Do-it-yourself laser head for cutting metal. Do-it-yourself powerful laser in one evening

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Many people know about the possibilities of laser technologies and their benefits. They are used not only in industry, but also in cosmetology, medicine, everyday life, art and other areas of human life. However, not everyone knows how to make a laser at home. But it can be built from scrap materials. To do this, you will need a non-working DVD drive, a lighter or a flashlight.

Before going to home, you need to collect everything necessary elements. First of all, you need to disassemble the DVD drive. To do this, unscrew all the screws that hold the top and bottom covers of the device. Next, the main cable is disconnected and the board is unscrewed. The protection of diodes and optics must be broken. The next step is to remove the diode, which is usually done with pliers. To prevent static electricity from damaging the diode, its legs must be tied with wire. You must remove the diode carefully so as not to break the legs.

Next, before making a laser at home, you need to make a driver for the laser, which is represented by a small circuit that regulates the power supply to the diode. The fact is that if the power is set incorrectly, the diode can quickly fail. You can use AA batteries or a mobile phone battery as a power source.

Before you make a laser at home, you need to take into account the fact that the burning effect is provided by optics. If it is not there, then the laser will simply shine. As optics, you can use a special lens from the same drive from which the diode was taken. To set the focus correctly, you need to use a laser pointer.

In order to build a regular pocket laser, you can use a regular lighter. However, before you make a laser from a lighter, you need to know the construction technology. It is best to purchase a high-quality incendiary element. It needs to be disassembled, but the parts should not be thrown away, as they will still be useful in the design. If there is gas left in the lighter, it must be released. Then the insides must be turned out using a drill with special attachments. Inside the lighter body there is a diode from the drive, several resistors, a switch and a battery. All elements of the lighter need to be installed in their places, after which the button that previously lit the flame will turn on the laser.

However, to construct the device, you can use not only a lighter, but also a flashlight. Before you make a laser from a flashlight, you need to take the laser block from the CD drive. In principle, the structure of a homemade laser in a flashlight is no different from the structure of a laser in a lighter. You just need to take into account the power supply, which almost never exceeds 3 V, and it is also advisable to build an additional voltage stabilizer. It will increase the life. It is very important to take into account the polarity of the diode and stabilizer.

All assembled filling must be placed in the body of the disassembled flashlight. Not only is it removed from the flashlight beforehand inner part, but also glass. After installing the laser unit, the glass is installed in place.

Hello ladies and gentlemen. Today I am opening a series of articles devoted to high-power lasers, because Habrasearch says that people are looking for such articles. I want to tell you how you can make a fairly powerful laser at home, and also teach you how to use this power not just for the sake of “shine on the clouds.”

Warning!

The article describes the manufacture of a high-power laser ( 300mW ~ power 500 Chinese pointers), which can harm your health and the health of others! Be extremely careful! Use special safety glasses and do not direct the laser beam at people or animals!

Let's find out.

On Habré, articles about portable Dragon Lasers, such as Hulk, appeared only a couple of times. In this article I will tell you how you can make a laser that is not inferior in power to most models sold in this store.

Let's cook.

First you need to prepare all the components:
- a non-working (or working) DVD-RW drive with a write speed of 16x or higher;
- capacitors 100 pF and 100 mF;
- resistor 2-5 Ohm;
- three AAA batteries;
- soldering iron and wires;
- collimator (or Chinese pointer);
- steel LED lamp.

This minimum required to make a simple driver model. The driver is, in fact, a board that will output our laser diode to the required power. You should not connect the power source directly to the laser diode - it will break down. The laser diode must be powered with current, not voltage.

A collimator is, in fact, a module with a lens that reduces all radiation into a narrow beam. Ready-made collimators can be purchased at radio stores. These immediately have a convenient place to install a laser diode, and the cost is 200-500 rubles.

