have different cutting qualities in the different directions or it might not cut through at all in certain directions, you will see this when you cut circles that there might be really bad spots at some points of the curve. You can go too slow. Unlike non-metal CO2 cutting, there is a very fine optimal speed, cutting too slow can often give similarly bad results as cutting too fast. Autofocus and nozzle. Your assist gas and your laser exit the nozzle together, it is important that they are centred to each other. Having your assist gas in the cut is just as important as having your laser in there. You need both to be perfect. If they are too far away from centre you have a scenario where your gas jet is leading or lagging your cut in some directions and you get bad cutting. Laser cutting nozzles are very well designed to shape the gas flow to a concentrated jet and is optimal for a very short distance after leaving the nozzle. Therefore your auto focus is very important it is mainly there to keep the nozzle close to the material to ensure that the gas is removing the vaporised material and keeping the laser focused to the material is secondary as you have more tolerance on your laser focus than you do on your “assist gas jet focus”, especially on the 1-1.5kw lasers. The nozzle diameter determines the width of the jet and the amount of gas flowing though, when cutting with N2 or Air you would normally stick to as small a size as you can as long as your laser focus is not set too far away from 0 as your laser beam can be larger than your nozzle orifice. The cutting head has a few important functions. First it will take the raw laser from the fiber end then shape and focus it. The lens assembly can also precisely move higher and lower to change the focus position relative to the material without changing the nozzle to material distance. As there is not much clearance between the OD of the laser exiting the nozzle and the ID of the orifice, the laser beam path needs to be very stable, so the head needs to be well constructed and keep its components sturdy. It also needs to have water cooling channels to dissipate heat. It also needs to handle high assist gas pressure (20-30bar). So it is big and heavy. Adding a metal cutting head on a 1000x600mm CO2 frame would greatly reduce its acceleration performance. Most modern metal cutters can accurately do 0.8-2G, and even a 1kw will easily cut 0.5mm Stainless at 300mm/s. A standard XY non metal CO2 machine wont be able to reach 1G with a small head, increasing the head weight by 50-100x will deteriorate its performance and cutting a detailed part will take a few minutes where a sturdy rack and pinion or linear drive motion system will do it in a few seconds. Servos with a smooth motion such as ball screw, rack and pinion or linear drive is preferred for metal cutting over belt and steppers. Both the belt and stepper motors produce rough motion. One downside about the much finer kerf width of a 1064nm wavelength is that it exaggerates rough motion on the cut. Essentially your cutting tool radius is much smaller so peaks and valleys as a result of the rough motion are cut with much higher detail. Also rough cutting can be an indication of a setting that needs to be fine tuned so it would make it difficult if you are trouble shooting cutting parameters but you are unsure where the source of the rough cutting is coming from. Another problem with the XY belt motion is that it is not very rigid and depending on your acceleration you might get wobbles when it changes direction around a corner. During this wobble the head is not moving at a constant speed and would jerk to a higher speed and slow down during the wobble, this will occasionally cause points where the part did not cut though properly. Having more than 3 or more small points on a shape that did not cut though makes it very difficult to break out and less effort to scrap it and recut it. And also in my opinion it feels like a waist to have such a small metal cutting machine, at least go 1250mm or 4foot wide to allow standard sheets to fit. This post is going on long enough it think (sorry for the long read) but I think it should also over the difficulty of having a galvo head, with a nozzle. I would rather design the system so that the fiber end could be easily and safely removed from the machine and connected to a separate galvo head that can be used for cleaning and a separate head for welding. And yes argon will work fine for cutting thin steel. I have not covered low pressure O2 cutting (thicker mild steel) here. I do not mean to discourage you and would love to see the machine that you come up with in action.
@@andremostert344 Wow! Thank you Andre, I did not expect such a professional advice to avoid the dead ends embedded in my idea. Just looking at a laser cutting head with more attention should have made clear for me what you are saying: a fine tuned beam forming, laser focusing, height adjusting, gas jet forming, etc. needs it exactly this way, and that is heavy and requires a special component designed for it. A CO2 machine only has to move a light mirror and a small lens. So the motion system also has a higher requirement. I agree about the minimum machine size. However I would gladly give up of the maximum cutting thickness, being able to cut 2-3mm thin sheet steel or aluminum would be more than enough for me. It is a hobby project and also the 'jobs' that I would be manufacturing would be only cutting thin sheets of metal, (I can't imagine to handle anything above 20kgs like a >5mm steel sheet would be) So it is a question for you, in this case, to save on costs, can I go lower with the laser power, for example a 500W (or 200-300W) laser source? Or would it mean rougher edges when cutting slower with less power? ..and slower speed would also mean more heat spreading and deformation?
Hi Nick, you will defiantly be able to cut some metal with a 500w. I myself have not tried but it will work. Just one thing to note is that there might not be laser heads and laser source combinations that will fit. I would recommend Raytools heads and Raycus source to look for a matching pair. 1000w to 2000w will probably much more popular than the 500w sources and when looking to buy a source and head I would recommend finding some laser manufacturers in Jinan China (seems to be the fiber cutting machine capital) and ask for a price on some spare parts + shipping rather than buying from aliexpress, you should get better prices that way as they buy in bulk and have much better relationships with the manufacturers than the 3rd party online sellers. Please please don’t get tempted by a glass tube CO2 laser that can cut metal, woods and other materials. You will just be creating a massive headache for yourself, too many reasons to list, just trust me. As for your cutting requirements, it is defiantly possible for a laser to cut worse than a plasma cutter if you try to go out of its capabilities. Especially when cutting thick mild steel with O2. Cutting 2-3mm stainless steel will be possible but you will have quite a bit of very hard burr at the bottom you will have to clean off with an angle grinder. Aluminium will be much harder and piecing though the steel will be the most difficult part, having a head where the lens focus is motorised will help as you require a different focus than cutting to get optimal results. With cup cut you can pre pierce all your start points and then manually adjust your fucus to cutting if you do not have a motorised focus. But you will have a lot of bur also on 3mm aluminium that is difficult to clean off a file works better as a sander or grinder tends to bend the burr to the side and not remove it, but the edge should be good. What will be a massive advantage is if you can get as much assist gas pressure as you can, say about 15-20bar, will just have less bur. Compressed air is preferred as N2 will cost a fortune as a full cylinder will only last about 10-20 mins at that pressure when using something like a 1.2mm - 1.5mm nozzle. Higher power = easier cutting on 2mm and thicker. You should be able to do 1.5mm aluminium, stainless and mild steel like a champ with 500w. Just another note about the max thickness that a laser power is rated to. That is the max thickness that is possible to cut but is rarely practical. For example a 1000W can do 10mm mild steel, you would need to become a expert at cutting 10mm with a 1000w to do it, and a 2000w will do it with easy and more than 3times faster. The cutting speed does not drop linearly with cutting thickness, it drops off much faster and margin for error (bad settings) becomes much much less also. Spoils goes up, and not talking about cuts that don’t look so hot, completely unusable. And you would probably have to do 50+ test cuts to get your settings dialled in. The warping and deformation is not that much of a concern with a lower wattage when cutting with N2 or air when comparing lower and higher laser power, if your artwork is too detailed (like cutting fine mesh of holes), it will warp no matter your laser power.
