Laser-Cut Music Box [video]
youtube.comNeat! The confluence of skills to dream up, model, cut, and build a musical instrument is pretty cool!
My full time job is operating a 4kW 1070nm fibre laser setup for cutting metals, mostly steel; stainless steel; aluminium here in Launceston, Tasmania.
Unfortunately the supplier advised us not to cut timber / particle board due to the potential of an ember reaching the fume extractor which contains regular cardboard type air filters. Oddly enough, last year I reached out to some other laser cutters locally and one mentioned their laser was down due to a fire in the fume extractor!
That seems like a very small town, is there enough demand for the machine?
Are there any good resources on how fiber lasers work? I have a co2 laser 200W that's pretty good for all things non-metal and would be interested in getting a fiber one, alignment seems like a breeze, but the prices for the fiber lasers start at $100k or so.
I moved here 5 years ago due to other life factors conspiring to bring me here. I had no idea Launceston is a little manufacturing powerhouse. The city is growing and there appears to be a lot of opportunities in the arts, manufacturing, technology, there’s even a bit of software development fling on here. Plus a bit of skiing an hour away. I’ve met a lot of great people here an occasionally get to laser cut art.
Without going in to too much detail, yes there’s a lot of demand for machine time.
I haven’t really looked at smaller machines, ours was in the vicinity of 1MM.
I would have thought a lower power laser diode module, and associated optics would be available at a reasonable price by now.
What types of applications are you using the laser cutter for?
Predominantly structural steel, marine (we also build boats), agricultural, architectural, and art.
I’m a huge proponent of working with local artists, we’ve helped with some pretty cool metal sculpture and installation art.
Ping me if you’d like to see some photos / video, contact details in my profile :)