Roughly 3 weeks ago our CNC laser burned out it power supply and controller board. It was too small for our needs going forward and was rather poorly made so rather than try to repair it we decided to scrap it, start over and build our own from component parts. We saved a few parts off the old one but essentially built an entirely new unit including power supplies, controller, X-Y assembly, optics and cabinet. It's now fully functional but won't any prizes for fit and finish. Perfect for a small production shop and roughly half the cost of a comparable commercial unit. We use the CNC laser primarily to do engraving on our enclosure panels.
I took a brief video of the final build. The noise you hear in the video is the small air compressor running. It provides constant air flow to the laser head to keep it clear of smoke/debris and also keep it cool. It may not be obvious but there's a 5 gallon bucket under the unit half filled with water which has a full immersion circulating water pump to keep the CO2 laser cooled.
Here's the video:
https://youtu.be/KAcGvy6JMGMHere is the X-Y Assembly as it looked out of the box before putting it together. Some assembly required indeed. There were NO assembly instructions provided.
Here is the X-Y Assembly after most of the parts are together. The laser tube is still missing. It gets mounted along the back side.
Here are the power supplies, controller, and stepper motor driver boards installed and partially wired.
