Design documentation for a laser shield for the Sainsmart Genmitsu 5.5W Laser Module mounted to a Sainsmart Genmitsu 3018 Pro CNC Mill. See my 3018 Mill repository for general information about using the mill and laser.
| Part | Count | Material |
|---|---|---|
| Mount | 1 | PLA |
| Front | 1 | Laser Shielding |
| Side | 2 | Laser Shielding |
| Rear | 1 | Laser Shielding |
| M3 Threaded Insert | 2 | Brass |
| M3x6 Screw | 2 | Stainless |
All parts were designed in Fusion360, see the cad directory for CAD files.
Assembly STL
The shield mount was 3D printed on a Creality Ender3 Pro with Hatchbox white PLA.
The STL was created in Fusion360 and sliced with Cura 4.8.0 with the default settings for the Ender3 Pro and PLA, and a slice height of 0.12 mm. Design files:
The front, rear and side shields were machined out of a 300mm x 300mm sheet of laser shielding material on the Sainsmart Genmitsu 3018 Pro.
STL for:
The laser shielding material is an transparent orange plastic which I believe to be cast acrylic. The laser wavelength is 445nm (blue). Orange filters blue light eliminating most of the optical power. Material was purchased from J-Tech Photonics.
- Tool: 1.0 mm diameter, 2 flute flat end mill.
- Feeds & Speeds
- Spindle speed was at max using the stock 775 3018 Pro spindle motor. This is approximately 5000 RPM.
- Feed rates
- Cutting: 600 mm/min
- Positioning: 1500 mm/min
- Depth of cut: 0.25 mm
- Tool Path
M3 brass threaded inserts. Purchased from Amazon.
Inserts were pressed into the Mount with a soldering iron. Pressed until they extended ~0.25 mm beyond the face of the Mount, then the Mount was pressed onto a flat surface to get the insert face flush and level with the Mount face.
For more detail on dimensioning and techniques for threaded inserts see the Hackaday how-to on Threading 3D Printed Parts.
M3x6 hex socket head screws. Purchased from Amazon.
All artwork was created in Inkscape and converted from SVG to G-Code with the Lasertools Inkscape Extension. See my 3018 Mill project for more information on the tools and processes.
Portions of the artwork were obtained from the Open Source community. See the Artwork Source documentation for more details.
Laser etch parameters (see 3018 Mill project for speed & power test data)
- Etching speed: 800 mm/min (infill & perimeter)
- Infill laser power: 40% (400 on Sainsmart system)
- Perimeter laser power: 60% (600 on Sainsmart system)
- Beam width: 0.2 mm
- Contour tolerance: 0.1 mm
- Redesign rear shield to mount fan for air assist for cutting.
- Have a small fan on hand from Amazon.
- Reduce length of shield mount. Interferes with top of Z-axis mount when in extreme +Z position.
Other links to this project