For those who may be interested, here is a brief description of my laser cutter/engraver. It is an Ortur Laser Master 2 Pro S2 with an upgraded laser module, it is an easy mistake to make when reading seller's/manufacturers specs, I fell into the trap when I bought mine. Advertised as a 20 watt machine, but only had an output power of 5.5 watts, in this case 20 watts was the input power requirement. Not to be beaten I cut the wife's gin ration from 1 bottle a day to 1 a month. (Sorry Mrs C) and bought a true 10watt output laser module. Much better. I can cut from 0 to 5mm thick ply with ease, 1mm ply cuts in 1 pass and 5mm in 6 passes with minimal charring. It will also cut acrylic, card leather, most things except metals, same with engraving, it will do most things except metals. So, how does it work? Its quite simple when you break it down, there are 2 axis, by convention X and Y, X being left to right, Y being top to bottom. Now, think of an Ordinance Survey Map, it is divided into squares, to navigate around you use grid references, ie, church spire at 239/142 so the spire is at grid ref 239 142. Now consider a piece of work in the same terms, but with thousands or even millions of co ordinates, depending on resolution, the software converts those co ordinates into movement of the X and Y axis. As the laser head is fixed to one of the axis rails, usually the X rail, it will follow those co ordinates. CNC routers and 3D printers work on the same principles, except the laser module is replaced with a router, in the case of the cnc router, and a heater/feeder unit in a 3D printer. A fully incorporated Z axis allows for 3D work. The motors that drive the axis are called stepper motors, they do not rotate continuously, they rotate incrementally, usually 1.8 degrees per step. I won't go into the sums bit, y'all must be getting bored already. The machine is housed in a fireproof enclosure that features an internal light and an an extractor fan to remove fumes. PLEASE NOTE! even lo powered diode lasers like mine can damage your eyesight, allways wear protective glasses tuned to the wavelength of your laser. My enclosure has an orange viewing panel on top, this is the correct colour to filter out the wavelength of the laser. I have made a few short video clips explaining the process, please excuse the quality, it is tricky trying to video and operate the machine at the same time. If the videos are too big to upload, I will put links to them on my cloud. I hope this is useful to someone and I havent sounded boring. Feel free to ask questions. More on CNC router and 3D printer in another post if anyone is interested. I hope I have the following video links in the right order, and please ignore my voice! It is the reason I rarely make videos..
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18wrikR9e1NHMx0_3OzfWvywt9zfefaBx/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18y-FGXbmvNAJmrNA_jT40x3UzwRRogov/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18xFkekMLMQcHuDgd31schZf9-dXXQevh/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18y90rj9hLU9hmWaAmhtYDmcZJXkaey2Y/view?usp=drivesdk