DIY Laser Cutting Tables

[Keith Winter]

I was reading A&E magazine this month and came across this DIY laser table made of metal wire by Vladimir Sturlev. Seems pretty ingenious. Looks like it would would have less flashing then the typical grid based cutting tables since the string is so thin and spaced 1/2" apart. I wonder how sturdy it is though? Has anyone tried making a metal string based or other cutting table which has less flashing then the standard grid tables?

Directions and more photos: http://www.instructables.com/id/Laser-Cutting-Table-the-Better-Version/

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[Kev Williams]

I've been tempted to buy a couple of these--

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They're both 17" x 12", and stainless- the first one with the wider grid is only $15 on ebay, the second one is $20.

buy a few, then head down to HF and pick up one of their $7 air cutters and you can custom fit them to most any machine!

2 would be great for my 24x24" LS900...

(one reason I haven't bought them yet is the Triumph does most of my cutting and it has a steel honeycomb table)

[Jerome Stanek]

I made a pin table by drilling a grid of 1/8 holes with my cnc in a piece of white dibond mounted to some ply wood. then I stuck short pop rivets in the holes

[Joe Pelonio]

I bought a 24"x24" aluminum honeycomb on eBay with 1/2" cells, and 1/2" thickness. I cut it in half carefully with strong scissors and placed it into the original Epilog vector grid frame. It fit perfectly, has been great, with much less flashing.

[Mike Null]

I use a similar grid to what joe describes and also the same thing made out of acrylic. They are actually light grids which I bought in wholesale quantities, cut them to size, and sold to laser owners. I sold the business a few years back and can't locate the suppliers I used. (do not use the styrene grids which are easily found at the borgs.)

If your machine exhausts from the back as my old ULS and my current Trotec do, then the space between the grid and the table is critical to clean engraving. A space of at least one inch allows the contaminated smoke and dust to be exhausted easily. I also prefer the 1/2" grid to the smaller 1/4" honeycomb for the same reason. The smoke and contaminants are not as efficiently evacuated on the 1/4" grid.

[Kev Williams]

Geez, I need to get out more! Didn't know those grids were that readily available, and cheap too!

My LS900 has a pretty unique smoke evac setup. The exhaust is at the back, with a blast gate. Note the short vertical tube, and the hole in the table...
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In normal use the gate is open and exhaust is pulled straight back.
But close the blast gate, and that tube and the hole in the table come into play.
With the blast gate almost closed, you can see the hole in the gate that will be directly
under the tube...
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There's a hose that connects to this tube, the other end of which
ends up right behind the laser lens about 1/4", and about 1/4" from what you're cutting.
There's also a hose under the table that connects from the exhaust plenum to the
hole in the table...
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So when you're cutting, all smoke is pulled right from the lens and below whatever cutting
grid you're using. The blast gate never fully closes so any other smoke gets pulled back
and out too...

I rarely do any cutting, and I've never had a metal cutting grid so I've never used the
upper hose! I have used a plastic lighting grid a few times, and with the gate shut it really
does pull smoke well from the bottom. Shutting the gate also creates enough vacuum on
the table to hold material down.

I think I'll order up one of those aluminum grids on ebay, thanks Joe! :)