@@andremostert344 thanks again, sorry for taking advantage of your expertise and helpfulness, (feel free to reply shortly or not at all if I go too far using free counselling ) One more thing I'd like your opinion on: th-cam.com/video/GywQVNA6qoY/w-d-xo.html If I got it right the waterjet only assists containing the laser beam (so the beam remains parallel) and also helps removing the material, cooling it at the same time. The waterjet here has nothing to do with a classical waterjet cutter where the pressure is huge (up to 6000 bars) and abrasives are added, that is definitely not a garage project. I think for the water assisted laser the water system requirements might be as low as 10-15 bars, (just a guess). What do you think, how feasible is it with a DIY machine? I envision a design where the existing laser head is fitted with CNC machined part with a narrow orifice for the water jet around the laser. I guess the optics of the cutting head are not really suited for this. sorry to circulate so much on the subject, a machine that can do something special (like extra narrow tool paths, no deformation, with the immediate and clear material removal being able to do multiple passes, and the footprint of the machine could be smaller (would fit better in my workshop) concentrating not on large sheets but the manufacturing of small special parts) could be even more inspiring. ...in some sense it could be a cleaner alternative to EDM (electical discharge machining) for mold making with deep cuts, sharp inner corners, etc.
@@nick066hu Sorry man, I have no experience with the laser-water jet hybrid machines. The tech has existed for decades and I have seen what they can do and it is incredible! Quality, precision and thickness is crazy, but very specialized due to the complexity, limited size and slow speed of these machines. I would love to have one to mess around on but I think the challenge would be in the optics to merge the laser and water together $$$
Could add a larger tank to get the air you need. Still won’t run indefinitely but if you let the air compressor build up Pressure first it will extend your cutting time on compressed air.
Thankyou for putting a BIG "warning read about this before you try" cause even though I'm sure you know what your doing not seeing some laser glass over that fairly high power IR laser too contain stray beam reflections is a bit sketch xD. Amazing project tho ive looked into trying too make a fibre laser system like this and never ended up having the balls too pull the trigger. Props too you man!
Great video, and you covered the subject perfectly. Thanks, thumbs up! But um, I think you meant 20 millimeters (about .78 inches), not 20 centimeters (about 7.8 inches). Am I the only one who caught that?
If you get the plumbing you could install your own filling station to fill your own bottles of compressed air. Diving bottles at 200 bar are pretty cheap.
Very well built, superb project, have always wanted to put one of these together but the laser side of things was always too expensive and confusing.. 💯💯💯
Awesome, I'll be following this with interest. I've been looking at the fibre laser parts on aliexpress for a few years, but I dont have enough experience or information to experiment with one.
Well described and thank you for all the info shared. The greatest fail of the whole system is no mouse on the laptop 🙂 Looks to be the system I will need, but the price is outside my capabilities now. I have a 65 amp plasma cutter on a PlasmaCAM, and a 6040 CNC which does me fine for now, and I am building a 90W 6090 CO2 currently with about 2/3 of the parts now.
So after building this would still consider buying one ready to go?. That seems to be the big decision in taking on a project like this. Thanks for the video I'm sure I'll watch it several times to answer several of my questions.
The frame itself is quite stiff, however it is setting on 4 wobbly casters that I put it on to roll it around while I was building it...thanks for reminding me, I should take those off now!
* UPDATE MAY 2024: I have an updated, better, and cheaper design...also check out this video series: th-cam.com/video/AL-qmKZxsL4/w-d-xo.html *
I'm getting a lot of comments about the gas prices and I really appreciate everyones feedback. I should have gone into a little more detail in the video...the prices I listed are to fill 300 cu/ft bottles at Airgas. I purchased their Ultra High Purity rated gasses, because it was the only option that they offered that met the requirements recommended by RayTools (the laser head manufacturer) of 99.95% purity,
Yeah, that high purity stuff is hella expensive. But if compressed air is an option, then "low purity" compressed gasses are surely an option. Compared to just air, those cheap gases are already as pure as you can get them.
Also looking forward to seeing the buildseries and breakdown. Subbed.
If you are cutting a bunch also consider a liquidpack nitrogen bottle. prob going to cost over a grand to get one there, but then the cost of the actual gas it produces will be way way cheaper in the long run. And as others have said the 30 or less per bottle nitrogen is what most people use from what I have seen. Very impressive build!
Can you use Argon instead?
It is a cheap welding gas.
Think we get about the same size bottle here with a refill price about 150-250 usd.
What speed did you cut the 1/4" steel at?
@@TheJuicyBurger 17mm/s
Never seen anyone build one of these before. The results look awesome. One thing to consider if you need more power and you’re not planning to run it 24/7 is a gas generator. For a couple grand you should be able to find a high enough power inverter generator that can run anything you need.
Another option specifically regarding the air compressor is a gas powered compressor that you fire up when you’re going to cut. You can get really high CFM ones, especially if go up to a diesel unit. The essential craftsman does this for his air hammer which is super air hungry.
I can't be the only one a little excited that Shane is now thinking about fiber lasers..
Thank you Sir! I never thought about a gas generator, but I have been keeping an eye on Marketplace for a used gas powered compressor…I just picked up a used air dryer tonight. BTW, I’m a little star-struck…I have to publicly admit that you are my TH-cam hero!!! 😃
@@diyfiberlaser I work with big air compressors for scientific work as part of my job. Keep in mind that the CFM of a compressor decreases as pressure increases. Be cautious of large piston compressors, that's a lot of mass moving, and they tend to have vibration problems, especially the oilless ones (I have a $20K compressor offline atm because it's trying to rip itself apart). Scroll compressors are quiet and good to 120 psi or so. Compressors with threaded inlets can be used in series, so one kicks you to 100 PSI, the next bumps you up to 200, etc.
The size of the tank only affects the time between compressor runs. Old tanks that have sat with water in the bottom can rupture and kill people, so be cautious of used tanks (also drain your tank daily!). Even a modestly sized tank rupturing at 200 PSI will take the walls out of that building.