You can also use a collimator from a Chinese pointer, however, the laser diode will be difficult to attach, and the collimator body itself will most likely be made of metallized plastic. This means our diode will not cool well. But this is also possible. This option can be found at the end of the article.

Let's do it.

First you need to get the laser diode itself. This is a very fragile and small part of our DVD-RW drive - be careful. A powerful red laser diode is located in the carriage of our drive. You can distinguish it from a weak one by its radiator bigger size than a conventional IR diode.

It is recommended to use an antistatic wrist strap as the laser diode is very sensitive to static voltage. If there is no bracelet, then you can wrap the diode leads with thin wire while it waits for installation in the case.

According to this scheme, you need to solder the driver.

Don't mix up the polarity! The laser diode will also fail instantly if the polarity of the supplied power is incorrect.

The diagram shows a 200 mF capacitor, however, for portability, 50-100 mF is quite enough.

Let's try.

Before installing the laser diode and assembling everything into the housing, check the functionality of the driver. Connect another laser diode (non-working or the second one from the drive) and measure the current with a multimeter. Depending on the speed characteristics The current strength must be chosen correctly. For 16 models, 300-350mA is quite suitable. For the fastest 22x, you can even supply 500mA, but with a completely different driver, the manufacture of which I plan to describe in another article.

Looks terrible, but it works!

Aesthetics.

A laser assembled by weight can only be boasted of in front of the same crazy techno-maniacs, but for beauty and convenience it is better to assemble it in a convenient case. Here it’s better to choose for yourself how you like it. I mounted the entire circuit into a regular LED flashlight. Its dimensions do not exceed 10x4cm. However, I do not recommend carrying it with you: you never know what claims the relevant authorities may make. It is better to store it in a special case so that the sensitive lens does not become dusty.

This is an option with minimal costs- a collimator from a Chinese pointer is used:

Using a factory-made module will allow you to get the following results:

The laser beam is visible in the evening:

And, of course, in the dark:

Maybe.

Yes, in the following articles I want to tell and show how such lasers can be used. How to make much more powerful specimens, capable of cutting metal and wood, and not just lighting matches and melting plastic. How to make holograms and scan objects to create 3D Studio Max models. How to make powerful green or blue lasers. The scope of application of lasers is quite wide, and one article cannot do it here.

We need to remember.

Don't forget about safety precautions! Lasers are not a toy! Take care of your eyes!

Many of you have probably heard that you can make a laser pointer or even a cutting beam at home using simple improvised means, but few people know how to make a laser yourself. Before you start working on it, be sure to familiarize yourself with the safety precautions.

Safety rules when working with laser

Improper use of the beam, especially at high power, can lead to property damage, as well as serious harm to your health or the health of bystanders. Therefore, before testing your own made copy, remember the following rules:

Make sure there are no animals or children in the testing room.
Never point the beam at animals or people.
Wear safety glasses, such as welding glasses.
Remember that even a reflected beam can damage your vision. Never shine a laser into your eyes.
Do not use the laser to ignite objects while indoors.

The simplest laser from a computer mouse

If you need a laser just for fun, it’s enough to know how to make a laser at home from a mouse. Its power will be quite insignificant, but it will not be difficult to manufacture. All you need is a computer mouse, a small soldering iron, batteries, wires and a shutdown switch.

First, the mouse must be disassembled. It is important not to break them out, but to carefully unscrew and remove them in order. First the upper casing, followed by the lower casing. Next, using a soldering iron, you need to remove the mouse laser from the board and solder new wires to it. Now all that remains is to connect them to the shutdown switch and connect the wires to the battery contacts. Batteries can be used of any type: both finger batteries and so-called pancakes.

Thus, the simplest laser is ready.

If a weak beam is not enough for you, and you are interested in how to make a laser at home using improvised means with sufficiently high power, then you should try a more the hard way its production, using a DVD-RW drive.

