I am a sparetime modellbuilder and would like to automate
the cutting work for paper or plasticsheet (max. 1,5mm in
thickness). Therefore it would be very nice to build a cnc
machine with an arduino to do so.
So my questions are:
What kind of tool would you recommend (cutterblade -> should
the blade be rotateable?, dremel? Old ripped DVD Laser?)
Would you recommend the "easydriver"'s for the Steppers?
Is it hard to write my own position data interpreter and get
the steppers run simultaniosly? Is it possible to accomplish
"simultanios" movement in a simple for-loop?
I'm not sure what it's maximum cutting thickness is, but what you might try to use (or at least look into) is hacking a Cricut. You can typically find ones on Ebay and elsewhere as "broken/for parts" for under $50.00 USD in most case (you'll generally have to supply a cutting blade for them). I don't know if it would be worth it to hack the interface on the machine; I would think it might yield a better result to simply replace the electronics with your own driver system and some customize g-code interpretor (there are a few examples for the Arduino out there).
Regarding laser cutters, and making such lasers: yes it can be difficult, and it can be dangerous - but you might be able to make a higher-powered form of what is known as a TEA laser:
The trick to making this laser more powerful is likely discussed in the second link; I suspect a higher (and faster) voltage source, a better spark-gap, and a pure-nitrogen environment would be key to making such a laser able to cut/burn. Of course, you would need proper ultraviolet wavelength optics in order to build a real machine (plus all the other mechanical details to keep everything stable, focused, etc - it would take some real work to go from the demo model to a functioning cutter).
One has to admit though, that this is one form of laser that is as simple as it gets (so simple, in fact - that had the physics been known - it could've easily have been built in Tesla's time!).
Sure I meant "Dear"... wrote this post on the iPhone. The auto correction is
sometimes, well unappropriate... sorry for that.
Thanks for your replies!
Ok I see it seems like a complex task to build a machine that I need. If the thickness
is a problem I can go to 1mm but I think that doesnt really change the problem of cutting
May be a replaceable tool? Dremel for thicker stuff and cutterblade for thinner?
Yeah laser is quiet dangerous to work with so I think I dont have the guts to do so...
I will have a closer look on the links you provided as well as your thoughts about my project