Some years ago, I was running a small tabletop sand blaster in my garage. To get the pressure and volume of air I needed, I ran three small 120-volt compressors in parallel. The setup was vastly cheaper than a single large compressor; you can save space by plumbing multiple pumps into a single tank.
Also, there are places that sell used scientific equipment; you could look for a used nitrogen generator.
IMHO gas fueled air compressors are a massive PITA. you have far more maintenance, they tend to be loud, and you have the concern of the exhaust being drawn into the intake and brought into your shop with a whole lot of moisture. You can easily overload a dryer.
@@diyfiberlaser Look at something like a Motor Guard filter to go along with the air drier. The air drier will remove moisture but won't help much with removing contaminants and used gas compressors aren't treated very nice during their life. Also, look for a stationary gas air compressor instead of a wheel barrow style since they will provide more CFM due to having larger pumps.
Not sure if you can get a big enough gas generator (Nitrogen) that would be able to keep up with the power available in a home shop. I have a nitrogen generator system and it costs about the same as the laser. It has not 1 but 2 compressors! A standard 11kw 3 phase 10bar atlas copco air compressor and a high pressure 200bar booster compressor to fill 4x 50l 200bar cylinders. I can out run this system when cutting 2mm stainless steel. The 1kw fibre laser and nitrogen system probably pull 30kw 400v 3 phase at full power. I would try to find a cheaper source of bottled nitrogen or try a high pressure dive compressor and fill several cylinders when the laser is off and cut on air. Adjust your laser parameters to fine tune the results 👍
I have been thinking about this for a very long time. Thank you for taking the time to create a video about it.
Going to add one to your robot arm? 😉
@@diyfiberlaser actually yes LOL
This is one of the most frightening DIY builds I’ve seen. I can’t wait to see more!
@@dav1dsm1ththe laser ships attached to a shark. That’s the hard part, removing said shark!
Kudos! It was an unknown territory for 99% of DIY builders.
Hey Travis, Hi from Australia!! And all I can say is wow!! this is the definition of what "not being a sheep in the crowd" means. All the "critics" are quite happy to offer their opinions, keyboard warriors, where as your desire to move forward and do, well done mate!.
Motion control has been there for decades, the mechanics and designs are a plenty - there are people out there who have made these DIY Fibre machines, they're just not confident enough, or care to put them up for the world to see and criticise. Budgets are the key ingredient to any project, and design choices based on available tech, or budget constraints.
At the end, the only difference between a DIY and commercial machine, is support, and if you are the builder, you are the supporter, you don't have the overhead of having a technician on hand to take care of warranty. There are those who will argue that the quality of the machine... stop, quality is in the end result of the purpose of the tool. The logo that Travis just cut is beautiful and a high "quality" (costly) machine would do no better.
Looking forward to the rest of your video series Travis, just subscribed.
Well Said!
I attempted to do this 2 years ago, but like you when I researched other DIY projects, I found nothing. So excited to watch this.
Very impressive work for so many reasons. I've built 3d printers, CNC cutters of many types, laser engravers, lots of micro controller projects and some pretty large machine tools, power hamemrs, presses, etc. I think I just found my next labor of love. 1500W's here I come!!!!!
As a PhD researcher working in laser welding, I am amazed by your work. Subscribed!
Awesome! I have a laser welder on the way, it’s already landed at the US port, so I will have some content on that coming soon…hopefully you stick around, it would be great to hear your commentary on the laser welding machine
Spending 15 grand for something you don't really know is going to work is scary DIY territory. Im very impressed tho
It has been a little unnerving, but through an unexpected chain of events, I ended up with 15K and about 85% confidence that I could figure it out, so I decided to take one for the team...that was the easy part...convincing my wife was the real challenge! : )
Impressive!! I have been searching for a “desk top” fiber laser, but it seams very hard to find for acceptable money. Thanks for sharing. 15’ $ is still out of my budget.
Well, if something didn’t work, you fix it ?
I was looking for something like this, but about ten years ago. It's amazing how fibre lasers have become more attainable. The Coherent Meta1000 I looked at was at least £150,000.
Stay safe!
15k is nothing, man up
For the record, Eagle Pair goggles, and specifically those you have, are completely unsafe and don't provide any significant protection at 1064nm. Me and a few colleagues tested this on industrial spectrophotometers designed for this purpose(testing coatings/film transmission), and they transmit as much as 8% of light where they should be transmitting 0.0000001%
Get a pair for 800-1100nm @ OD6 or higher, from any of the following brands: Kentek, Lasertack, Thorlabs, Honeywell, Glendale, Sperian, Newport/MKS, Edmund Optics, Laservision/Uvex, Laserglow, NoIR (LaserShield).
As others pointed out, you are being straight up *gouged* for gas price. You don't need UHP, refilling a 40L nitrogen bottle costs me $15, oxygen $45. Both at regular technical purity, 99.95%. Even 95% reject garbage grade will work perfectly fine for cutting. Also, when opening the gas cylinder, you want to open the valve at least halfway, otherwise you'll be wearing the gasket through way more quickly and can cause leaks(high pressure leaks are scary).
If you have space and power, you could also try replacing the oxygen supply with a small army of oxygen concentrators. They're basically free in the US after they become no longer fit for medical uses, and I reckon you could get away with around 4-6 units running in parallel, through a tiny air compressor on their output to bring up the pressure. They'll also provide nitrogen(well, oxygen-free air) out the reject port.
Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge! The glasses I have are FreeMascot (maybe it's rebrand? amzn.to/3GVoWEE) they say they're OD8 800nm-1100nm, but I will check out some of the other brands you listed. And thanks, I will get cheaper gas next time
@@diyfiberlaser FreeMascot is just garbage, worse than Eagle Pair. Whatever they say is irrelevant. Anything from Amazon, eBay, Wish, and any other site besides official distributors of the brands I mentioned is completely unsafe and you should not buy from them.
@@Spirit532 OK, thanks for preserving my eyes!
Good idea about the oxygen concentrators. An Oilless air compressor is a must.
@@diyfiberlaser I also have three pairs of the freemascot... Curious about them as well
Thanks for sharing this project!
About the gasses, I don't know where you're getting your bottles filled, but I'd suggest calling around the welding supply houses, as neither of those gasses are particularly exotic, and are commonly available for various processes.
Nitrogen is ~78% of the atmosphere, and not in any way in short supply.
Oxygen is ~20% of the atmosphere, and again not a short supply issue.
I usually use a nearby welding gas supply house for argon, argon/CO2, oxygen, acetylene, and nitrogen. My biggest cost savings on this was just checking around the stores and comparing prices.
AirGas was always been one of the most expensive, as well as prone to trying to force bottle rental instead of purchased bottles.
