CNC Laser Attachment

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!

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

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.

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Originally Posted by 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.

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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.