To work you will need:

DVD-RW drive (write speed must be at least 16x);
AAA battery, 3 pcs.;
resistor (from two to five ohms);
collimator (can be replaced with a part from a cheap Chinese laser pointer);
capacitors 100 pF and 100 mF;
LED lamp made of steel;
wires and soldering iron.

Work progress:

The first thing we need is a laser diode. It is located in the DVD-RW drive carriage. It has a larger heatsink than a regular infrared diode. But be careful, this part is very fragile. While the diode is not installed, it is best to wrap its lead with wire, since it is too sensitive to static voltage. Pay special attention to polarity. If the power supply is incorrect, the diode will immediately fail.

Connect the parts according following diagram: battery, on/off button, resistor, capacitors, laser diode. Once the functionality of the design has been verified, all that remains is to come up with a convenient housing for the laser. For these purposes, a steel body from a regular flashlight is quite suitable. Don’t forget also about the collimator, because it is the one that turns the radiation into a thin beam.

Now that you know how to make a laser at home, do not forget to follow safety precautions, store it in a special case and do not carry it with you, as law enforcement agencies may file complaints against you in this regard.

Watch the video: Laser from a DVD drive at home and with your own hands

Laser cutter - unique device, which is useful to have in the garage of every modern man. Making a laser for cutting metal with your own hands is not difficult, the main thing is to follow simple rules. The power of such a device will be small, but there are ways to increase it using available devices. The functionality of a production machine that can do anything without embellishment cannot be achieved with a homemade product. But for household chores, this unit will come in handy. Let's look at how to build it.

How to make a laser cutter in the garage

Everything is ingeniously simple, so to create equipment that can cut beautiful patterns in strong steels, can be made from ordinary available materials. To make this you will definitely need an old laser pointer. In addition, you should stock up on:

A flashlight powered by rechargeable batteries.
An old DVD-ROM, from which we will need to remove the matrix with a laser drive.
Soldering iron and set of screwdrivers.

The first step will be to disassemble the drive of the old computer floppy drive. From there we should remove the device. Be careful not to damage the device itself. The drive of the disk drive must be a writer, and not just a reader, the point is in the structure of the device matrix. We won’t go into details now, but just use modern non-working models.

After this, you will definitely need to remove the red diode, which burns the disk while recording information to it. Just took a soldering iron and soldered the fastenings of this diode. Just don't throw it away under any circumstances. This sensing element, which can quickly deteriorate if damaged.

When assembling the laser cutter The following should be taken into account:

Where is it better to install a red diode?
How will the elements of the entire system be powered?
How the flow of electric current will be distributed in the part.

Remember! The diode that will perform the burning requires much more electricity than the elements of the pointer.

This dilemma is easily resolved. The diode from the pointer is replaced by a red light from the drive. You should disassemble the pointer with the same care as the disk drive; damage to the connectors and holders will ruin your future with your own hands. Once you have done this, you can start making the homemade case.

To do this, you will need a flashlight and rechargeable batteries that will power the laser cutter. Thanks to the flashlight, you will get a convenient and compact item that does not take up much space in your home. The key to equipping such a case is to choose the correct polarity. The protective glass from the former flashlight is removed so that it does not become an obstacle to the directed beam.

The next step is to power the diode itself. To do this, you need to connect it to the battery charging, observing the polarity. Finally, check:

Reliable fixation of the device in clamps and clamps;
Device polarity;
Beam direction.

Fix any inaccuracies, and when everything is ready, you can congratulate yourself on a successfully completed job. The cutter is ready to use. The only thing you need to remember is that its power is much less than the power of its production counterpart, so it cannot handle too thick metal.

Carefully! The power of the device is enough to harm your health, so be careful when operating and try not to put your fingers under the beam.

Strengthening a homemade installation

To enhance the power and density of the beam, which is the main cutting element, you should prepare:

2 “conders” for 100 pF and mF;
Resistance 2-5 ohms;
3 rechargeable batteries;
Collimator.