Like You, I have also have spent a few years regularly searching the internet for an example of this!!!!!!
Please do a good job documenting this! Including links to the fiber components.
Thank you for these videos!
Focus on showing the assembly or a detailed trace/expo of the laser components. This is what makes your build unique and important to those of us who’ve wanted to attempt this build for awhile.
The gantry and table build aren’t a big deal there’s easily a million tutorials that can be found by on TH-cam alone posted almost weekly and plenty more on properly building a controller.
Why did you chose to go with a “laser” controller? Couldn’t you just use Mach 3/4 or LinuxCNC with a traditional motion control card setup?
Was there customs fees and did you need a broker for any of the laser components?
You are the first person to build a Faber laser on TH-cam congrats my friend
And the precision of this machine is just amazing
Omg this is a great step forward for the fiber curious amongst us. Thanks for taking the step for the rest of us.
I was going to do this a couple of years ago, glad you actually went all the way! Awesome work here!
I ended up buying a 1.5kW RECI laser source for this, but gave up when I found that you can buy a complete machine (at least right now, prices have dropped a lot) for about your budget plus shipping/duties.
The laser source is now in a 3 in 1 handheld Weld/Cut/Clean system. Maybe build a laser welder next?
I was thinking fiber laser engraver next...but maybe next, next!?
WOAH! This is going to open up a trillion doors to us geeks and makers!I have always wanted to have an actual metal cutting laser but considering their steep price, had never been an option. Now it is! Thanks for making it happen and more importantly documenting it so well! Looking forward to the other videos.
Watching every DIY laser cutting machine videos I can find and this is great. While outside of my budget, I'm hopeful you share your gantry build process. This is going to be 90% universal to any CNC machine and worth watching. And yes, knowing more about fiber lasers will leave that itch in the back of my mind for a follow up build.
Hello,
I'm a French ironworker and I've been looking for this kind of video for months. I can't wait for the next ones to build mine!!!
Travis my friend...👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 You are my hero! I've wanted a Fiber Laser but ended up getting an Avid 8x10 CNC Router. My next project would be adding a fiber laser to it... You have inspired me greatly!!! My eyes will be glued to your next video like my 1st time watching Return Of The Jedi! Thank you! SUBSCRIBED.
Coolest DIY project on TH-cam by far!
Well done, Man!!!
It takes some guts to attempt something like this from a home garage. I have many years of experience in lasers. I myself have designed and or built almost all types of industrial laser systems you can think of except subsurface green laser marking or UV lasers, but all the rest high power performance CO2, 3D galvo, laser welding, welding cleaning, heat treating, scribing, robotic, metal cutting (CO2 and fiber), marking (CO2, Fiber and old school diode pumped ND:YAG). Although i have never had to do it with such limited tools and budget. What you are doing is very impressive. I sincerely want to reach out to you and offer you my help and experience if you are interested. I don't get much time to play around anymore and would love to help you get the most out of your machine. I can see your machine is still very clean, so you still have quite a learning curve ahead of you.
Let me know how I can get in contact with you to send you, my details.
I'm so pumped to find this video! I'm collecting parts to build a DIY fiber laser too, but there's so many missing elements of the system. I'm mostly interested in the controller. I've got a 4kw IPG sitting in my garage. It's relatively easy to generate 3 phase power with "off grid solar inverters" but it's not the cheapest option. You can do ~15kw for around $2000 or so. I'm so into you
From my research, it appears most commercial machines are using Friendess controllers and CypCut software. I went with the Ruida RD6563F controller because it is cheaper and I'm familiar using a Ruida controller on my C02 lase. It has it's own software called RDCutist V2.0. It seems less robust than the CypCut software, but so far, has all of the basic features I've needed.
Interesting note about the 3-phase solar inverters, I’m gonna file that away for future reference!
@@diyfiberlaser Does the laser source use a PWM to control the power output?
@@danielelenarduzzi9888 Raycus RFL-C 1000 has a direct modulation input, your circuit can control the laser up to 5000Hz. this can be used for PWM control. Is also has an analog 0-10V input that can be enabled. A serial and and ethernet port is also present, however it is not clear if we can obtain a description of it's protocol, I have not found it yet. A user manual is available, google it.
Any control 7$ or above can do the job just fine. I currently have complete cnc machine and building table for plasma torch since its relatively cheap.
But from what I understand same laser source can be used for metal cutting, engraving, welding..
So fiber laser in the end may be cheaper and much more quality solution than having separate.. Engraver, cutting machine,welder...
Can anyone confirm this?
Brilliant vidclip, So well presented .....Thanks for sharing .... Best wishes to You and Yours for 2023 from Christchurch, New Zealand
Hi Travis, I took the same route as you did in 2013 with a CO2 laser, when fiber lasers were a new technology. Raycus and Max laser weren't around yet. One thing that could benefit you greatly, and I would love to collaborate with you if needed, is to create your own Nitrogen generator. This will eliminate the cost of purchasing or refilling N2 every time you cut exotic metals such as aluminum, stainless steel, copper, brass, etc. For steel, you can actually use dry compressed air instead of oxygen. However, this must be supplied by a reputable rotary screw compressor (5-10HP or more) which is the bulk of the cost upfront.
Awesome! Do some test cuts showing the types of materials you can cut and the max thickness please and thank you. I want to cut steel plates up to half inch. I’m curious if you could do that with oxygen
After the first 15 seconds of this video I want to build one NOW!! Need this!!
I don't know how much of an effect it has on final quality but that gantry is HELLA flexy. Super interesting breakdown!
Thanks!!! I’m just building a 90w wood cutter. Thanks for using the ball screw
Hi travis I’m watching this for the second time, and I’m realising your gas prices are way too high. Those prices sound like the cost to buy the bottles. If you rent them they are 100-200 per big bottle. Just to reiterate I think this project is so amazing. Bravo
I'm so impressed with what you have achieved here.
I've been working on one on a larger scale, more industrial.
You are right, there is not much info for the beginner into this.
Looked at all the Ruida / Cypcut systems, need a PC.
Plus it is a very old Windows system.
So sorting something from the start along the lines with the Masso G3 with the new Plasma start configuration.
This is also working with a LPC-PLUS6 Fibre Laser power source controller.
Plus with my own THC with the LFS-AM-T43-AP01.
This capacitive sensor also works with the Masso DTHC.
With the Masso G3 Plasma start configuration, it may be able to be done.
I see you run a Masso touchscreen in the background.
Cheers.
