CNC (Lasers, Routers, Etc)
- Thread starter Bandwagon
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Bandwagon
Kolohe
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That looks cool!
Did you get your DIY laser working finally, or did you get something else?
Hekotat
FoH nuclear response team
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Twas not me. I worked for a CNC company but I have since left the company.
I'm considering building a large format 3D printer(500mmx500mmx500mm), just having a hard time finding proper information that I feel confident is correct. I had a website bookmarked with incredible information but it appears it was lost between PC builds.
Ignatius
#thePewPewLife
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Hey
Bandwagon
, sorry if this has been answered, but I'm looking at a laser engraver that can do AR15 mags (aluminum and p-mags, which I believe are nylon based) as well as AR15 lowers.
Specifically the lowers will be 7075-T6 aluminum that are then anodized. The shop has some Chinese made engraver that I cant get to work, so I was looking at options for a new one. Saw the glowforge but wasn't sure if that would be sufficient.
Bandwagon
, sorry if this has been answered, but I'm looking at a laser engraver that can do AR15 mags (aluminum and p-mags, which I believe are nylon based) as well as AR15 lowers. Specifically the lowers will be 7075-T6 aluminum that are then anodized. The shop has some Chinese made engraver that I cant get to work, so I was looking at options for a new one. Saw the glowforge but wasn't sure if that would be sufficient.
Bandwagon
Kolohe
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I really don't have any experience with that other than one pmag I tried it out on. I haven't done metal at all yet. From what I understand, people look for a "fiber" laser if they want to cut/engrave metal. The glowforge I have is 40w and people use some spray coating (I think it's ceramark) on metal objects before engraving.Hey
Specifically the lowers will be 7075-T6 aluminum that are then anodized. The shop has some Chinese made engraver that I cant get to work, so I was looking at options for a new one. Saw the glowforge but wasn't sure if that would be sufficient.
I think there is a big cost jump when you go from CO2 to Fiber.
Sorry I can't give any first hand experience, but the Glowforge forums have a lot of people experimenting on gun parts.
Is it possible to engrave guns?
Not as simple as that. For the purposes of United States law, the receiver or frame is legally the firearm,[3] and as such it is the controlled part. The definition of which assembly is the legal receiver varies from firearm to firearm, under US law. Generally, the law requires licensed...
community.glowforge.com
Engrave AR 15
Has anyone attempted engraving on the lower receiver of an AR 15? It’s 7075 Aluminum, if that helps. Thank you for any insight!
community.glowforge.com
Metal etching
I think the difficulty you’re going to run into is trying to do that in blue. Cermark is the laser marking stuff you need, but it marks in jet black. The blue they make isn’t at all that nice deep blue in the thin blue line symbol you’re referring to, and their blue is specifically for glass...
community.glowforge.com
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Hekotat
FoH nuclear response team
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I really don't have any experience with that other than one pmag I tried it out on. I haven't done metal at all yet. From what I understand, people look for a "fiber" laser if they want to cut/engrave metal. The glowforge I have is 40w and people use some spray coating (I think it's ceramark) on metal objects before engraving.
I think there is a big cost jump when you go from CO2 to Fiber.
Sorry I can't give any first hand experience, but the Glowforge forums have a lot of people experimenting on gun parts.
Is it possible to engrave guns?
Not as simple as that. For the purposes of United States law, the receiver or frame is legally the firearm,[3] and as such it is the controlled part. The definition of which assembly is the legal receiver varies from firearm to firearm, under US law. Generally, the law requires licensed...
Engrave AR 15
Has anyone attempted engraving on the lower receiver of an AR 15? It’s 7075 Aluminum, if that helps. Thank you for any insight!
Metal etching
I think the difficulty you’re going to run into is trying to do that in blue. Cermark is the laser marking stuff you need, but it marks in jet black. The blue they make isn’t at all that nice deep blue in the thin blue line symbol you’re referring to, and their blue is specifically for glass...
You need a different wavelength of laser in order to cut metal, such as a fiber laser. CO2 is not for metal, more for acrylic and woods.
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Correct, co2 you aren't so much etching into the metal you are cutting through the coating on top of it. You can do some types of guns on a glowforge but there are a few things you need to be mindful of
- Bed is a limited height, it comes with a removeable honeycomb tray that leaves roughly .5" between the laser head and honeycomb so if its taller than that you have to remove it. From there, you either have to add shims or whatever spacer you want to get it to the appropriate height (has to be between 0.1-0.5" from the laser head if I remember mine right (sold it).
- height fluctuations won't be easily accounted for, if its not perfectly flat then you will likely run into parts that are better/worse. A clip/mag is probably fairly uniform and flat so thats more applicable to the rest.
For the price of a glowforge you can get a 100w (or more) laser with a longer focal average to handle the variations / get a rotary attachment for other things, at the downside of it being a lot more hands on to get up and running.
