zero fidelity CNC

This broken HP C7670A scanner should come in handy in this project! I'm sure I'll find the one stepper I've been looking for, and maybe I'll use this one as a base for the whole laser CNC thingy. The broken HP C7670A. So I opened it and removed the PCBs. They're going back to the electronic waste disposal... I like the way they tighten the belt in this scanner! This spring keeps the belt tight while travelling around with it. Remove the poisonous light bulb carefully... It's VERY fragile, like an uncooked spaghetti, and contains poisonous mercury. Mercury causes all kinds of nasty stuff and it can even make you homosexual! You heard right! Well at least if you're a bird, according to BBC . Be VERY careful with this lamp... I took the optics away from the scanner tray. Pretty. Dunno what to do with them yet. Some mirrors, a lens and the image sensor. Tray's now empty. I wonder how I will do the second axis... This might be a C...

Immediately after I started drooling at the DIY CNC videos on the 'net, I found two printers in the garbage. What luck! There's the free stepper motors I was hoping for! Or so I thought. The models were HP Deskjet 5150 and Deskjet 656C. HP Deskjet 656C straight outta garbage. After all the trouble of carrying them home, I noticed they both had plastic optical guides next to the printhead pulley system. At first I was thinking "why do they need optics to guide steppers?" Then I understood the grave situation. There were no steppers. It seems that HP has found a cheaper way to get their precise printhead movement. They use DC motors with optical linear encoders to give feedback on the printhead's position. HP's optical guide for the printhead. I decided anyway I would gut the both printers for parts. I would probably be needing them for the mechanical construction. You need a torx screwdriver set to open these things. Every screw on these seems ...

There are a ton of instructions on the net about ripping laser diodes out of old 16x DVD burners. Well, here's mine. Quite soon after starting this project, I found exactly what I needed: a 16X DVD burner from an old computer in the electric waste. Here's the poor thing before the operation. It's an LG GCC-4480B CD-RW/DVD ROM drive. The unsuspecting DVD burner before meeting it's fate. And here are the tools I need. Let's get to work. With these I was able to get everything out. Warranty's void now. Pull or cut the cabling to get the PCB out of the way. View from top. Laser lens is visible. View from bottom. Take out the screws connecting the rails of the laser module. Inside the top cover I found this cool little ring-shaped magnet. It's quite powerful for it's size, maybe a Neodymium magnet. It found a new home on my fridge. The magnet. And finally, here's the beef. The laser module with it's laser diodes. ...

Here's a list of the parts I'm planning to use. 2 stepper motors for XY control (0€, from old printers / scanners) Mechanical structure for the XY table (0€, I'm planning to use printer & scanner parts) Red laser diode 150mW - 250mW 650nm (0€, from an old 16X DVD burner) Laser module with focusable lens ($9.50 from AiXiz ) This is needed to collimate the laser beam. I don't know what that means either, I just read it off some other tutorial page! I ordered the 650nm 5.0mW 12x30mm module with a glass lens as an accessory. Normally they come with plastic lenses. Sounds bad having a plastic lens on an engraving machine that's supposed to burn stuff. Laser diode driver circuit (?€, parts list later) Arduino (20€ from your nearest Arduino dealer) To control the stepper motors. I will use Arduino for this project because of the ease of use and available libraries. I have one already. Adafruit motor shield for Arduino (?€ from nearest Adafruit de...

Here's a video of what I want to accomplish. The CNC should also be able to cut through some thin plastic. I want to be able to engrave items (leather / plastic / wood / etc) and create some stencils with it eventually. I'm planning to make the device much smaller than the one in this video, though. For dummies: It's a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) Laser Engraving Machine.

Hi. This blog is about a Do-It-Yourself CNC Laser engraver project I'm currently working on. Later on I might write also about some other things. I'm a Finnish hacker, 26 years old at the time of this writing. For those who got scared: with hacker I don't mean an internet criminal. It just means I like to repurpose electronic devices or use their parts to make something else. You can just say 'nerd' if you will. My plan is to build a laser engraving machine that is made mostly from recycled parts and to document it in case someone else is interested. I'm planning to make the blog a bit like a manual / tutorial, so old posts will probably get edited along the way as I get more knowledge & have more time to write. Currently I have no idea how often I will get to update this blog and when the thing is going to be ready. But like they say: live for the journey, not the destination... No, I'm just kidding. Fucking hippies. One thing that makes the...