8:14 always turn tank valves on completely, there is a second sealing surface inside and you will see less consumption
To be on the safe side, buy a co2 fire extinguisher for metal fires. Slag could cause your aluminum profile to burn. and the Si and Mg content could catch fire and become inextinguishable... auf Deutsch... Gute Arbeit weiter so!
Been waiting for someone to make these videos, cnc side is easy but info on the fibre laser gear is harder to find cheers from new zealand!!
I would give 5 thumbs up if i could! This is a DIY project i was waiting for like for several years now =) thank you for showing!
This is really a great adventure ,, never seen before , im glad to see you satisfied
That power-up sequence at the end was pretty damn cool.
At 8:06, it looks like you’re adjusting those tank valves just enough to hit the mark on your regulator. Remember to go full open on the tank valve and then close a click or two. Use the regulator to regulate pressure, not the tank valve. I’m not certain why, but my welding teacher made a point about it and it’s always stuck with me.
4:42 , that's a very common cost cutting measure, I work with a 2500W laser at work (industrial), we do up to 10mm black steel or 6mm stainless steel, reliably, BUT, we have a liquid ring compressor system, and HIGH pressure is an important factor in evacuating molten metal and a good finish. I'd be happy to relay any questions you have to our more experienced operator, keep in mind, I live in the middle east, so specific pricing question may be irrelevant.
I'm so happy someone finally made a great video on this, I'm trying to eventually get parts for my own fiber laser. One thing I'm curious about is if a water table could work for a fiber laser the same way it works for a plasma cutting torch. I assume that might increase the risk of the lenses getting damaged. Being around a plasma CNC, I'm used to a water table so I'm wondering if downdrafts are the only way to go with fiber lasers.
It would be very messy as most of the thin metals you will cut with assist gas or compressed air at 10 bar and more. It would just spray it all over the place. Also you dont want to get any moisture on your copper nozzle as the auto focus system uses it as the capacitive sensing point and would mess up the calibration and would not follow to the correct hight (usually 1mm) and you then have a very bad cut. Depending on the machine style, you dont want your parts to fall thought the bed as the sparks from cutting would adhere to the parts below. With fiber lasers you can have tiny micro joints that keep the parts you want to keep attached so its really easy to break them off the sheet.
OMG! Awesome project!! I love it! I work with a fiber laser machine, and I always asked me how to DIY one! Lets goo!!!
Someone FINALLY did it!
Wow, finally somebody did this, can't wait for next episodes!
well done video, amazingly detailed. Thanks for the prices this is something people hide.
I've been so excited to see someone build one and I can't wait to watch this!
Thanks for posting this. I had no idea how "inexpensive" fiber lasers could be. I'm in the middle of a cnc plasma build but it wouldn't be too much work to swap it out for a fiber laser one day.
Finally! I was searching for this content all my life!!!
Thanks. I built a sturdy cnc plasma table with the intention of having laser as an option too. This gave a good insight into what would be required to fit a laser.
I've never seen this done before as a DIY project and I've spent lots of time looking. Very cool!
Congratulations on successfully building your DIY 1000W fiber laser cutter! It's great that you are willing to share your experience and knowledge by creating a series of videos to help others who may be interested in building a similar machine. It is important to note that fiber lasers can be dangerous, so it's important to do your own research and take proper safety precautions when building or using a laser.
Working as a salesman for company that sells laserwelders. Which is also a class 4 laser. I have to point out the safety aspect. Please cover up the window. The rays will go straight through the glass. You would be surprised how far the damaging rays could travel because of the reflection. I just subcribed because this I such a cool project. Keep those episodes coming!
Thanks for your input, I certainly will make a panel to cover the exterior window while cutting
Dude! I*ve been looking to do the exact same thing! Please make your future videos as detailed as possible. I'm currently looking for buildings to build my new workshop and a fiber laser able to cut at least 2 mm aluminium is on the absolute top of my wishlist for the new shop. Can't wait to see your future videos. Instantly subscribed!
Very workmanlike job. T. The stepper drivers (closed loop servo?) look nice, not cheap at all. Looking forward to more fiber (lasers) in my TH-cam diet.
Awesome job!
I also created something similar with a used Raycus laser source and a Queenbee CNC and it cost me about 5000USD.
The price drop of laser sources has been spectacular but still expensive for hobby use.
The resolution is quite remarkable. Nice work.
Excellent introduction to a unique built!
Thanks for sharing so many details already in the first video... really looking forward to the full series! Greetings from another maker from Germany.
I've been waiting on selling my PlasmaCAM DHC2 to get the money to make one of these. Thanks for posting this!
That is a really nicely built. Suddenly my home-built 3D printer with screws seems like a waste of time 🙃 but at the same time I think, with the knowledge I acquired, I can build one like that too... I understand that you are not used to the metric system but that is 20 millimeters and not centimeters... extremely impressive.
Love it. Would pay to have the BOM / sources. Great work :D This deserves its own DIY community.
I am completely overwhelmed with the amazing response this video has received, so now I backpedaling to set up the infrastructure to hopefully better support everyone. I'm working on setting up a Patreon community for interested builders, where I can share BOM, more detailed vids, and with a forum to make a repository of information, answers to common question, share ideas, etc. Please have some patience with me, I'm a little slow moving as I'm trying to juggle video making, day job, kids, etc. Maybe with enough support, I can convince my wife to let me make a career jump and open up a lot more time for content creation and support. Thanks for your interest! 😀
@@diyfiberlaser totally understand! Wishing you luck 🤞 and I'm eager to make contributions of my own to this project! Looking forward to 2023.
Now we are talkin! Very impressed! Subscribed from Perth Australia✊
That's awesome! From experience building frames with aluminum profile I would say you need to go with a minimum of 2040 size for both weight (to help counter inertia) and frame rigidity.
Yes, cant wait to see you cutting thicker stuff. I placed an order for a Bodor 1000x1500mm 3000W at the Univ of East London, and for personal reasons I needed to leave it. Now the machine arrived and I will soon join the training.
Now here in Hamburg we are building a Mobile Truck lab and I want to have one in it. How heavy would you say your whole system weights?
Very interesting, I am looking at making (because nobody makes one) a combo unit, CNC router and laser. I have been thinking of getting a MillRight and making the table move and not the gantry, mount the laser on the back of the mill head off of the table. and have a small footprint that does two functions. The application is cut 1" boards, 5/8 aluminum, and laser thin gauge metal, with engraving.
Thank you. I am really looking forward to learning from your project. I have a small plasma table, but really want a laser setup for clean cuts for motorsports parts. The frame/basic machine controls are easy for me, but I've never touched a laser so that setup is new. I also appreciate you sharing the costs so there's resonable expectation if any of us follow suite and build a similar setup.