The installation that you have already assembled can be strengthened to get enough power at home for any work with metal. When working on gain, remember that plugging your cutter directly into an outlet will be suicide for it, so you should make sure that the current first gets to the capacitors, and then goes to the batteries.

By adding resistors you can increase the power of your installation. To further increase the efficiency of your device, use a collimator that is mounted to focus the beam. This model is sold in any electrician store, and the cost ranges from 200 to 600 rubles, so it’s not difficult to buy it.

Then the assembly circuit is carried out in the same way as discussed above, only you need to wind an aluminum wire around the diode to remove static. After this, you have to measure the current strength, for which you take a multimeter. Both ends of the device are connected to the remaining diode and measured. Depending on your needs, you can adjust the readings from 300 mA to 500 mA.

Once the current calibration is completed, you can move on to aesthetically decorating your cutter. An old steel flashlight with LEDs will do just fine for the case. It is compact and fits in your pocket. To prevent the lens from getting dirty, be sure to get a cover.

The finished cutter should be stored in a box or case. Dust or moisture should not get there, otherwise the device will be damaged.

What is the difference between ready-made models

The cost is main reason, why many craftsmen resort to making a laser cutter with their own hands. And the principle of operation is as follows:

Thanks to the creation of a directed laser beam, the metal is exposed
The powerful radiation causes the material to evaporate and escape under the force of the flow.
As a result, thanks to the small diameter of the laser beam, a high-quality cut of the workpiece is obtained.

The cutting depth will depend on the power of the components. If factory models are equipped with high-quality materials that provide sufficient depth. That homemade models are able to cope with cutting 1-3 cm.

Thanks to such laser systems, you can make unique patterns in the fence of a private house, components for decorating gates or fences. There are only 3 types of cutters:

Solid state. The operating principle is based on the use of special types of glass or crystals of LED equipment. These are low-cost production plants that are used in production.
Fiber. Thanks to the use of optical fiber, it is possible to obtain a powerful flow and sufficient cutting depth. They are analogues of solid-state models, but due to their capabilities and performance characteristics they are better than them. But also more expensive.
Gas. From the name it is clear that gas is used for operation. It could be nitrogen, helium, carbon dioxide. The efficiency of such devices is 20% higher than all previous ones. They are used for cutting and welding polymers, rubber, glass and even metal with a very high level of thermal conductivity.

In everyday life without special costs you can only get a solid-state laser cutter, but its power with proper amplification, which was discussed above, is enough to perform household work. Now you have knowledge about making such a device, and then just act and try.

Do you have experience in developing a DIY metal laser cutter? Share with readers by leaving a comment under this article!

Who in childhood did not dream of laser? Some men still dream. Conventional laser pointers with low power are no longer relevant for a long time, since their power leaves much to be desired. There are 2 options left: buy an expensive laser or make it at home using improvised materials.

From an old or broken DVD drive
From computer mouse and a flashlight
From a kit of parts purchased at an electronics store

How to make a laser at home from an old oneDVDdrive

Find a non-working or unwanted DVD drive that has a recording speed greater than 16x and outputs more than 160mW of power. Why can't you take a recordable CD, you ask? The fact is that its diode emits infrared light, invisible to the human eye.
Remove the laser head from the drive. To access the “internals”, unscrew the screws located on the bottom of the drive and remove the laser head, which is also held in place by screws. It may be in a shell or under a transparent window, or maybe even outside. The most difficult thing is to remove the diode itself from it. Caution: The diode is very sensitive to static electricity.
Get a lens, without which it will be impossible to use the diode. You can use a regular magnifying glass, but then you will have to twist and adjust it each time. Or you can purchase another diode included with the lens, and then replace it with the diode removed from the drive.
Next you will have to buy or assemble a circuit to power the diode and assemble the structure together. In a DVD drive diode, the center pin acts as the negative terminal.
Connect a suitable power source and focus the lens. All that remains is to find a suitable container for the laser. You can use a metal flashlight of suitable size for these purposes.
We recommend watching this video, where everything is shown in great detail:

How to make a laser from a computer mouse

The power of a laser made from computer mouse will be much less than the laser power produced by the previous method. The manufacturing procedure is not very different.

