Cheap laser for wood cutting

[Harmsobuk]

Hi there,

for the past few weeks I have been planning on building a laser cutter from scratch in the upcoming months, but before starting to design it, i would like to ask some questions about the laser itself. I am not that old (17), and i don't earn a lot every month. I want to keep this project as cheap as possible, and because it (in my case) is about building the cutter and making it work, I am not really worried about the speed. After some research, i noticed most laser cutters have 30 - 40 Watt lasers, and they are really expensive. I have seen some posts online about building a laser cutter using a 1 Watt laser diode to cut wood and plastic, by making the laser move up and down:
http://hacknmod.com/hack/diy-inexpensive-laser-cutter-using-low-power-diode/

Another article i read was a kickstarter project, called 'Mr Beam'. This laser cutter uses a 2 Watt laser to cut up to 3 mm plywood.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mrbeam/mr-beam-a-portable-laser-cutter-and-engraver-kit

From this is figured i could use a 1-2 Watt laser diode as well, which aren't as expensive (20 - 40 dollars) as other lasers. Still, a lot of questions remain. I have been searching for a good and affordable laser diode on ebay, even though i have no idea what laser i should get. Should i even get a laser diode, wouldn't it be better to buy a different type of laser? Should the laser have a driver, or could i make that from scratch using a raspberry pi or some simple components? Are there any important things i have to know before getting started?

Some help would be appreciated, thats why i am posting on this forum. Thanks in advance if you can and want to answer these questions

Regards,
Harm Prins

[sshwarts]

I don't know this from personal experience, but before I decided to build my CO2 based laser, I did some research and found from what I read that's it is highly unlikely you could cut plywood with a 2 watt diode laser. Balsa wood perhaps but glued plywood, unlikely. Just my opinion.

Scott

[Harmsobuk]

you are right, i got this information from ths page:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1537608281/lazerblade-the-affordable-laser-cutter-engraver/description
it is actually a 3 watt laser that was able to cut 3mm plywood.