Holy cow this thing is badass!!!!!! I just liked, subscribed, and shared it with a few CNC guys I know. I want to make one just like this!!!!! Amazing job Travis!!!!
Very impressive!!
Nice to see you were not affraid to run DIY project with such expensive components.
Can I ask why ballscrew instead of a belt?
WOW, what a beast!
Lol'ed so hard at the cat/dog flap exhaust port. Keep it up !
Great DIY Built !! very impress with the size of the test cut you show at the end !! very precise
Great Project! I pay about $35 for oxygen tank exchange (for a tank about half your size) - at work where we buy a lot of gas I pay about $50 for a nitrogen tank exchange. Buying the first tank is expensive but after that it is just a matter of exchanging tanks at the local welding supply store. I don't know how much gas you need but I purchase used oxygen concentrators (off Craigslist or the marketplace) for torches for glasswork (you can compress the oxygen for storage if needed). for a 5 LPM unit I pay $50 to $200 - You should be able to get the nitrogen out of the exhaust without too much trouble. If the concentrator breaks there is a great little low pressure compressor inside that is worth whatever you paid.
That is insane detail in such a small area
Great!!, I am working on my research for lasers, an i am looking for similar models, great to see it is possible!
Awesome. I am so looking forward to the build series. Liking your presentation so far and it looks like you have done a well thought out and professional job. Definitely something I can see myself investing time and $$$ into.
I think there may be a static electricity problem in your lab 😉
@7:46 - what happens when the cat climbs into the vent? 😿🙀
Where the hell do you find a standalone laser and laser supply unit? I’ve been looking for years but when I Google I always get brought to full laser machines never the laser and supply unit them selves
Hi Travis! Your build looks awesome. I built a DIY CO2 laser about 3 years back and I didn't find anything regarding fiber laser back then also, excited about your series 👌🏻
Wow. Really cool I was basically bitten by the same laser bug. Looking forward to ur build bideos
Excellent! Loved the vid. Your production is good and I subbed of course. It was so interesting that I would have loved to have heard your description of booting it up. I think people love the detail, at least I do! Well done.
I’m editing the next couple videos and I think going forward I’m going to also post extended versions of the videos on Patreon for people interested in more of the technical details, as I am editing out lots of footage to keep them entertaining for the casual viewer too
I was thinking about building such machine somewhere in the future! Subscribed!
Really looking forward to this series, with that mad scientist hair you are rocking I think this will be a good ride! The diode lasers on a CNC are just not interesting enough for me so this is way better. I can use a VFD to produce the 380V 3phase, what kind of current are we talking? Edit: nvmd, 3500W for the P/S means about 15 amp at 240V. The 1500W I saw on their site was 5500 watts at 240V single phase so, so 23 amps. Well within a Dryer plug specification... Hmmm....
BTW what's up with the Air Powered Shuttlecocks?
You are the first to mention the shuttlecocks, so I feel extra-compelled to reply : ) My wife is a former Team USA Badminton player. Since my introduction to the sport, I have become a huge fan and play weekly. So far, I have primarily used my workshop for prototyping and developing badminton-related products, including: shuttlecock launcher for training, badminton footwork trainer (fasterfootwork.com), 3D printed shuttlecocks, etc. !!WARNING, NERD TALK!!: Compared to other "ball" type sports, the shuttlecock is quite complex to design around, because of its light weight, unique shape, flight characteristics, and handling properties....and I really enjoy the challenge! In the future, I would like to showcase some of my badminton projects on this channel, but I'm not sure how well it will be received, since it is quite unpopular of a sport in the USA.
There's a channel for everything - especially in the makerspace. I recall leagues of badminton when I was younger. It was perceived as a 'lesser' sport by some but while I played other sports I wasn't all mental about them and I quite enjoyed badminton. We often played it in the backyard during family gatherings.
If you want to make yourself rich, invent a bird that will stop mid air or at least come back from over the fence where it inevitably ends up during some off balance recovery return. :)
That’s so sick. I’m building a 5x10 plasma table right now. Laser would be cool.
I really considered adding fiber laser to my existing 3kw cnc router. But just the main components and not the cnc bits cost quite a bit. The only real added benefits to me that is, is being able to cut steel which i don't do often. CNC router can cut aluminium and achieves 3 axis. So i abandoned the idea. But finally someone did it! Great work.
Awesome! I've built a couple of CO2 laser cutters but I also want to cut metals. I've been waiting for someone to put up a video about making a fiber laser cutter before I make the plunge myself. Can't wait to see how you did it
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing!! $15,000 is still too much for most of us. I hope I get to see fiber lasers be cheap and handled like plasma cutters are today. I remember as a kid seeing and using the first very large plasma cutter and it was mind blowing. Now they have units so small and cheap it's crazy.
we have an old trumpf 9000w at work that uses liquid Nitrogen that produces around 150ish psi out of the gassifier but we have to boost it to close to 400 psi for cutting 1/4" steel.
At about 8:05 you turn on your Nitrogen. That's an all-the-way on or all-the-way off valve. You should open it up all the way to the packing. Same with all gas cylinders.
I have worked with Co2 lasers cutting metals, watch for micro metal particles in your extraction system. I have converted an old EverFlo Oxygen Concentrator to produce ondemand O2 for a small torch setup, not the purest O2 but works well enough for gas welding. Just food for thought.
Wow, amazing build! Can you show that tiny, super detailed part at the end with light behind it? It's hard to tell if those thin lines are free standing, or just engraved in the surface.
I used to work at a shop . They used 4 différents gas co2 oxygen on laser cutter. Co2 nitrogen n 32h and of course h2o on plasma cut . All for différents job . Thickness speed and space from the matériel. Waterjet is a dirty job 😅😅. As a machinist been working on cnc lathe milling and router . Now I got my own small company and is old school machine resharpening grinding tools .But I love your project look pretty cool .
Ok, I’m not going to say it’s the best option but I operated at 1500 watt fiber laser for 4 years on straight compressed air. Was it recommended by the manufacturer? certainly not but it did work. Our big, expensive laser got a weekly nitrogen and Co2 refill, though.
Awesome build. Great to see someone tackle a project others said was too complicated!
Congrats!
With the prior experience of building a CNC mill, as my next project I am thinking about building something like this.
What do you guys think about the idea to buy an existing CO2 laser cutting machine as the base, (search for e.g. 'Ruida DSP 1060 100W co2 laser' on eBay to see what I mean) 1000x600mm machines are sold for $3000-3500, they already have the 145kgs heavy machine housing with wheels and safety enclosure, a height adjustable honeycomb bed, the XYZ axis guides + servos, a Ruida 6445G (or similar) cutting controller, a 5000W water chiller, an exhaust fan, the power supplies. I could then reuse and skip building these parts.
