Quick Change Laser Mount for MPCNC

pinshape

This Laser Mount is designed to swap out the standard Flex cutting tool with a laser in just seconds. It fits seamlessly into the flex tool holder, perfectly accommodating my Harbor Freight Flex tool. The laser itself is a high-powered red 650nm 12mm laser available on eBay (the one I have can be found at http://www.ebay.com/itm/271107358613). Other 12mm lasers will also fit without any issues. The driver box was quickly designed in Sketchup and hot-glued into place. My existing fan, which is available as a remix, worked incredibly well to keep the driver and laser cool. The driver box is secured to the laser tube via friction, but you may want to consider gluing or using ABS juice for added stability. The lid is also friction-fit. I have connected both the laser and fan to D9 on my RAMPS 1.4 board, so they turn on and off together with ease. They are connected via plugs for quick swap-ability. For designing the patterns to be burned onto the material, I use Inkscape (https://inkscape.org/en/). To convert these designs into laser-friendly G-code, I employ some fantastic plugins available at jtechphotonics.com (http://jtechphotonics.com/?page_id=2012) and github.com (https://github.com/305engineering/Inkscape). These plugins were used in the examples you see above. You can find other plugins by searching for "inkscape laser plugin" online.