First, find an old or unwanted mouse with a visible laser of any color. Mice with an invisible glow are not suitable for obvious reasons.
Next, carefully disassemble it. Inside you will notice a laser that will have to be soldered using a soldering iron.
Now repeat steps 3-5 from the instructions above. The difference between such lasers, we repeat, is only in power.

Each of us held a laser pointer in our hands. Despite the decorative use, it contains a real laser, assembled on the basis of a semiconductor diode. The same elements are installed on laser levels and.

The next popular product assembled on a semiconductor is your computer's DVD burner drive. It contains a more powerful laser diode with thermal destructive power.

This allows you to burn a layer of the disc, depositing tracks with digital information on it.

How does a semiconductor laser work?

Devices of this type are inexpensive to produce and the design is quite widespread. The principle of laser (semiconductor) diodes is based on the use of a classic p-n junction. This transition works the same as in conventional LEDs.

The difference is in the organization of radiation: LEDs emit “spontaneously”, while laser diodes emit “forced”.

The general principle of the formation of the so-called “population” of quantum radiation is fulfilled without mirrors. The edges of the crystal are mechanically chipped, providing a refractive effect at the ends, akin to a mirror surface.

To obtain different types of radiation, a “homojunction” can be used, when both semiconductors are the same, or a “heterojunction”, with different materials transition.

The laser diode itself is an accessible radio component. You can buy it in stores that sell radio components, or you can extract it from an old one. DVD-R drive(DVD-RW).

Important! Even the simple laser used in light pointers can cause serious damage to the retina of the eye.

More powerful installations, with a burning beam, can deprive vision or cause burns to the skin. Therefore, use extreme caution when working with such devices.

With such a diode at your disposal, you can easily make a powerful laser with your own hands. In fact, the product may be completely free, or it will cost you a ridiculous amount of money.

DIY laser from a DVD drive

First, you need to get the drive itself. It can be removed from an old computer or purchased at a flea market for a nominal cost.

Information: The higher the declared recording speed, the more powerful the burning laser is used in the drive.

Having removed the case and disconnected the control cables, we dismantle the writing head along with the carriage.

To remove the laser diode:

We connect the legs of the diode to each other using a wire (bypass). During dismantling, static electricity may accumulate and the diode may fail.
Remove the aluminum radiator. It is quite fragile, has a mount that is structurally “tailored” for a specific DVD drive, and is not needed for further operation. Just cut the radiator with wire cutters (without damaging the diode)
We unsolder the diode and free the legs from the shunt.

The element looks like this:

The next important element is the laser power circuit. You won't be able to use the power supply from the DVD drive. It is integrated into the general control circuit; it is technically impossible to remove it from there. Therefore, we make the power supply circuit ourselves.

There is a temptation to just connect 5 volts with a limiting resistor and not bother with the circuit. This is the wrong approach, since any LEDs (including laser ones) are powered not by voltage, but by current. Accordingly, a current stabilizer is needed. Most affordable option– use of the LM317 chip.

The output resistor R1 is selected in accordance with the supply current of the laser diode. In this circuit, the current should correspond to 200 mA.

You can assemble a laser with your own hands in a housing from a light pointer, or you can purchase a ready-made module for a laser in electronics stores or on Chinese websites (for example, Ali Express).

The advantage of this solution is that you get a ready-made adjustable lens included in the kit. The power supply circuit (driver) easily fits into the module housing.

If you decide to make the case yourself, from some metal tube, you can use a standard lens from the same DVD drive. You just need to come up with a mounting method and the ability to adjust the focus.

Important! Focusing the beam is necessary for any design. It can be parallel (if you need range) or cone-shaped (if you need to get a concentrated thermal spot).

The lens complete with a control device is called a collimator.

