Cutting gears on the laser cutter

http://woodgears.ca/gear/laser.html
Using a CNC laser cutter to cut some gears. Quick and accurate.
More about the plane at http://rubber-power.com

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• gears
• laser
• CNC
• wood
• plywood
• makerbot

[Culturedropout]

That's pretty slick. It must have some kind of vector-extraction built into the software? Or does your program generate vectors in the PDF file? At my previous job, I got to operate a laser cutter that would do this about as fast to a 4x8 foot sheet of 1/4" thick steel plate. That was a fun toy...

[Matthiaswandel]

PDF files usually contain vector format.

[senorquax]

Hi Matthias,

Do you know how powerful the laser tube in this machine is?

I've been looking into getting a laser cutter to complement my CNC router, this video just talked me into it.

Thanks!

[Matthiaswandel]

30 watts. Enough for 1/8" (3 mm) wood, but not enough for 6 mm plywood.

[NOLAMarathon2010]

How wide is the "kerf" of the laser? Let's assume it's 1/16" wide. If it cuts down the center of the cut line, then it removes 1/32" more material on the "keeper" side of the cut line than you want. Is this a problem? Would you consider adjusting your cut line to a position 1/32" outboard of your gear teeth so that it doesn't remove more material than your design calls for?

[Matthiaswandel]

The kerf is very narrow - maybe 0.3 mm.

[attainableapex]

so... your going to make one of these right?

[SALordBaxter]

Begs the question, could you make a laser CNC machine out of wood?

[kdc43]

A $100,000 machine to make fragile wooden gears, sorta like buying a big industial dishwasher to wash two cracked coffee cups.

[snemeis90]

Very interesting. I wondered why your camera wasn't able to capture any light while it was below the glass plane.

What wavelenght does the laser emit? It should be 1064nm, which should be visible to cameras, if I remember correct.

[muh1h1]

if i were the printer, i'd cut a "HAHA!" out of the camera ;)

[handps1]

Great Vid!

[Rtech]

Did I see a sticker Ubuntu on that Toshiba laptop? ;)

[ImmoSci]

@chaddythewoodpecker we have a similar machine in my school's technology shop - the laser is barely powerful enough to cut through 10mm plywood, and can only lightly engrave (very sloow...) aluminium plates. The steel grid underneath is perfectly fine, if a little unevenly worn at one corner! Hope this helps!

[chaddythewoodpecker]

ok but how does the laser not cut throught the metal grid that the material sits on. is it because the laser is not powerful enough or what thx

[osmanaj2002]

Awesome, How much thick it can cut?

[grandexandi]

I don't need it, I don't know how to use it, but I definitely want it.

[tetlik]

Amazing. Technological progress never ceases to surprise me. Now I want to have such "printer" :)