Curious if anyone is selling a laser attachment for laser engraving?
It sounds like @MakerMadeCNC is working on one:
But I don’t see it in their store yet.
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We are hard at work on a laser attachment for the machine. To provide the best experience with a laser, we need to implement PWM control so the sled doesn’t have to stop every time to adjust the power of the pulse.
Don’t worry though, we are really close to having a sellable product soon.
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Any update on this? I would be really interested in buying one if you figure it out!
Laser marking filled shapes in a raster setup on a maslow will be worse than watching paint dry at the speeds it currently goes. Outlining might not be too bad if you had a larger spot size. Maslow would really need to move fast unless you are cutting through the wood and then you will need some serious power. I’ve used commercial laser systems and other than the fact that Maslow is big, it doesn’t have any other compelling features for a laser. Did I mention it is big? There is no shielding for it, but it is big. It will be interesting to see what they come up with. I guess I’m a bit wary of a laser at 15 degrees at nearly eye level hanging from a chain.
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If the add on module is cheap enough and will cover a 4x8 sheet of plywood, I am interested!
I have web-control set up and the Maslow is in my garage. I can start it remotely and I could easily install a few magnetic reed switches on the doors. Door opens, laser off.
I have a large volume FDM printer (500mm cubed). I am use to SLOW… lol… I have only made one print so far that took up most of that volume (it was a large pyramid shape item). It took 3 days, and several spools while using a 1mm volcano nozzle.
I bought the Maslow because my wife wanted to create larger items faster than the printer was able to do. Plus: pound for pound, small spools of plastic are a lot more expensive than large sheets of plastic…lol.
It is awesome for doing what she wanted but it would be cool to be able to add the laser option to be able to do more with it
My wallet fears the day she sees the speed of a traditional CNC router.
@MakerMadeCNC Any update? I will sign waivers and whatever else needed if you want to test one in the field, let me know! I am very interested!
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What are you trying to do with it? Mark plastic / wood or cut plastic and wood? To mark wood / acrylic (but not metal unless you use the embossing paste), you just need to use something like the sharpie attachment but with a laser like this:
hook that up to one of the aux channels on the arduino and then plug in the right gcode interpretation for laser on/off from your gcode and generate laser gcode. Sounds like it would take some time. If you want to cut, you will need at least 40 W to make it through 3/16" ply and up from there depending on the wavelength selected. But if you are cutting wood with this, you probably want a metal spoil board so you don’t catch the wood on fire that acts as the beam dump. And you will need compressed air delivered with the beam to keep the wood you are cutting from catching fire. The laser won’t make it through the 3/4 ply spoil board, but it will char it. Cutting MDF is sometimes difficult because of the glue. Cutting metal is even more difficult and the price of the laser goes up. I priced a fiber laser - entry level with no lens / delivery system for $15,000, so apparently you can pay as much as you like.
I ended up buying a cheap “k40” style CO2 laser and also a ”3018” engraver with a 5.5w head (long story)…
The 40w laser control board is absolute garbage. You also have to invest in a water-cooling system. Aligning mirrors also SUCKS! The 3018 is cool but both machines are very limited in the overall size they can handle.
With a vacuum dust system, you might not need air assistance on a “Maslow” laser (as long as you don’t suck a fire into your vacuum…lol). I think a laser Maslow would be cool if we can get it to work.
The DUE board on the M2 units have the ability to control a diode laser. We have a couple running in the shop with lasers from Jtech Photonics. They are only 7W, but capable of engraving wood and other sheet goods. It will just depend on. the use case you have.
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Whats the potential time frame to release?
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The M2 is for sale now.
So for the laser attachment:
How much laser power are you advocating?
I have a laser system and I’m not clear how it makes sense on the maslow.
Do you install exhaust or put on a pressurized air feed for debris?
The vacuum system full of sawdust isn’t the best idea for sucking in burning wood pieces. Also, the spoil board is wood. My laser has a metal table for a beam sink when it cuts all the way through.
Do we shield it at all to cut or just wear eye protection and hope nothing reflects?
My laser will etch at 600 dots per inch and it moves way faster than a 3D printer moves.
With maslow accuracy in the mm, what kind of print quality should we expect and how long will it take?
If the laser scan is small, the dpi will be limiting. If the scan is large, then it will take days to do it.
I like the idea of the laser, but from a practical standpoint, the only reason I’d put one on would be to say I did it. it doesn’t make much sense to me to have it in this configuration other than I need to cut some 1/8th inch ply into shapes in one pass, but with a 1/8th (disposeable) bit, I can do that just about as fast.
If you put the laser on the 3d printer - that makes sense.
Or if you offered a mount for a plasma cutter… I could get behind that one but I’d want it to be a metal sled. and that isn’t that great of an idea to slide across molten metal with the sled, so it would best be a traditional gantry setup.
I’ve shared my somewhat informed opinion, but there are still many who want this. How are these things being address and what am I missing?
7 Watts won’t cut anything impressive at all. And while it is capable of raster engraving, the ideal scenario for the Maslow is to utilize vector engraving to add detail work to previously cut items from the router.
Think of it as a finish pass. You can cut out a nice door sign, swap to the laser and add some ornate details to it that wouldn’t be possible with a 1/16th bit. I have also seen people use vector paths to do light marking on wooden projects to make it easier to paint specific sections of the project without the paint bleeding into other areas by riding the grain.
A laser is most definitely not going to be a cutting tool, but the expanded possibilities of the machine with even engraving capabilities are pretty exciting.
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Any updates on the laser module?
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Has anyone tried something heavier like this 
I would be really surprised if the head unit from that was any heavier than the
router we normally use.
but note that that unit is not a cutting laser, it has a scan engine in the head
to etch a design into the part. Since the sled can rotate, something like that
is a bit problematic to try and use.
David Lang
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You know you want to build it… 