To properly connect the laser from the DVD drive, you need a contact diagram. You can track the negative and positive wires by markings on the circuit board. This must be done before dismantling the diode. If this is not possible, use the standard hint:

The negative contact has an electrical connection with the diode body. Finding it won't be difficult. Regarding the minus located at the bottom, the positive contact will be on the right.

If you have a three-pin laser diode (and most do), there will be either an unused pin on the left or a photodiode connection. This happens if both the burning and reading elements are located in the same housing.

The main body is selected based on the size of the batteries or accumulators that you plan to use. Carefully attach your homemade laser module into it, and the device is ready for use.

With the help of such a tool you can do engraving, wood burning, and cutting fusible materials (fabric, cardboard, felt, polystyrene foam, etc.).

How to make an even more powerful laser?

If you need a cutter for wood or plastic, the power of a standard diode from a DVD drive is not enough. You will either need a ready-made diode with a power of 500-800 mW, or you will have to spend a lot of time searching for suitable DVD drives. Some LG and SONY models use laser diodes with a power of 250-300 mW.

The main thing is that such technologies are available for self-production.

Step-by-step video instructions on how to make a laser from a DVD drive with your own hands

Warning!

Let's find out.

Let's cook.

This is the minimum required for making a simple driver model. The driver is, in fact, a board that will output our laser diode to the required power. You should not connect the power source directly to the laser diode - it will break down. The laser diode must be powered with current, not voltage.

Let's do it.

According to this scheme, you need to solder the driver.

Don't mix up the polarity! The laser diode will also fail instantly if the polarity of the supplied power is incorrect.

The diagram shows a 200 mF capacitor, however, for portability, 50-100 mF is quite enough.

Let's try.

Before installing the laser diode and assembling everything into the housing, check the functionality of the driver. Connect another laser diode (non-working or the second one from the drive) and measure the current with a multimeter. Depending on the speed characteristics, the current strength must be chosen correctly. For 16 models, 300-350mA is quite suitable. For the fastest 22x, you can even supply 500mA, but with a completely different driver, the manufacture of which I plan to describe in another article.

Looks terrible, but it works!

Aesthetics.

This is an option with minimal costs - a collimator from a Chinese pointer is used:

Using a factory-made module will allow you to get the following results:

The laser beam is visible in the evening:

And, of course, in the dark:

Maybe.

We need to remember.

Don't forget about safety precautions! Lasers are not a toy! Take care of your eyes!

They have long been used in medicine, in the manufacture of high-precision instruments, in laboratory installations, etc. A narrow beam of coherent electromagnetic radiation in the optical range has long attracted researchers from all over the planet. The properties of lasers have been studied quite well and have recently been used in the national economy and in production. Probably everyone has seen high-precision sights or well-known pointers at work. The power of such devices is small, but it is quite enough to demonstrate them.

opportunities. With the development of manufacturing technology, small-sized elements capable of producing a beam of sufficiently high power are now being industrially produced. Without a doubt, they will find their place in electronics. Based on them, it is quite possible to make a homemade laser, which can be used in everyday life, for example, as a small-sized level gauge.

In order to make a homemade laser, there is no need to look for an expensive crystal, design a pumping device, install a reflector, etc. You don't even need to adjust the special optical lens used to correct the beam. At the moment, the technology for manufacturing laser diodes is quite well developed.

Such a device can operate with a constant radiation power of up to 8 Watts, which is quite enough to produce a long beam. On close range such a device will burn through a sheet of paper. All that is needed to assemble such a homemade laser is to select a housing and organize a power source. It should also be taken into account that when turned on, such a device consumes a decent amount of current, and ordinary batteries will soon have to be changed. Best to use Depending on intended purpose For such a device, you can turn to catalogs and select a diode according to the parameters of current consumption and radiation power that suit you best.

