[Swansea Hackspace] Proposal: Laser Cutter

[Justin Mitchell]

One of the most asked for pieces of equipment, and the last of the 'holy
trinity' of hackspace tools, is a laser cutter, these can be had for a
fairly reasonable amount of money if we are prepared to put a little bit
of work into it, so i have put together the following proposal.



This is a chinese import, the max object size is 300x200mm (more or less
A4), its a 50W CO2 laser which can cut several mm thickness of wood,
plastic, card, leather etc, and etch onto plenty of other materials. It
will not cut metal, that's a whole other league of device.

It will require some adjustments before it will be really useful, at the
minimum we need to add a water tank and air ducting, nothing
complicated. We would also want to replace the electronics with
something more open and standard, which is pretty cheap and
straightforward.

The device itself sells for £529 including shipping, there are cheaper
versions, but they have either a lower powered laser (slower, less
thickness of cut) or don't have the air-assist cutting head (blows away
smoke and debris from cutting point). We might get hit for some VAT /
Import Duty, but the customs declarations aren't usually the full value.
So total cost, with contingency for taxes, the venting and electronics
is upto around £700.

Please show you support for this idea and pledge.
http://swansea.hackspace.org.uk/Equipment/LaserCutter
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