- Bed is a limited height, it comes with a removeable honeycomb tray that leaves roughly .5" between the laser head and honeycomb so if its taller than that you have to remove it. From there, you either have to add shims or whatever spacer you want to get it to the appropriate height (has to be between 0.1-0.5" from the laser head if I remember mine right (sold it).
- height fluctuations won't be easily accounted for, if its not perfectly flat then you will likely run into parts that are better/worse. A clip/mag is probably fairly uniform and flat so thats more applicable to the rest.
For the price of a glowforge you can get a 100w (or more) laser with a longer focal average to handle the variations / get a rotary attachment for other things, at the downside of it being a lot more hands on to get up and running.
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Bandwagon
Kolohe
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I finally got that big order out on Thursday for my coworker that wanted a bunch of the ceramic engravings for his Blood Bowl guild. I wish I had used the sketch filter on that one instead of just black and white. Some of them had ink stained around the outside edge and about 3 of the 12 I sent were lighter with less contrast than I wanted. I learned a lot through this one though, like custom orders suck and I need to think about some kind of pricing modifier for engraves that take this long. Up until now I've just been figuring "fuck it, I'm just going to leave it running overnight anyways", but that doesn't really work when you have 12 of them lined up. I included some wood stands that I stained and a bunch of little leather and wood knick knacks from my "random tests - PLEASE take..." box. Him and his guildies are absolutely ecstatic about them though, so I'm happy no one else is as critical as I was.
Finally finished
Hateyou
's coasters yesterday and shipping those out today, too. Actually threw out the first one I did because I forgot that I was using 340 lines per inch on slate as opposed to the 670 I've been using on Ceramic. Ended up making the contours and text too soft when doing it on slate. I threw some random shit in your box too, Hateyou.
And I hung up a dart board in the garage last Friday, with a couple of Crossman pistol pellet guns + airgun darts on the way from Amazon. I made a custom scoreboard for it on clear acrylic and then stained the engravings with the same ink I used on the ceramic. First try making something with acrylic. It looks decent I guess. It was an absolute bitch to remove the masking on it though. I forgot how much I hated that.
Here's a picture before weedimg the masking tape. Will post another of it hanging up when I get home.
Finally finished
Hateyou
's coasters yesterday and shipping those out today, too. Actually threw out the first one I did because I forgot that I was using 340 lines per inch on slate as opposed to the 670 I've been using on Ceramic. Ended up making the contours and text too soft when doing it on slate. I threw some random shit in your box too, Hateyou. And I hung up a dart board in the garage last Friday, with a couple of Crossman pistol pellet guns + airgun darts on the way from Amazon. I made a custom scoreboard for it on clear acrylic and then stained the engravings with the same ink I used on the ceramic. First try making something with acrylic. It looks decent I guess. It was an absolute bitch to remove the masking on it though. I forgot how much I hated that.
Here's a picture before weedimg the masking tape. Will post another of it hanging up when I get home.
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Bandwagon
Kolohe
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I'm not even going to try to calculate how many cents-per-hour this ended up being, but not bad for $75 in shipping and $20 in materials when I told him just to pay for those and give me feedback to pay for my time.
The main thing keeping me from registering a business (because my woman is too damn lazy) is just not wanting to deal with taxes and book keeping for something I know I'm going to be half-assing for awhile. How's it work if I use the Vimo thing to accept payments, but don't have a business setup?
The main thing keeping me from registering a business (because my woman is too damn lazy) is just not wanting to deal with taxes and book keeping for something I know I'm going to be half-assing for awhile. How's it work if I use the Vimo thing to accept payments, but don't have a business setup?
Bandwagon
Kolohe
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Hateyou
Not Great, Not Terrible
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Haha. I looked for it but didn’t see sender anywhere. I looked again and it’s because they stuck a small address label and covered it. So someone saw it and had my back!
They didn’t cover Billy (Buttcheeks) Baldwin in the To line though.
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Denamian
Night Janitor
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So a guy I do work for on occasion asked if I'd be interested in helping a friend of his set up his glowforge next month. I've got no experience with this stuff, but I'm interested, especially if I can trade some time for cool engraved shit.
I'll go through all the links in the first post, but I'd figure I'd ask if you know any other resources for someone just starting out with a glowforge.
I'll go through all the links in the first post, but I'd figure I'd ask if you know any other resources for someone just starting out with a glowforge.
Bandwagon
Kolohe
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Dude....it's crazy easy to set up. Takes less than an hour. Hardest part is learning settings, but on the pieces that came with it with QR codes it's pretty much automatic.
Denamian
Night Janitor
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Nice, I had heard it was pretty user friendly. My understanding is that it's a couple looking to sell stuff on etsy or the like. They just want someone to help with the computer side of things and getting them set up.
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Bandwagon
Kolohe
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They're going to struggle if they can't use something like cad, inkscape or illustrator.
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