Widely used in a wide variety of electronic devices. It is quite possible to dismantle this device from an old laser “cutter” for DVD discs and make a homemade laser out of it. It is quite suitable for demonstrating the capabilities of this device.

Currently available with a peak optical output power of up to 150 Watts. Remember to be safe when working with these items.

If you are going to assemble a powerful device capable of processing fusible materials, then it will be useful to you. You can assemble this device with your own hands based on drawings that can be found in the public domain.

As you can see, it is quite possible to make homemade lasers without resorting to searching for expensive and scarce materials. Assembly and calibration will not take much time.

The range of laser diodes produced is constantly growing. Their optical output power increases. Flow production leads to a gradual reduction in their cost.

Made with your own hands, it will be useful in every home.

Of course, homemade device will not be able to gain the greater power that production devices have, but still some benefits in everyday life can be obtained from it.

The most interesting thing is that you can make a laser cutter using old unnecessary items.

For example, using an old laser pointer will allow you to make a laser device with your own hands.

In order for the process of creating a cutter to progress as quickly as possible, you need to prepare the following items and tools:

laser type pointer;
battery-powered flashlight;
an old CD/DVD-RW writer that may be out of order - you will need a drive with a laser from it;
electric soldering iron and a set of screwdrivers.

The process of making a cutter with your own hands begins with disassembling the drive, from where you need to remove the device.

Extraction must be done as carefully as possible, and you will have to be patient and attentive. The device contains many different wires with almost the same structure.

When choosing a DVD drive, you need to consider that it is a writeable drive, since this is the option that allows you to make recordings using a laser.

Writing is done by evaporating a thin layer of metal from the disk.

During the reading process, the laser operates at half its capacity. technical capabilities, slightly illuminating the disk.

During the process of dismantling the upper fastener, the eye will fall on a carriage with a laser, which can move in several directions.

The carriage must be carefully removed and the connectors and screws carefully removed.

Then you can proceed to removing the red diode, which burns the disk - this can easily be done with your own hands using an electric soldering iron. The extracted element should not be shaken, much less dropped.

Once the main part of the future cutter is on the surface, you need to make a carefully thought-out plan for assembling the laser cutter.

In this case, it is necessary to take into account the following points: how best to place the diode, how to connect it to the power source, because the diode of the writing device requires more electricity than the main element of the pointer.

This issue can be resolved in several ways.

To make a manual cutter with more or less high power, you need to remove the diode located in the pointer, and then replace it with the element removed from the DVD drive.

Therefore, the laser pointer is disassembled as carefully as the DVD burner drive.

The object is untwisted, then its body is divided into two halves. Immediately on the surface you will be able to see a part that needs to be replaced with your own hands.

To do this, the original diode from the pointer is removed and carefully replaced with a more powerful one, its reliable fastening can be done using glue.

It may not be possible to remove the old diode element right away, so you can carefully pry it out with the tip of a knife, then lightly shake the pointer body.

At the next stage of manufacturing a laser cutter, you need to make a housing for it.

For this purpose, a flashlight with rechargeable batteries is useful, which will allow the laser cutter to receive electrical power, acquire an aesthetic appearance, and ease of use.

To do this, you need to introduce a modified top part former pointer.

Then you need to connect the charger to the diode using the charger located in the flashlight battery. It is very important to accurately establish the polarity during the connection process.

Before the flashlight is assembled, it is necessary to remove the glass and other unnecessary elements of the pointer that may interfere with the laser beam.

At the final stage, the laser cutter is prepared for use.

For a comfortable self made All stages of work on the device must be strictly observed.

For this purpose, it is necessary to check the reliability of fixation of all embedded elements, the correct polarity and evenness of the laser installation.

So, if all the assembly conditions stated above in the article have been strictly met, the cutter is ready for use.

But since a homemade hand-held device is endowed with low power, it is unlikely that it will turn into a full-fledged laser cutter for metal.

What a cutter can ideally do is make holes in paper or plastic film.

But you cannot point a laser device made by yourself at a person; here its power will be enough to harm the health of the body.

