Rolive

Right. I’m sort of a cheapass so I ordered them via Aliexpress. Next time I will get the proper ones.

I did however find out that the metal bearings, despite the play in them, did not cause the resonances. Ever since I rebuilt the printer to a CoreXY machine some speeds were off-limits. Which is fine I guess but mildly annoying and I want to get it solved at some point.

I used to have this but I’ve built a separate CNC machine for lasering and engraving: printables.com/…/1071387-ender-5-x-mgn12-detachab…

Do I recommend building it? Eh, it will work but there are some issues. 3D printer controller software such as Marlin or Klipper also does not play well with applications like LaserGRBL, Lightburn or Rayforge. They are designed with GRBL in mind or other dedicated CNC controllers. The 3D printer approach used the part cooling fan to control the laser power.

Back then I had custom Gcode substitutions in Prusaslicer which would replace Retract commands with enabling the laser and the opposite command with disabling the laser. It worked pretty well back then and I was able to do some engravings of circuit boards. I

There is one big safety issue, the enclosure is not designed for laser engraving and there is nothing preventing the laser from blinding you through a bad reflection. You will need to be extremely careful with this. The CNC machine I built later has a safety feature where the laser only functions if the front door is closed, using a magnetic sensor. It is not worth risking your eyesight over a bad moment where you don’t pay attention. Engraving lasers are dangerous. Also the fumes are nasty, especially when engraving plastics. The soot and tar it produces will also settle on the inside of your enclosure and also electronics that are in there. You need powerful ventilation to run a laser engraver long term.

As for engraving materials, I have two laser heads, a 0.5W 405nm laser and a 10W 450nm laser.

The 405nm laser can be used quite well to activate etch resist spray or foil and can also instantly and precisely cure UV resin. I could make legible text on a PCB using white resin, drawing the text and then washing off the excess with alcohol. This laser however is not powerful and you won´t get nice engravings on wood or metal with it.

The 450nm laser can easily cut wood and make very nice engravings in it as well. I have also used it in the PCB making process to burn away spraypaint so that the copper can be etched off.

Conformal coating with a silk screen never worked well for me. There were always visible creases and uniformity issues.

I also want to have a consistent layer thickness because the intention is to start with a white layer and on top of that a green layer. I will use a laser engraver to remove part of the green layer to expose white again to make the silkscreen layer.

A spincoater ensures the coating is always exactly the same which is good for laser ablation.

I believe there are settings related to minimum layer time. It will change cooling parameters or might slow the print down to achieve the minimum time.

That might make your smaller prints look bad.

Nice work! I’m considering a similar project and this looks like a good way to do it.

You have to be careful with this. The humidity reported by the local weather station may not be the same as the humidity in your storage room.

I have just gotten an airtight box and a few packs of silica gel and store all my filament in there.

This is exactly why I did it. Also the RGB led strip costs 4 euros here at the Action. Imagine if AliExpress had a physical store, that’s that.

Oh that’s right. The direction pins can also control the light settings!

Actually it’s pretty decent. I do need to install part cooling fans but haven’t done that.

I was trying to use an aquarium pump with blunt needles as part cooling but I find it’s too much hassle.

That is also a factor, I almost always print PLA and ABS/PETG only when the part needs to withstand high temperatures (inside a car for example).

I can print a really shitty one.

Interesting read! I’ve seen a video on youtube where someone used white UV curing resin as the first layer and also as etch resist. It can be cleaned with IPA and you just leave it on after etching.

Afterwards a green layer of UV curing resin is applied and the laser is used to burn away only the green material so that silkscreen text becomes visible. I haven’t tried it myself but it looks like a promising process.

Yes I’ve tried that as well. It’s way better than messing with toner transfer or those etch resist foils/spray.

It also works well for solder mask. If you apply one white layer and a green layer on top of that you can make decent part labels by lasering away only the green top layer.

I have two laser heads, a 405nm 500mW and 450nm at 10W laser. I don’t think either of them are suitable for burning away copper but I can try that. I believe to burn away copper you need a pulsed YAG laser or something like that.

I know but where’s the fun in that? I’ve ordered from JLCPCB a few times but it is a hell of a lot more satisfying when I’ve made the whole PCB myself.

Hmm. I’ve gotten to the point where I used my CNC for the chemical etching process as well. Instead of fumbling with toner transfer I use spraypaint and a laser engraver as etch resist. It is way more reliable.

As for ferric chloride, indeed you cannot see your circuit board but it is possible to store this for long. Solutions like HCl + H2O2 don’t last very long and I only do PCB making sporadically.

Well made!