I would only remove/disable the CO2 laser tube and replace it with a 1000/1500W fiber laser source, add a cutting head, and the gas assist system. The machine height should be increased so the fiber, gas, water, inlets bend nicely. Btw. the gas assist system I already have for my TIG welding setup could also be used. Can someone confirm if the cutting works with Argon? ...if it works with nitrogen, it should also work with argon, I think.
The 10600nm blocking window on the CO2 machine should also be replaced with a 1064nm blocking material (will have to test maybe it already blocks both wavelengths), so I would have a professional safety enclosure then.
What do you think?
My other idea is not to buy a laser source per se but purchase a laser welder, that includes the 1000-1500W laser source, but also has a 3in1 handpiece, with small built-in galvo that can do cutting/welding/cleaning. (the welder additionally has a water chiller, plus a welding wire feed system, both for aluminum and steel)
I could then mount the handpiece of the welder on the gantry (and save on not buying the cutting head) and have a more versatile set of parts that besides the CNC cutting I could also use for manual welding (doing welds with astonishing ease and results, look up 'laser welding' videos). and these parts perhaps can also be combined to make simple 2D CNC welding sometime with my existing machine and also a CNC assisted (like traversing an area) surface cleaner (degreaser, rust remover) although not that useful with the 2D limit, but the parts may be later used in my next project with a robotic arm assisted 3D welder... 1000w-1500w laser welders are available for $8-12k all the stuff would fit in the same $15k budget. What do you think?
I can see you put much thought in this design, I think I can help you out on some of your questions.
Fiber laser metal cutting is essentially a balance between laser intensity and spot shape/quality, kerf width/spot size and assist gas. Get these right and you have beautiful burr free cuts, have one of these out and really bad cuts. It’s a fine line between getting a great cut and a poor cut.
Your focus position relative to the surface of the material plays a big role in determining the width of the cut. Focusing perfectly on top of your material like you would in non-metal CO2 system would create too narrow of a cut and would not leave enough room for the assist gas to expel the vaporised material from the cut. Having your focus too far away from the surface would cause your cut too be too wide and the laser might not be powerful enough to create sufficient energy density to vaporise the metal. You always want to cut metal in a single pass to get the vaporised mater though the cut or it will just cool and adhere to the top of your cut.
You also want to ensure that your laser profile is even and round. If you can imagine having an oval shaped focused laser spot your kerf width will be a different size in the X and Y direction. You will have different cutting qualities in the different directions or it might not cut through at all in certain directions, you will see this when you cut circles that there might be really bad spots at some points of the curve.
You can go too slow. Unlike non-metal CO2 cutting, there is a very fine optimal speed, cutting too slow can often give similarly bad results as cutting too fast.
Autofocus and nozzle. Your assist gas and your laser exit the nozzle together, it is important that they are centred to each other. Having your assist gas in the cut is just as important as having your laser in there. You need both to be perfect. If they are too far away from centre you have a scenario where your gas jet is leading or lagging your cut in some directions and you get bad cutting. Laser cutting nozzles are very well designed to shape the gas flow to a concentrated jet and is optimal for a very short distance after leaving the nozzle. Therefore your auto focus is very important it is mainly there to keep the nozzle close to the material to ensure that the gas is removing the vaporised material and keeping the laser focused to the material is secondary as you have more tolerance on your laser focus than you do on your “assist gas jet focus”, especially on the 1-1.5kw lasers. The nozzle diameter determines the width of the jet and the amount of gas flowing though, when cutting with N2 or Air you would normally stick to as small a size as you can as long as your laser focus is not set too far away from 0 as your laser beam can be larger than your nozzle orifice.
The cutting head has a few important functions. First it will take the raw laser from the fiber end then shape and focus it. The lens assembly can also precisely move higher and lower to change the focus position relative to the material without changing the nozzle to material distance. As there is not much clearance between the OD of the laser exiting the nozzle and the ID of the orifice, the laser beam path needs to be very stable, so the head needs to be well constructed and keep its components sturdy. It also needs to have water cooling channels to dissipate heat. It also needs to handle high assist gas pressure (20-30bar). So it is big and heavy.
Adding a metal cutting head on a 1000x600mm CO2 frame would greatly reduce its acceleration performance. Most modern metal cutters can accurately do 0.8-2G, and even a 1kw will easily cut 0.5mm Stainless at 300mm/s. A standard XY non metal CO2 machine wont be able to reach 1G with a small head, increasing the head weight by 50-100x will deteriorate its performance and cutting a detailed part will take a few minutes where a sturdy rack and pinion or linear drive motion system will do it in a few seconds. Servos with a smooth motion such as ball screw, rack and pinion or linear drive is preferred for metal cutting over belt and steppers. Both the belt and stepper motors produce rough motion. One downside about the much finer kerf width of a 1064nm wavelength is that it exaggerates rough motion on the cut. Essentially your cutting tool radius is much smaller so peaks and valleys as a result of the rough motion are cut with much higher detail. Also rough cutting can be an indication of a setting that needs to be fine tuned so it would make it difficult if you are trouble shooting cutting parameters but you are unsure where the source of the rough cutting is coming from. Another problem with the XY belt motion is that it is not very rigid and depending on your acceleration you might get wobbles when it changes direction around a corner. During this wobble the head is not moving at a constant speed and would jerk to a higher speed and slow down during the wobble, this will occasionally cause points where the part did not cut though properly. Having more than 3 or more small points on a shape that did not cut though makes it very difficult to break out and less effort to scrap it and recut it. And also in my opinion it feels like a waist to have such a small metal cutting machine, at least go 1250mm or 4foot wide to allow standard sheets to fit.
This post is going on long enough it think (sorry for the long read) but I think it should also over the difficulty of having a galvo head, with a nozzle. I would rather design the system so that the fiber end could be easily and safely removed from the machine and connected to a separate galvo head that can be used for cleaning and a separate head for welding. And yes argon will work fine for cutting thin steel. I have not covered low pressure O2 cutting (thicker mild steel) here. I do not mean to discourage you and would love to see the machine that you come up with in action.
@@andremostert344 Wow! Thank you Andre, I did not expect such a professional advice to avoid the dead ends embedded in my idea.
Just looking at a laser cutting head with more attention should have made clear for me what you are saying: a fine tuned beam forming, laser focusing, height adjusting, gas jet forming, etc. needs it exactly this way, and that is heavy and requires a special component designed for it. A CO2 machine only has to move a light mirror and a small lens. So the motion system also has a higher requirement.
I agree about the minimum machine size. However I would gladly give up of the maximum cutting thickness, being able to cut 2-3mm thin sheet steel or aluminum would be more than enough for me.
