CNC Laser Attachment

[Steve Clarkson]

So I was looking through a CNC forum and came across a discussion about adding a laser attachment to a CNC.

It's made by a company called jTech Photonics and for less than $500 you can buy a 3.8w laser that you can attach to your CNC spindle. Although it's mostly for engraving, they do claim that it can cut acrylic and 3mm wood (with a few passes).

I'd be a little concerned with a stray beam and I'm not quite sure what they do for fume extraction since most CNC's aren't enclosed.

I know a lot of people on here have CNC's......so does anyone have one of these?

So if you thought a Glowforge was dangerous, you probably wouldn't want to buy one of these!

[William Adams]

As regards a stray beam, all the kits they sell include safety goggles.

[Bill George]

Its a diode laser and the power on those is rated different than on a standard CO2 glass tube unit. If your wood shop is like my sons, he has vacuum ports every where to hook up to his dust collector.

[Dan Hintz]

Its a diode laser and the power on those is rated different than on a standard CO2 glass tube unit. If your wood shop is like my sons, he has vacuum ports every where to hook up to his dust collector.

It's not that they're rated differently (a Watt is a Watt), they're just at a different wavelength, which can have a different effect on different materials compared to a 10.6um CO2 tube.