How can you amplify a homemade laser?

To make a more powerful laser cutter for metal work with your own hands, you need to use devices from the following list:

DVD-RW drive, it makes no difference whether it works or not;
100 pF and mF – capacitors;
2-5 Ohm resistor;
3 pcs. rechargeable batteries;
soldering iron, wires;
steel lantern with LED elements.

Assembling a laser cutter for manual work occurs according to the following scheme.

Using these devices, the driver is assembled, and subsequently it will be able to provide the laser cutter with a certain power via a board.

In this case, under no circumstances should you connect the power supply directly to the diode, as the diode will burn out. You also need to take into account that the diode must take power not from voltage, but from current.

A body equipped with an optical lens is used as a collimator, due to which the rays will accumulate.

This part is easy to find in a special store, the main thing is that it has a groove for installing a laser diode. The price of this device is small, approximately $3-7.

By the way, the laser is assembled in the same way as the cutter model discussed above.

Wire can also be used as an antistatic product; it is used to wrap the diode. Then you can start assembling the driver device.

Before moving on to complete manual assembly of the laser cutter, you need to check the functionality of the driver.

The current strength is measured using a multimeter; to do this, take the remaining diode and carry out the measurements yourself.

Taking into account the speed of the current, its power is selected for the laser cutter. For example, for some versions of laser devices the current strength can be 300-350 mA.

For other, more intense models, it is 500 mA, provided that a different driver device is used.

To make a homemade laser look more aesthetically pleasing and be more convenient to use, it needs a housing, which can easily be a steel flashlight powered by LEDs.

As a rule, the mentioned device is endowed with compact dimensions that will allow it to fit in your pocket. But in order to avoid contamination of the lens, you need to purchase or sew a cover in advance.

Features of production laser cutters

Not everyone can afford the price of a production-type metal laser cutter.

Such equipment is used for processing and cutting metal materials.

The principle of operation of a laser cutter is based on the production of powerful radiation by the tool, endowed with the property of evaporating or blowing out a molten metal layer.

This production technology when working with different types metal can provide high quality cut.

The depth of material processing depends on the type of laser installation and the characteristics of the materials being processed.

Today, three types of lasers are used: solid-state, fiber and gas.

The design of solid-state emitters is based on the use of specific types of glass or crystals as a working medium.

Here, as an example, we can cite inexpensive installations operating on semiconductor lasers.

Fiber - their active medium functions through the use of optical fibers.

This type of device is a modification of solid-state emitters, but according to experts, the fiber laser is successfully displacing its analogues from the field of metalworking.

At the same time, optical fibers are the basis of not only the cutter, but also the engraving machine.

Gas – working environment laser device combines carbon dioxide, nitrogen and helium gases.

Since the efficiency of the emitters under consideration is not higher than 20%, they are used for cutting and welding polymer, rubber and glass materials, as well as metal with high degree thermal conductivity.

Here, as an example, you can take a metal cutter produced by the Hans company; the use of a laser device allows you to cut copper, brass and aluminum, in in this case The minimum power of the machines only outperforms its analogues.

Drive operation diagram

Only a desktop laser can be operated from a drive; this type of device is a portal-console machine.

The laser unit can move along the guide rails of the device both vertically and horizontally.

As an alternative to the gantry device, a tablet model of the mechanism was made; its cutter moves only horizontally.

Other existing versions of laser machines have a work table equipped with a drive mechanism and endowed with property move in different planes.

There are currently two options for controlling the drive mechanism.

The first ensures the movement of the workpiece due to the operation of the table drive, or the movement of the cutter is carried out due to the operation of the laser.

The second option involves moving the table and cutter simultaneously.

At the same time, the first control model is considered much simpler compared to the second option. But the second model still has high performance.

General technical characteristics In the cases considered, it is necessary to introduce a CNC unit into the device, but then the price for assembling the device for manual work will be higher.

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