No, don’t watch lasers, one tiny glimpse and you’re blind for the rest of your life. It’s a common warning on YouTube reviews that you need to be very sure that you have high quality eye protection when playing with even the cheapest and weakest laser machines.
Last week I was talking about how I met the main guy at Marand Precision who is looking at emerging technologies. Ever since that meeting ten or so years back I’ve been thinking the same way but with a focus on the other end of the spectrum, the smallest businesses instead of the largest. (I’ll soon be writing about the changes in engineering company size and organisation over the last one hundred years). There are now many small businesses in engineering these days, that is, with less than 25 employees and with a tight focus, for example; a CNC milling jobbing shop, a stainless steel fabrication business, or a jobbing shop doing just surface grinding.
Even further, I’m thinking about hobbyists and one man operations in home workshops, and specifically the CAM side of Fusion 360 for home workshops.
I believe I’ve recognised a trend.
For quite some time I was looking at home built CNC machines, ten years ago I was reading the huge CNCZone.com forum which had tens of thousands of members all building CNC routers and mills out of cheap junk, or at least MDF particle board and all-thread for screws.
Next I was looking at CNC milling machines, which people on Youtube are doing for home built backyard projects. They use epoxy granite and other interesting materials to make big, heavy and vibration resistant in order to be able to mill steel.
I’m sure you will have noticed in recent years, as I have that there are light and flimsy looking laser engraving machines being demonstrated on YouTube. There has been a gradual change in the capability of these little lasers to the point where they are able to cut through plywood in addition to their engraving ability. A recent example shows a laser cutting through half inch thick hardwood ply quite accurately. It’s price is somewhere around $500.
What I find interesting is that these increasingly capable laser cutters are mounted on comparably light and cheap CNC rigs.
There is a builder of home workshop CNC woodcutting routers not too far from where I live. Just last year I was browsing his website and noticed that he is selling a version of his router converted to drive a metal cutting plasma torch. He claims that it is capable of cutting up to 10mm thick mild steel plate and he also offers a three phase option with the capacity of cutting up to 20mm thick plate. It did seem strange to see such a light machine capable of cutting such heavy grade steel.
Of course there are industrial level laser machines being used to cut quite heavy gauge steel. Their cost will also be in the range of industrial equipment but I expect that access to these machines will become more affordable for the smallest businesses and even hobbyists one way or another. Over time, prices are tending to fall and capabilities increase.
I think the trend is clear, CNC laser cutting is on the way to home workshops and there may be bureau services available to hobbyists at more reasonable prices than before.