Well, not entirely new, I got this back in February! but I just lately finished putting it inside an enclosure and starting to play with it. I kinda knew what size I was getting into, but well, this thing is huge and needs a huge enclosure! LOL So far I'm mostly been testing it out on 1/16" basswood and discarded cereal boxes, though I did cut 1/8" MDF with it successfully. So now that's all setup, I need to figure out what exactly I'm going to be doing with it! LOL! I'll likely use it in some cases for some n scale buildings, or at least the skeleton of a building as I use my resin printers to detail out the windows and walls, etc. But I also want to rebuild a better airbrush hood and some larger wood projects. I am however having a lot of trouble finding materials in larger quantities. Does anyone have a Canadian source for larger sheets of light plywood (1/8 and thinner sheets)? I can find 1/16 "basswood" ply on Amazon, but the largest sheets are basically 12x12. Looking for the 2x4' sheets, down to 1/32 thickness. I haven't even been able to find MDF sheets in anything less than 1/8" even in 12 x 12 sheets.
Oh, it's a neje max 3 with the e40 laser module. Ordered the large neje honeycomb grid at the same time. certainly large! I didn't really want the size, but that's the gantry that was available with the laser module I wanted, the E40, 20 watt square focus and very precise. But I want to eventually make a smaller shadowbox logging layout (already have an atlas shay ready for that) and this larger size will be great to make the modules.
Nice setup, Stephane!! Does your fume extraction work pretty good? That's one thing I wish I had on mine. One thing I feel obligated to pass along as a lesson learned... It's pretty basic and I'm sure I'm the only dumb one that hadn't done this, but make sure you spend the time to dial in your laser focus. I was cutting things just fine for months having not gone through a calibration. Then one day I had to reset some things and my cuts were coming out super clean and required a lot less power to cut the material. It was all in the focus. The difference in module height was probably under half a mm if I had to guess but it made a world of difference in the laser's ability to cut efficiently. I think I want to print some kind of big knob/screw setup to adjust module height to fractions of a mm now. Do you have an air assist setup? I can't tell from the pic but if not, highly recommend eventually. (I know, you've already spent enough money and probably aren't thinking about spending more...) Have fun with your new toy! -Mike
Yeah, I'm not entirely sure about the focus yet, I've done some tests and so far I need the laser shroud to be about 4mm from the workpiece. I use a 4mm metric Allen key to set the focus. The machine came with a fine adjustment slider for focus, I can just turn a knob to make fine adjustments up and down. Same with air assist, the E40 has an integrated air assist and solenoid that plugs into the board. I connect my air brush compressor to it, and lightburn software turns it on/off as needed. I'll take some pictures later and post some of these close up images.
Here's a test I did a few days ago, I tried to see how close together I could cut. The 0.1mm gap failed, but each gap at 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5mm was solid, later I adjusted the focus better and the 0.2mm gap came out good. This is 1/16 basswood ply I bought off Amazon.
Oh, about the fume extraction, I use this... GDSTIME 1238 120mm x 38mm 12V 4500RPM High Speed DC B https://a.co/d/0cWKo7n Though I run it only at 9v to reduce noise, and with a standard 4" dryer hose to the window. It works perfectly, but the hose to the window is only about 2 to 3 feet long.
Here are some closeup photos... First of the laser module itself, you can see the slider thing it came with. It's not perfect (doesn't work if the knobs are tightened too much), but it works fine. Also, I didn't want have a big hole to pass all the power cables and air cables, and well, cables in general, so i made ports to connect everything... I got most of the stuff from either my own parts bins or amazon. For example, the panel mount USB and air hose fittings off Amazon, and the DC panel jacks I had from another project. Naturally, all these panel mounts are made for thin panels, so I 3D printed using my Resin printer the panels that would fit through the 5/8" plywood I used for the box. From the other side.... The machine came with the chain drives or whatever those things are called, Neje does put a LOT of stuff in their kits. And finally, the fan shroud I also 3D printed on my Elegoo Saturn 3.... The lights are just left-over strips of 12V LEDs I had from some other project.
Unfortunately I don’t have a Canadian supplier. I mostly use laserboard of varying thicknesses from here: https://encompass-media.salesvu.com/ The laserboard is very nice material to work with. If you visit other N Scale forums I have posted images of various projects.
I've been looking for laser board after hearing about it in some videos, but either it has another name in Canada, or simply is not imported at all.
It may also be known as resin Kraft paper, which pretty much describes it: paper soaked in some sort of resin. Apparently it can be sourced in industrial sized rolls as it’s intended for cabinetry or something, although I suspect the handling of that exceeds the capabilities of most hobbyists.
very cool . ive been thinking of rebuilding my ender 3 pro to a laser cutter machine. wont be able to cut large parts with it but it can get smaller stuff done. Thanks for sharing , also love the box you built for it very nice.
