So I have finally gotten approval to start my laser build. I have been watching this site and forum for quite a while now and have finally started.
I have been building the unit in Inventor because I have made some material changes and I want to make sure it will all still work, I will post some drawings and a BOM for the parts I have used towards the end of the build. The main reason behind the material substitution was that I received a quote form misumi for the extrusion and it was around $500 all up, plus postage which was around another $150 or so. I could have picked it all up from a local supplier for about another $50 on top of that but both options were outside my approved budget so I went for some aluminium "quick-fit" extrusion from Bunnings, total less that $200.
Here is the extrusion and connectors
- Extrusion
I used a program called Cut1D to optimise for materials, it did require a few more adjustments on the saw but it was worth it, I ended up saving around $50 in materials.
Here is my compound mitre saw, it has a metal cutting blade installed and sliced through that extrusion like a hot knife through butter (to borrow an overused expression)
- Saw
This is the wastage from the extrusions.
- Wastage
And this is the final product, well the final product of the cutting anyway.
- Pieces
And after some light refreshments and 20 minutes later, i had the frame completed.
- Official Image
Lessons learnt:
1. Extrusion is 25.4mm square, this must be taken into account on the long pieces that span a connection joint as it adds 0.8mm to the required length, since i didnt do this there is 0.4mm gaps at each end between the long pieces and the edge of the joint piece.
2. My saw sends the filings flying, must remember to install soem sort of shield for future cutting.
3. Even though the material was cheaper, the cost of a nutsert (rivnut) gun and nutserts will probably in the end cost just as much as the misumi extrusion (which would have been cut for me) and I will have to be more precise on my locating of holes.