These are great days for makers. Affordable 3-D printers and CNC mills are popping up everywhere, opening up new worlds of production to wide ranges of designers. However, one major tool still hasn’t received a DIY overhaul: the laser cutter. Maybe people are sensitive because Goldfinger tried to cut James Bond in half with one, but all that changes now with Patrick Hood-Daniel's new Kickstarter, "Build Your Own Laser Cutter."
Hood-Daniel is a well-respected maker with a long track record and open source bonafides. He’s developed several complex electro-mechanical tools — CNC mills, pick and place machines, 3-D printers — and successfully shipped them to customers in the past. He literally wrote the book on DIY CNC machines. His latest project is an extension of his cottage industry, dedicated to creating tools for other cottage industries. It would be hard to find a Kickstarter creator with a better record in the DIY community.
His Laser cutter, called the blackTooth, has good specs. A 40-watt laser tube and power supply means it can cut a variety of materials: wood, plastic, fabric, and paper. It can work with materials 20.5 x 24.5 inches, has a garage-friendly footprint of 37 x 34 x 11.25 inches, and looks like it would be fun to put together in that 1,000-piece-Lego-kit kind of way. And the price is reasonable; the unassembled machine costs $1,500, while the fully built unit can be had starting at $2,200.
There is one major red flag, however. The machine's frame is built from of Medium Density Overlay (MDO) — a type of plywood. Hood-Daniels says this is a feature, making the blackTooth less sensitive to thermal distortion and inaccuracy than a metal frame, but it also creates a serious, fire-breathing concern.
All lasers cut by burning materials. And those materials occasionally catch fire when being cut. Unfortunately, with this type of construction, the object isn't the only piece that can ignite — the entire chassis is highly flammable. Check out what happened to this metal framed laser cutter when it was left unattended by maker Joe Schlessinger. Serious burnination. Now imagine that with plywood.
When asked for comment, Hood-Daniel says "Initially, I had the same thoughts as to the precarious use of wood for the structure, but even with long burns to the structure which were made on accident when starting a run, there was no ignition. You may have seen some of the test runs which was marking on MDO. There was a very intense light on the surface but no ignition. We also used MDO to test the raw output of the tube with no flare-up. However, plain white paper caught on fire immediately from this raw beam. This seems to be a no-no anyway from what I have researched."
He points out that the air assist feature of the blackTooth helps mitigate the risk. "I can only remember one time we had a very brief flare-up, but was extinguished from the air assist we have running through the nozzle. The material was thin cardboard. From all of the other tests that we have done (wood of a couple species), fire has not ignited and I think this may be due to our air assist running through the nozzle. We tested it with a match in the beginning to see if it would put it out and it was successful." Hood-Daniel plans on running some tests and will likely post the results on his Kickstarter page.
Laser-cutting expert Chris Yerga expressed some reservations about the blackTooth's wood frame. He says “After using my laser cutter without incident for two years I recently had a fire in it. Experiencing fire in a laser cutter is like experiencing an earthquake in California. It's a question of when, not if. Fortunately I'm very diligent and was able to put out the fire before it damaged the laser cutter, let alone my house. The fear you have the first time you fire a laser cutter is something to cling to. Being diligent will save you some day.”
Schlessinger, possessor of the aforementioned burnt laser cutter, offered a more blunt assessment. “Not seeing the value here. You can already get a fully assembled laser with a metal case for ~$1900. Its not like you're taking a $15,000 device and making it $1-2,000k like RepRap/Makerbot did."
While it's really hard to find a fully assembled laser cutter with comparable dimensions and price to the blackTooth, but shockingly easy to find an alternate with respectable specs. If you like building your own tools and supporting open source, the blackTooth is a great option, but do your fire marshall a favor and consider this slightly smaller, metal-framed cutter — 12.5 x 16 inch cutting area for $1,850 — as well.
If you decide to back this project, be prepared to keep an eye on it whenever being operated, and consider buying a few fire extinguishers and an extra-strength insurance policy — though to be fair, this is true of any laser you purchase.
