Any Lasersaur love?

Share your information, hints and discuss Laser cutters/engravers

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wespor
 
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Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2013 9:32 pm

Any Lasersaur love?

Post by wespor »

Howdy all, this is my first post here. I got into electronics to gear up for building a Lasersaur, an open source laser cutter that debuted on Kickerstarter in 2010. Anyway, I've been saving up for years and their project is almost out of beta. Before I take a leap which will set me back around 8k and take most of my summer to assemble, I'd appreciate some outside opinions.

This is their website, here are the specs and this is their most recent bill of materials.

My biggest fear is continued support, the control software is their own creation and I don't know what I'd do if they abandoned the project in a few years. On the flip side, I don't see how else could I get a 24x48 inch work area cutter at this price.

Thanks for any input!

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm

Re: Any Lasersaur love?

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

If the hardware and software are Open, continued support is less of an issue. They can't turn around and yank the code out of your hands, or tell you you can't use the hardware without some "pay up or you're out of luck" add-on.

I know nothing about that project or platform, but being an early adopter always involves some risk. They may turn out to be fantastic at product support, or you may end up supporting the thing on your own. The virtue of Open Source is that you do get everything you need -- including all legal rights necessary -- to support it yourself it that becomes necessary.

As far as the work envelope is concerned, I don't know any other Open laser cutters that size offhand, but there are plenty of Open or DIY CNC systems with that much of a footprint or more. You should be able to attach a laser to the Z axis of any CNC system and get it to work.

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chankster
 
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Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2009 12:59 am

Re: Any Lasersaur love?

Post by chankster »

Go with the buildlog 2.x. Much better, proven design.

JordanCabot
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2013 7:39 am

Re: Any Lasersaur love?

Post by JordanCabot »

Have you visited there, was it helpful?

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