Update: This project is now finished. Final post is here. Want to do the same thing to yours? Check the LAYZOR website.
My K40 laser cutter has been out of commission for a while now. There was visible rust on the Y-axis bearing and movement was really choppy.
It’s Chinese crap, what are you gonna do… But to be completely fair, this is pretty much my own fault. I made a nail bed with iron nails and the rust from those must have tainted the inside of my machine. The thing with these cheap machines is that there is no support to speak of. I was officially stranded and so I let it gather dust (and more rust) in my shop.
In all honesty; I truly have missed it. Projects like the rubberband gun and 3D cat were supposed to be cut on a laser, but fate decided I should do it with my ShapeOko instead. It worked to a degree, but it took way more preparation and cutting time to get to the same result.
So now I will finally tackle this once and for all. And I got to thinking. Why just repair it when I now have the opportunity to make it a much better machine? So I looked at some buildlogs online and will be starting to design my very own laser cutter: the LAYZOR. Patent pending. 🙂
Since I have an OCD brain, there were a couple of challenges I set out for myself:
- Use as many original parts as possible. Need as few custom parts as possible. Use parts I have lying around when possible.
- Feature a work area of 400 x 600mm. This is 4x the original area and imho a good balance between ease-of-use and size.
- Feed-through design so any length of 600mm wide stock can be loaded and cut via tiling.
- Total footprint must not exceed 1m in width, 750mm in depth and 350mm in height. Smaller is better.
- No external water cooling/venting solutions. Everything must be contained within the case.
- Adjustable Z honeycomb bed. No more rusty nails for me 😉
- Air assist if possible within the budget.
- All aluminium profiles must be cut from a max. of 10(!) 1980mm length extrusions.
- All cladding panels must be cut from a single 1 x 2m sheet. Preferably acrylic for safety reasons.
These last 2 may seem arbitrary, but there’s a reason. And it’s a big one:
- Total conversion cost must not exceed 500€ !
Now, I must add the disclaimer that I will not be cutting corners (get it? ’cause it’s a laser cutter 😉 ) just to reach this goal. I rather overspend a little than compromise on safety and build quality. If all goes well I will probably publish the files for other K40 owners to try and convert their machine. This will not be a from-scratch build. K40 owners are my target audience. I plan to do additional upgrades when all is said and done (new optics, electronics, etc.) but for now I just want a better machine with the same guts as the original. Let’s see where a relatively low-cost upgrade gets me.
With all that out of the way, I have a confession to make. I actually have already been spending a LOT of time on this project since the start of the year, and I would dare to say the design is about 90% done. With most of the challenges already achieved no less! There’s still some minor things to work out, but I don’t expect any huge setbacks from this point forward.
Here’s a sneak peek into the design:
Check the blog from time to time to see how I build this thing.
Great project at a decent price. I’d repurpose my K40 this way in a heartbeat. I have a Redsail 60W I use with a 400×600 bed and it is such a handy size. I’ve switched the electronics on mine (trying out the Gerbil setup now but have a couple of the other options from the K40 group on the bench too). Whisperer and LaserWeb are great alternative software controllers too.
Thanks. I’ll certainly check those out when I get there. But it’ll be in a while I figure 😉 Let me know which one you prefer!
Very nice looking project, I look forward to seeing how you get on as I too would upgrade my K40 in an instant. Any chance you could let us know where you plan to get the aluminium extrusion from?
I use the Cohesion3D mini board and am very happy with it.
Good luck with the build
=)
thx! Check in once in a while to follow the progress. Design is mostly done now. Now comes the boring part of hunting all the parts… I was looking at Motedis for the profiles, but I haven’t ordered yet.
Would love to see the design files when you get a chance. Even close to done can help immensely. What program are you using to design the frame?
I am preparing to release the plans when done. First I want to work out the kinks. Shouldn’t be too long though. Design is 95% done now and new hardware is coming in every day now. Hang tight!
If you mentioned it I missed it… what CAD are you using to design? I might be able/willing to contribute.
This design, might also work for others with other bits and pieces or as a new build.
I’m using Mach3 to drive my current system with the idea of “mods” so I might be able to help with that angle. I “feed” Mach3 Gcode created from DXF files. (I need accuracy/precision)
What “drive” are you considering Belt,rack pinion,acme,ball, other?
And a host of other questions…
I’m also interested if anyone has info on PWM tech info.
Hi.
I’m using Rhino. Probably not the best suited for the job, but I’m used to its interface and it does the job.
I do have a Geckodrive so I plan to eventually convert to mach 3 too. But to start off I just want to take the K40 guts and turn it into as good as a machine I can get for minimal investment. I am sure a lot of people will find that very interesting. The design is made with additional mods in mind though, but I’ll go one step at a time. This way, people who want to do the same conversion will be able to choose wether or not they want to invest in the additional mods.
X and Y have linear rails. Adjustable Z is with regular threaded rods. All belt driven. For a laser I feel ballscrews would probably be overkill anyway.
If you have more questions, feel free to ask.
Greetings
Any chance your publishing your CAD design files?
probably, but not before I have worked out the kinks that will inevitably come to light while building mine.
Will you be sharing your designs and BOM information at completion? You are doing awesome work and adding a lot of nice features to what came with the K40 laser.
That is the idea yes. But there’s still some hurdles to tackle. Keep checking in to stay updated. And thank you for the kind words.
Great Project. I have the same laser and want to do this exact thing. Are the cad files & bom available?
hey. Thanks for the kind words. No BOM and files are available as of yet, as I’m still tweaking things as I go.
But I hope to finish this project very soon. Keep an eye out.
Ok. Fantastic. Showing a buddy of mine he wants to do the same with his K40 also
Hi
Really interested in your design and i would like to build one for myself. I dont own a k40 so please share you.re thoughts if i am better to buy the pieces you scavengend from it or just buy a k40. I’ve been anxious to see your progress and hope you could release a bom soon.
Hey, thanks.
Well if you buy things like a tube, power supply, etc just in separate parts, you’ll have more control over what quality you get and how much you want to pay for them.
BUT, the idea behind this is converting a K40, not starting with loose parts. The reason of that is that I also re-use some custom K40 pieces that you won’t be able to buy online. You could get around that if you have the tools at your disposal to make custom parts yourself, but obviously that’s at your own discretion.
Maybe I will revisit the project later on so that it can easily be built without pre-owning a K40, but right now, if you really want to do THIS conversion, you’ll need an original K40.
BOM is coming very shortly!
I am in the processes of collecting up the parts to do a major upgrade of my first Anet A8 printer (another infamous Chinese cheapy!) The framework I am using for the project is primarily 2040 t-slot. I am very close to the point of ordering and have been playing with the idea of just getting 10 meters of the extrusion with an eye on a project very similar to this.
It looks like you used 2020 in your design. I’m hoping that once you release your build to the wild I’ll be able to adapt over the non moving framework to 2040. Approximately how much of your fixed frame is there? More curious, but buying the extrusion in bulk saves me a penny or two and it might be time to get into the laser cutting world.
Thanks
I used exactly 10 1980mm 2020 extrusions with very little waste. You can read more about my frame here: https://www.manmademayhem.com/?p=3205.
I honestly don’t see much benefit in 2040. This frame is already plenty stiff.
Just be sure to order extrusion with a 6mm slot width. With the 5mm variety, you can’t insert T-nuts after assembling the frame, sou you’d need to plan ahead which is nearly impossible. WIth the 6mm variety, you’re free to add T-nuts as your build progresses.