It is a hobby project and also the 'jobs' that I would be manufacturing would be only cutting thin sheets of metal, (I can't imagine to handle anything above 20kgs like a >5mm steel sheet would be)
So it is a question for you, in this case, to save on costs, can I go lower with the laser power, for example a 500W (or 200-300W) laser source? Or would it mean rougher edges when cutting slower with less power? ..and slower speed would also mean more heat spreading and deformation?
Hi Nick, you will defiantly be able to cut some metal with a 500w. I myself have not tried but it will work. Just one thing to note is that there might not be laser heads and laser source combinations that will fit. I would recommend Raytools heads and Raycus source to look for a matching pair. 1000w to 2000w will probably much more popular than the 500w sources and when looking to buy a source and head I would recommend finding some laser manufacturers in Jinan China (seems to be the fiber cutting machine capital) and ask for a price on some spare parts + shipping rather than buying from aliexpress, you should get better prices that way as they buy in bulk and have much better relationships with the manufacturers than the 3rd party online sellers. Please please don’t get tempted by a glass tube CO2 laser that can cut metal, woods and other materials. You will just be creating a massive headache for yourself, too many reasons to list, just trust me.
As for your cutting requirements, it is defiantly possible for a laser to cut worse than a plasma cutter if you try to go out of its capabilities. Especially when cutting thick mild steel with O2. Cutting 2-3mm stainless steel will be possible but you will have quite a bit of very hard burr at the bottom you will have to clean off with an angle grinder. Aluminium will be much harder and piecing though the steel will be the most difficult part, having a head where the lens focus is motorised will help as you require a different focus than cutting to get optimal results. With cup cut you can pre pierce all your start points and then manually adjust your fucus to cutting if you do not have a motorised focus. But you will have a lot of bur also on 3mm aluminium that is difficult to clean off a file works better as a sander or grinder tends to bend the burr to the side and not remove it, but the edge should be good. What will be a massive advantage is if you can get as much assist gas pressure as you can, say about 15-20bar, will just have less bur. Compressed air is preferred as N2 will cost a fortune as a full cylinder will only last about 10-20 mins at that pressure when using something like a 1.2mm - 1.5mm nozzle. Higher power = easier cutting on 2mm and thicker. You should be able to do 1.5mm aluminium, stainless and mild steel like a champ with 500w.
Just another note about the max thickness that a laser power is rated to. That is the max thickness that is possible to cut but is rarely practical. For example a 1000W can do 10mm mild steel, you would need to become a expert at cutting 10mm with a 1000w to do it, and a 2000w will do it with easy and more than 3times faster. The cutting speed does not drop linearly with cutting thickness, it drops off much faster and margin for error (bad settings) becomes much much less also. Spoils goes up, and not talking about cuts that don’t look so hot, completely unusable. And you would probably have to do 50+ test cuts to get your settings dialled in.
The warping and deformation is not that much of a concern with a lower wattage when cutting with N2 or air when comparing lower and higher laser power, if your artwork is too detailed (like cutting fine mesh of holes), it will warp no matter your laser power.
@@andremostert344 thanks again, sorry for taking advantage of your expertise and helpfulness, (feel free to reply shortly or not at all if I go too far using free counselling )
One more thing I'd like your opinion on: th-cam.com/video/GywQVNA6qoY/w-d-xo.html
If I got it right the waterjet only assists containing the laser beam (so the beam remains parallel) and also helps removing the material, cooling it at the same time. The waterjet here has nothing to do with a classical waterjet cutter where the pressure is huge (up to 6000 bars) and abrasives are added, that is definitely not a garage project.
I think for the water assisted laser the water system requirements might be as low as 10-15 bars, (just a guess). What do you think, how feasible is it with a DIY machine? I envision a design where the existing laser head is fitted with CNC machined part with a narrow orifice for the water jet around the laser. I guess the optics of the cutting head are not really suited for this.
sorry to circulate so much on the subject, a machine that can do something special (like extra narrow tool paths, no deformation, with the immediate and clear material removal being able to do multiple passes, and the footprint of the machine could be smaller (would fit better in my workshop) concentrating not on large sheets but the manufacturing of small special parts) could be even more inspiring. ...in some sense it could be a cleaner alternative to EDM (electical discharge machining) for mold making with deep cuts, sharp inner corners, etc.
@@nick066hu Sorry man, I have no experience with the laser-water jet hybrid machines. The tech has existed for decades and I have seen what they can do and it is incredible! Quality, precision and thickness is crazy, but very specialized due to the complexity, limited size and slow speed of these machines. I would love to have one to mess around on but I think the challenge would be in the optics to merge the laser and water together $$$
Could add a larger tank to get the air you need. Still won’t run indefinitely but if you let the air compressor build up
Pressure first it will extend your cutting time on compressed air.
Thankyou for putting a BIG "warning read about this before you try" cause even though I'm sure you know what your doing not seeing some laser glass over that fairly high power IR laser too contain stray beam reflections is a bit sketch xD.
Amazing project tho ive looked into trying too make a fibre laser system like this and never ended up having the balls too pull the trigger. Props too you man!
Great video, and you covered the subject perfectly. Thanks, thumbs up! But um, I think you meant 20 millimeters (about .78 inches), not 20 centimeters (about 7.8 inches). Am I the only one who caught that?
If you get the plumbing you could install your own filling station to fill your own bottles of compressed air. Diving bottles at 200 bar are pretty cheap.
Very well built, superb project, have always wanted to put one of these together but the laser side of things was always too expensive and confusing.. 💯💯💯
Awesome, I'll be following this with interest. I've been looking at the fibre laser parts on aliexpress for a few years, but I dont have enough experience or information to experiment with one.
Well described and thank you for all the info shared. The greatest fail of the whole system is no mouse on the laptop 🙂 Looks to be the system I will need, but the price is outside my capabilities now. I have a 65 amp plasma cutter on a PlasmaCAM, and a 6040 CNC which does me fine for now, and I am building a 90W 6090 CO2 currently with about 2/3 of the parts now.
Tough critic! I have a Bluetooth mouse, I just wasn’t using it 😜
@@diyfiberlaser 🙂
So after building this would still consider buying one ready to go?. That seems to be the big decision in taking on a project like this. Thanks for the video I'm sure I'll watch it several times to answer several of my questions.
Excelent !! Great Job. 👏👏👏 I just have to comment that I saw the base move and shaking, maybe improving the stiffness of it would be a nice idea.
The frame itself is quite stiff, however it is setting on 4 wobbly casters that I put it on to roll it around while I was building it...thanks for reminding me, I should take those off now!