Laser Engraver Picatinny Mount

thingiverse

Have one of those Chinese laser engravers that are so plentiful that you want to repurpose? I needed to automate some measurements for research and found that it is cheaper to buy one of these than it is to purchase the materials for or buy a dedicated XY gantry. To repurpose it requires some kind of mount to replace the included laser with my waveguide. Modularity would be nice. As a frequent user of firearms/competition shooter, I thought: What holds cylindrical objects in place under recoil? Scope rings. What is superior in both precision and recoil mitigation to scope rings if you have the cash? One piece mount. What is our favorite (assuming weight isn't a huge factor) modular mounting system? PICATINNY RAILS!!!! So I applied those concepts here, and the results are amazing compared to my last automated rig. It's also standardized. Engineers love standards! (M1913, but this is NATO spec, not sure if there is a difference) ..AND I got paid to design the best, fully-parametric picatinny rail and clamp I've ever made! The first attempt bolted onto the 4 holes in the original acryllic piece where the laser mounted. After designing/printing, I realized the holes in the laser engraver weren't square. Figures as much, crap QC. So I made a replacement for the entire piece. Uses same screws as what comes on the machine. Also included intermediate version without the nut retainers in case they change what nuts are used. Mine were M5 hardware. Use Use to attach an unused flashlight for precision lighting of your sample! Or a housing for a different laser? Or a red dot scope for rapid defect acquisition inside your sample Or even this telescopic sight on a Burris one piece mount for superior view of distant samples. Duh. Lolololo I guess you could also put a waveguide mount on it for detecting defects in composites with microwaves. I'm pretty exited to see what this thing can do with 2D capabilities.